Micron Stock Moves Past AI Fears but Now Faces Another Threat

Micron Technology has much of its manufacturing in Taiwan. (AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

• Micron Technology shares rose 1.1% in premarket trading Tuesday after falling 5.3% the previous day.
• Micron’s Taiwanese union is threatening a strike unless the company replaces its incentive scheme with a 15% operating profit-sharing system.
• The strike threat remains despite Micron announcing pay deals for Taiwanese production workers of 35 to 68 months of base salary for fiscal 2026.

Micron Technology stock was rising ahead of the open Tuesday as investors stopped panicking about a halt to artificial-intelligence progress. Now the memory-chip company just has to deal with mundane concerns like a threatened strike.

Micron shares were up 1.1% in premarket trading Tuesday. The stock fell 5.3% the previous day amid a broad technology selloff on fears of an AI slowdown.

The company’s huge profits on memory chips for AI servers look safe for now. But its workers would like a bigger share of that windfall. Micron’s Taiwanese union is threatening a strike unless the company agrees to a profit-sharing system, according to Reuters and local reports in Taiwan.

This isn’t a new threat— Barron’s wrote about it earlier this month. But since then Micron has announced pay deals for its Taiwanese production workers amounting to 35 to 68 months’ worth of base salary for the fiscal 2026 year. That included a bonus of one million New Taiwan dollars, or $31,377 for each employee who joined before Aug. 29, 2025.

It looks like the pay deal wasn’t enough to satisfy labor demands. Micron’s Taiwanese union is still pushing to scrap the existing incentive scheme and replace it with a plan allocating 15% of operating profit to bonuses, according to Reuters.

Micron isn’t alone in dealing with workers pushing for a bigger slice of soaring memory profits. Samsung Electronics averted a strike in South Korea in May by promising a new bonus pool for employees in the semiconductor division, equivalent to 10.5% of the division’s operating profit, to be paid in stock. SK Hynix is negotiating with its own unions, having previously promised to allocate 10% of its annual operating profit to employee bonuses last year.

Although it’s an American company, much of Micron’s manufacturing happens in Taiwan. A strike could have a significant effect on its operations, although such action would have to be preceded by mediation under Taiwanese law.

Micron didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron’s early Tuesday.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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