Elon Musk Thanked Micron Twice on Tesla's Earnings Call -- Here's Why That's Great News

On beauteous overmuch each Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) net call, CEO Elon Musk acknowledgment Tesla employees for their hard work. He often expresses gratitude to Tesla's customers for their enactment arsenic well. What helium doesn't usually bash is convey different companies.

But connected Tesla's Q2 net telephone past week, Musk went retired of his mode to convey Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) not erstwhile but twice!

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Here's wherefore Musk is expressing gratitude to the representation chipmaker and wherefore it's large quality some for Tesla and Micron shareholders.

Doubly expensive, oregon much

We're successful the mediate of a planetary representation spot shortage.

Random-access representation (RAM) is indispensable to support information actively disposable to a processor for computation. In astir computers, this is handled by a benignant of representation spot called dynamic random entree representation (DRAM). DRAM is inexpensive to nutrient and tin clasp a batch of data.

But artificial quality (AI) compute is truthful analyzable that it requires much than a azygous DRAM wafer. Luckily, high-bandwidth representation (HBM), which consists of respective DRAM chips stacked connected apical of each other, delivers unthinkable akin information retrieval velocity and a overmuch higher capacity. Micron Technology is 1 of lone 3 large planetary providers of DRAM and HBM. The different 2 are South Korean: tech elephantine Samsung and SK Hynix (NASDAQ: SKHY), which precocious debuted connected the Nasdaq.

These companies person devoted astir each of their representation spot fabrication capableness to churning retired DRAM and HBM for AI operations, and request is inactive outstripping supply, truthful they've raised their prices crossed the board. According to Counterpoint Research, representation and retention prices person quadrupled implicit the past 9 months. That's caused prices to spell up for thing that uses representation chips, including smartphones, laptops, and cars.

Doubly thankful

Musk went retired of his mode to sing Micron's praises successful effect to a question astir proviso chains for the company's Optimus humanoid robots. Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley asked Musk astir "some of the dialog you've had with perchance immoderate outer suppliers."

In response, Musk name-checked Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Panasonic for expanding accumulation of semiconductors and artillery cells, but aft Tesla's VP of Supply Chain Karn Budhiraj talked astir Samsung's committedness to aboriginal projects, Musk jumped backmost successful with his archetypal enactment of acknowledgment to Micron: