Micron abandons consumer business

On December 3, 2025, Micron announced via a press release, that they will be shutting down the Crucial brand, which focused on DTC sales, to focus exclusively on the AI data center market. In the same PR they stated that product shipments through Crucial would continue until February 2026.^[1]

During the 90s to early 2010s, Micron alongside competitors were investigated by the European Commission and United States Department of Justice for price fixing. Both agencies found the conspirators to be guilty and operating like a cartel.^[2]

Following the release of ChatGPT towards the end of 2022, there has been unprecidented interest and demand in AI, which has resulted in many companies either winding down or shifting focus away from consumer markets to their effort on the lucrative AI data center craze.

Following the shuttering of Crucial, Micron and OpenAI announced a joint venture where

Most of the current memory market share is concentrated by "The Big Three", consisting of SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron.^[3] Competitors such as CXMT and YMTC also exist but are placed on the US entity list for being Chinese, citing national safety concerns. Making it illegal for US and adjacent business to work with them. The companies were most recently blacklisted following talks with Apple to use CXMT and YMTC chips in future products.^[4]

On December 3, 2025, Micron announced via a press release, that they will be shutting down the Crucial brand, which focused on DTC sales, to focus exclusively on the AI data center market. In the same PR they stated that product shipments through Crucial would continue until February 2026.^[1] Following is their statement:

The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments

All Crucial components, such as:

• several DDR4 kits
• several DDR5 kits

• several M.2 SSDs
• several 2.5" SSDs

The retirement of Crucial products has affected the overall price of RAM, and other computer components such as solid-state drives (SSDs).

This has also caused Micron's competitors, Samsung and SK Hynix to increase their component prices as there's less competition, slowed consumer production, and less units available for regular consumers.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2026, WCCFetch released an interview with Christopher Moore, Micron's VP of Marketing, Mobile and Client Business Unit.^[5] When asked whether memory suppliers are inclined towards catering to the AI market and leaving consumers behind, Moore deflected in an attempt to convince consumers that they're "helping consumers around the world":

Well, first I would want to try to help everybody understand that the perception may not be exactly correct, at least from our point of view. So I would never want to tell someone what to think or that they're wrong, but our viewpoint is that we are trying to help consumers around the world. We're just doing it through different channels. We still have a very sizable business in the client and mobile markets. We are also, of course, servicing our data center customers. And what's going on right now is that the TAM and data center is growing just absolutely tremendously. And we want to make sure that, as a company, we help fulfill that TAM as well.

With the discontinuation of the production of the Crucial-branded products, covering warranties that require replacements have become progressively more difficult, and Micron will no longer cover replacements. If there's no replacement for a specific part, Micron will provide two alternatives for the customer:

• A refund that consists of the original price the product was purchased. The refund value will not be modified to match current market price of the part.
• Refund of taxes and shipping price if applicable.

Offers or discounts for products are not elligible as a warranty alternative, because the closing of Crucial.^[6]

Micron's decision to supply AI businesses and Moore's response caused an outrage from consumers. ^{[citation needed]}

With the shortage caused by RAM manufacturers focusing on supplying AI datacenters, some consumers have investigated alternatives such as acquiring Chinese RAM^[7] or looking at older RAM standards such as DDR4 or even DDR3.

• RAM shortage