Three Things (3/24)

Micron’s Memory Boom

Micron reported Q2 revenue of $6.28 billion, beating Wall Street expectations and signaling that the chipmaker’s turnaround is well underway. A key driver? Explosive demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the specialized chips used to power AI training and inference workloads in data centers. With customers like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon racing to scale up their AI infrastructure, Micron’s HBM supply is being snapped up as fast as it can be made. The company now expects to return to profitability in Q3, a major milestone after a prolonged slump driven by broader semiconductor softness.

But this isn’t just a cyclical bounce—it’s a strategic pivot. Micron is no longer riding the commodity memory wave; it’s carving out a role as a critical enabler of AI performance. HBM chips are essential for training large language models and running inference tasks at scale—something every cloud provider and AI company now depends on. And as those AI models grow bigger and more compute-intensive, the importance of fast, power-efficient memory only increases. Micron’s aggressive push into HBM, along with its roadmap to scale production, positions it not just to ride the AI boom, but to become indispensable to it.

Boeing’s Back (Maybe)

Boeing shares jumped this week after CFO Brian West delivered a dose of rare optimism: the company’s cash burn is easing, and it expects to post positive free cash flow in the second quarter. This signals a potential turning point for the aerospace giant, which has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons over the past year—plagued by quality control issues, missed delivery targets, FAA scrutiny, and shaken airline confidence. West noted improvements in aircraft production and delivery pacing, pointing to signs that Boeing is regaining operational footing.

With commercial aviation demand picking up and global carriers needing to refresh their fleets, Boeing has a narrow but valuable window to prove it can meet expectations and execute at scale. Hitting its free cash flow goal would be a crucial step toward repairing investor confidence, stabilizing its supply chain, and reclaiming leadership in the duopoly it shares with Airbus. Boeing’s reputation still needs repair, but its financial engines are starting to hum again—and markets are taking notice.

Yum Meets AI

Yum Brands—the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut—is partnering with Nvidia to bring artificial intelligence to its global restaurant network. The initiative will deploy Nvidia’s edge computing and AI models to power automated drive-thru ordering, dynamic menu personalization, and real-time kitchen optimization. It’s part of Yum’s broader plan to digitize the customer experience and streamline operations across 55,000 locations worldwide.

This move is less about novelty and more about necessity. With labor costs rising and margins tightening, automation is shifting from "nice-to-have" to business-critical infrastructure. Yum isn’t just dabbling in AI—it’s turning it into an operational advantage. And for Nvidia, this deal is another proof point that AI is no longer just for data centers—it’s coming to the cash register, the fryer, and the customer-facing front line. Fast food is the next frontier for real-time AI—and Yum wants to serve it hot before its competitors do.

Disclosures:

As of writing, MU, NVDA, MSFT, and AMZN are holdings in Titan's Flagship strategy.