“I keep thinking this has got to end, but we got confirmation this week from HP Enterprise that it’s going to go on for much longer than people think.” That’s Jim Cramer, and the “it” he’s referring to is the global memory shortage that has quietly become one of the most consequential supply stories in tech investing right now.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
The confirmation came from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE | HPE Price Prediction) CEO Antonio Neri, who called out a “dynamic commodity supply environment” while reporting Q1 FY2026 results. Neri delivered a strong quarter overall, with revenue of $9.30 billion, up 18% year over year, and non-GAAP EPS of $0.65 against a guided range of $0.57 to $0.61. But buried inside those numbers is a telling detail: HPE’s server segment actually declined 2.7% year over year. A company at the center of enterprise AI infrastructure can’t grow its server business. Memory constraints are the reason.
HPE has direct visibility into memory supply chains in a way that most companies don’t. When they say the shortage runs longer than expected, that’s not speculation. It’s procurement reality.
Micron Technology (MU)
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) confirms the same story from the supply side. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra noted that order books are reportedly extending well into 2027. Micron’s Q1 FY2026 results backed that up: revenue hit $13.64 billion, up 56.6% year over year, with GAAP gross margins expanding to 56% from 38.4% a year prior. The cloud memory unit alone posted $5.28 billion in revenue at 66% gross margins.
So the shortage is real, confirmed, and extended. The question is what to buy.
Cramer said he can’t recommend Western Digital, Seagate, or Micron at current levels, calling them “just too high.” The numbers support that caution. Micron is up nearly 47% year to date. These stocks have already priced in a lot of good news.
Cramer’s preferred alternative: semiconductor capital equipment makers Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC), and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT), which benefit from the shortage driving capital investment in new memory capacity without being directly exposed to commodity memory pricing cycles.
Lam Research (LRCX)
KLA Corporation (KLAC)
Applied Materials (AMAT)
Applied Materials just posted record DRAM revenue, with DRAM now representing 34% of its Semiconductor Systems segment, up from 27% a year ago. CEO Gary Dickerson projects semiconductor equipment business growth of over 20% in calendar 2026. Lam Research and KLA are also among the semiconductor equipment names benefiting from capacity buildout driven by the shortage.
The memory shortage isn’t ending. HPE just told you so. Investors are now weighing exposure to commodity memory names against semiconductor equipment makers that benefit from capacity buildout without direct commodity pricing risk.