Micron Says a Chinese Rival Poached Its Engineers, Then Sued It With Its Own Technology
Micron is accusing a Chinese chip rival of a brazen scheme: poach its engineers, extract their confidential knowledge, then file patents on that knowledge to turn around and sue Micron with its own technology.
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Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU | MU Price Prediction) alleges that Chinese memory maker Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) hired away its engineers, took confidential know-how, and patented versions of Micron’s technology to sue Micron. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Idaho on September 15, 2026, Micron claims the patents being used against it were built on its own engineering.
Micron shares sit at $1,063.96, up 273.01% this year. The case concerns NAND flash (storage chips in phones and data centers), while most of Micron’s record $54.23 billion in quarterly revenue comes from DRAM, the working memory inside servers and computers.
What Micron Alleges in Idaho
The complaint names eight former employees and claims some hid their new roles on professional networking profiles. News reports indicate at least 20 employees moved from Micron to YMTC.
Micron alleges YMTC used patents listing those former employees as inventors to sue Micron. It asks the court to transfer ownership of four US patents to Micron, plus injunctions and damages. No damages figure has been disclosed.
Memory is especially exposed to this kind of transfer because knowledge of manufacturing processes lives in engineers’ heads more than in documents. That is why engineers changing employers is common in memory trade-secret cases.
Three days after Micron filed in Idaho, a Munich court ruled for YMTC in two cases and ordered Micron to stop selling certain NAND products in Germany. Micron has appealed.
YMTC first sued Micron in California in November 2023 and has since filed in China, Texas, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Venue shopping explains Germany, where injunctions are relatively easy to obtain. A win there shows leverage more than it proves the underlying claims.
Last quarter Micron earned $39.8 billion from DRAM against $14.1 billion from NAND. The litigation impacts the smaller business.
A German sales ban on certain NAND products poses little threat to the investment case. That changes with an injunction in a larger market, an adverse ruling on patent ownership, or NAND growing into a larger share of revenue.
China Builds What It Cannot Buy
US export controls have pushed Chinese producers to build memory capacity at home. That competition will grow regardless of this suit’s outcome, and over several years matters more to Micron than any single injunction.
Micron’s results also reflect an unusually strong pricing cycle. On September 30, 2026, management said: “we do not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance.” Multi-year customer agreements now cover “over 35% of our revenue through 2030,” suggesting part of this boom is structural.
What Could Shift the Outlook for Micron
The fundamentals look strong relative to the legal risk. Shares trade at 7 times forward earnings, and legal exposure is relatively small.
Guidance calls for fiscal first-quarter revenue of $61.5 billion ± $1.5 billion. The consensus analyst price target is $1,520.02.
That view would change with a loss on the German appeal, a YMTC injunction in the US or UK, or a court refusing to hand Micron the four patents. Watch YMTC’s response in Idaho and the DRAM-versus-NAND split in the next earnings report.
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Omor Ibne Ehsan is a writer at 24/7 Wall St. He is a self-taught investor with a focus on growth, cyclical, and dividend equities that have strong fundamentals, value, and long-term potential. He also has an interest in high-risk, high-reward investments such as penny stocks.
