Wednesday, December 3rd 2025

Micron to Exit Crucial Consumer Business, Ending Retail SSD and DRAM Sales

by
Nomad76
 Discuss (195 Comments)
Micron announced today that it will exit its Crucial consumer business, bringing an end to retail sales of Crucial-branded SSDs and memory modules at major stores and online retailers. The company says it will continue shipping Crucial products through fiscal Q2 2026 (ending February 2026), after which the brand will no longer operate in the consumer channel. Warranty coverage and support will remain in place. Micron says the shift is driven by surging AI-related demand in the data center, which requires reallocating manufacturing capacity toward higher-margin enterprise and hyperscale customers. The company noted that its strategic focus is now on segments with stronger long-term growth in memory and storage rather than the competitive consumer market.

Crucial, best known for SSDs like the MX and P-series and its long-running line of desktop and laptop DRAM modules has been part of Micron's portfolio for nearly three decades. While consumer products are being phased out, Micron will continue selling Micron-branded enterprise SSDs and memory through its commercial channels. The company also stated it intends to limit workforce disruption by redeploying affected employees into open internal roles wherever possible. Micron's move comes as demand for AI hardware continues to surge. The company secured major HBM3E contracts with NVIDIA and AMD and expects to sample HBM4 next year.
Source: Micron

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195 Comments on Micron to Exit Crucial Consumer Business, Ending Retail SSD and DRAM Sales

#26
TechBuyingHavoc
TheinsanegamerNAlso Micron isnt gone, anymore then Intel is gone. They are not selling Micron labeled products but nothing is stopping third party memory makers like Corsair from buying Micron memory dies for their DIMMs.
With SSDs, we are definitely losing one of the few companies that offer a toolbox to manage SSDs.
sudothelinuxwizardI mean, it just feels jarring, they've been releasing new stuff pretty recently.
Some Micron execs want their stock options and other bonuses before the AI bubble pops.
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#27
EsaT
wNotyarDBut the writing's on the wall: we, casual consumers, are only a lesser footnote in every corp results presentations.
Don't worry.
Any of these corporations currently siphoning billions into tax havens will fast want government subsidies if AI bubble pops and they get into trouble.
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#28
nRag3
SemperPC09This is my guess as well, unless something happens in the next few years it is looking like quantum will be the next .com, Crypto, and AI craziness. Hopefully Quantum waits for a few years and lets the consumer market settle down before it blows up. Maybe cloud gaming or cloud compute could become a bigger thing, but I don't think it will be as big as another bubble.
Jenson has already spoken publicly that they are working on building out super computer farms in Saudi Arabia to "simulate" quantum computing to act as error correction for actual quantum computers. The guy is already moving on from AI.
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#29
Dragokar
After Ballistix and the long crawl back with DDR5 they now throw it all in the bin?? Sometimes I wonder what drives them except more greed until the end user becomes valuable again.....
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#30
LabRat 891
What?! No!

They were literally the only way to get US-made NAND/DRAM, and they'd been some of the most-reliable and easiest-RMA'd products I've ever owned.
This is bad.
wNotyarDTalking of Micron being shortsighted, how well would they fare with the AI craze if they kept developing 3D XPoint/QuantX?
Micron and Intel both are likely going "But... But... it didn't scale well" :rolleyes:
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#31
Isaak
It's a subscription world from here on out. No more owning your own hardware or software, everything a subscription. And that's where the money is. People saying the consumer market is gone? No, the consumer market is very much alive. But people are buying less and subscribing more. That's where consumers are headed with their wallets.
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#32
Dr. Dro
TheinsanegamerNThen they would still be incredibly short sighted, just like Micron. NVidia's GeForce division printed over $10 billion last year, and believe it or not, still makes up a majority of their shipments in physical products moved. AMD, similarly, is in 2 of the 3 consoles and their death on PC has been greatly exaggerated. AMD especially has little to say in the AI game, it would be suicidal for them to pull out of the consumer market.

When the AI bubble bursts, Micron wont be able to fall back on consumer purchases. They are betting big on AI just as AI companies are running into major finance issues.

Also Micron isnt gone, anymore then Intel is gone. They are not selling Micron labeled products but nothing is stopping third party memory makers like Corsair from buying Micron memory dies for their DIMMs.
The question remains, are they betting the farm on a bubble... or, is it really a bubble? Just like crypto never really went away, it just "changed". Interesting times ahead, that's for sure
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#33
Squared
Hecate91Nvidia? LOL no, they make billions off of less than 10% of their overall business, Nvidia wouldn't just turn off that essentially free money printer.
AMD on the other hand, could happen as Nvidia further monopolizes the market, and the AI circlejerk they're at the center off is causing the entire industry memory shortage.
TheinsanegamerNThen they would still be incredibly short sighted, just like Micron. NVidia's GeForce division printed over $10 billion last year, and believe it or not, still makes up a majority of their shipments in physical products moved. AMD, similarly, is in 2 of the 3 consoles and their death on PC has been greatly exaggerated. AMD especially has little to say in the AI game, it would be suicidal for them to pull out of the consumer market.
Aside from AI workloads, AMD is also behind in other GPGPU uses. AMD offers ROCm to compete with CUDA, but very few want to use. AMD has publicly stated that their solution is to bring ROCm to the consumer market. If developers can try ROCm on consumer hardware (RDNA), they're more likely to learn it and use it on professional hardware (CDNA). AMD has said that RDNA will one day be replaced by UDNA, which recombines CDNA into RDNA, like AMD GPUs used to be in the GCN days.

And recent actions from AMD confirm this. Some RDNA3 GPUs and all RDNA4 GPUs have ROCm support on Linux. Consumer AMD GPUs aren't going away soon. (And solid RDNA4 sales reinforce that.)
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#34
LabRat 891
SquaredAside from AI workloads, AMD is also behind in other GPGPU uses. AMD offers ROCm to compete with CUDA, but very few want to use. AMD has publicly stated that their solution is to bring ROCm to the consumer market. If developers can try ROCm on consumer hardware (RDNA), they're more likely to learn it and use it on professional hardware (CDNA). AMD has said that RDNA will one day be replaced by UDNA, which recombines CDNA into RDNA, like AMD GPUs used to be in the GCN days.

And recent actions from AMD confirm this. Some RDNA3 GPUs and all RDNA4 GPUs have ROCm support on Linux. Consumer AMD GPUs aren't going away. (And solid RDNA4 sales reinforce that.)
Tangential:
openai.com/index/openai-amd-strategic-partnership/
The Game changed, the moment AMD and OpenAI 'put ink to paper'.

edit:
Nomad76 in AMD to Power Vultr's Ohio AI Supercluster with 24,000 Instinct MI355X GPUsVultr, the world's largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company, today announced a major milestone in its long-standing strategic collaboration with AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) to advance and scale AI wo…
A lot of consequential things are happening right now, all at once (as it would seem).
Posted on Reply
#35
Wirko
TheinsanegamerNAlso Micron isnt gone, anymore then Intel is gone. They are not selling Micron labeled products but nothing is stopping third party memory makers like Corsair from buying Micron memory dies for their DIMMs.
Also, if and when Micron smells retail revenue again, it won't be very costly to re-establish their retail sales network. Brand name doesn't matter very much, it will probably be Spaghetti (by Micron) or Inchworm (by Micron). Even among DIYers, they remain a well-known and respected chip manufacturer. The only exception is a small number of weirdos who keep ever-growing personal blacklists of brands to avoid forever.
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#36
Chris_Ramseyer
Phison Rep
Don't worry. Phison still loves you guys in the client market.

Please buy a drive with an E28 controller, such as the new Corsair MP700 Pro XT or PNY CS3250. :)
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#37
LabRat 891
IsaakIt's a subscription world from here on out. No more owning your own hardware or software, everything a subscription. And that's where the money is. People saying the consumer market is gone? No, the consumer market is very much alive. But people are buying less and subscribing more.
You sound almost promotional or excited about that... I can get being blackpilled or fatalistic about the issue, but-
IsaakThat's where consumers are headed with their wallets.
Hard disagree.
I would say however, that's where they are being pushed, with their wallets.

When the option is available and known, consumers prefer to own their stuff.
Right to repair, and right to own, have more and more-vocal proponents than ever before. TBQH, almost totally in reaction to the anti-consumer, anti-ownership, corporate movement.
WirkoAlso, if and when Micron smells retail revenue again, it won't be very costly to re-establish their retail sales network.
Brand name doesn't matter very much, it will probably be Spaghetti (by Micron) or Inchworm (by Micron). Even among DIYers, they remain a well-known and respected chip manufacturer.
I held out hope for DFI to come back, too :ohwell:

TBH, when the AI gravy train eventually breaks down, the vast disparity in profitability (consumer v. enterprise) will likely've make this move 'worth it'.
Not to mention, this will bring a certain level of 'premium exclusivity' to surplus Micron-made DRAM and NAND products. -as silly as that sounds...

WirkoThe only exception is a small number of weirdos who keep ever-growing personal blacklists of brands to avoid forever.
:oops: I do keep a blacklist but, it shrinks with time. I'll usually give brands another go after several years.
So far, Gigabyte is the only one to consistently (re)offend, and (re)justify its place on the blacklist. :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#38
Hecate91
TheinsanegamerNAMD, similarly, is in 2 of the 3 consoles and their death on PC has been greatly exaggerated. AMD especially has little to say in the AI game, it would be suicidal for them to pull out of the consumer market.
Those 2 out of 3 consoles will also be affected by the ram "shortage". AMD can't do anything with console SoC's if there's no RAM to manufacture consoles.
On PC, their market share keeps declining, also recently AMD takes the blame for VRAM pricing going up by $20-40, despite Radeon and their AIBs having little or no control over VRAM allocation compared to Nvidia and their control over the market. It makes no sense at this point for AMD to be in the consumer dGPU market.
WirkoAlso, if and when Micron smells retail revenue again, it won't be very costly to re-establish their retail sales network. Brand name doesn't matter very much, it will probably be Spaghetti (by Micron) or Inchworm (by Micron). Even among DIYers, they remain a well-known and respected chip manufacturer. The only exception is a small number of weirdos who keep ever-growing personal blacklists of brands to avoid forever.
If the bubble does pop I wouldn't be surprised if Micron does come back begging consumers to buy branded RAM and SSD's again, but weird or not I'll gladly blacklist any company who throws away their brand and reputation to ride on the AI hype train.
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#39
TPUnique
Dr. DroLet it be a warning... this could be AMD and Nvidia next. The entire consumer market is a drop in the bucket compared to the OEM market and big bucks enterprise segments
It's also where I think PRC companies will pick up the tab. Chinese manufacturing has the scale, and soon enough the skills, to address the consumer market.

10 years from now, I may well have a PRC-designed and -made APU running one of my computers.
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#40
Bobaganoosh
Man...part of me just cannot wait for the AI bubble to burst. It just sucks that the entire economy is propped up on it at the moment.
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#41
Wirko
Chris_RamseyerDon't worry. Phison still loves you guys in the client market.

Please buy a drive with an E28 controller, such as the new Corsair MP700 Pro XT or PNY CS3250. :)
Hopefully we won't be buying solid-state drives with BYO-NAND and BYO-RAM in 2026+. And graphics cards, notebooks, phones, routers and cars, for that matter.
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#42
TheinsanegamerN
Hecate91Those 2 out of 3 consoles will also be affected by the ram "shortage". AMD can't do anything with console SoC's if there's no RAM to manufacture consoles.
On PC, their market share keeps declining, also recently AMD takes the blame for VRAM pricing going up by $20-40, despite Radeon and their AIBs having little or no control over VRAM allocation compared to Nvidia and their control over the market. It makes no sense at this point for AMD to be in the consumer dGPU market.
EYYY, there's the "doom and gloom" you usually post about AMD!

Their "market share" declines because that is ALL AIB shipments, not just consumer GPUs. So all the AI GPUs nVidia is selling are tipping the scales. Their death has, as always, been greatly exaggerated. nVidia has been hit with the blame for VRAM pricing, AMD being blamed is your own head cannon.

They've already recovered from the 24 slump, with the gaming division being over $4 billion for 2025 as of Q3, but sure, making up 18% of total revenue "makes no sense" for AMD. You should get a job at AMD and tell Lisa she has no idea what she is doing!
WirkoHopefully we won't be buying solid-state drives with BYO-NAND and BYO-RAM in 2026+. And graphics cards, notebooks, phones, routers and cars, for that matter.
CUSU memory from Aliexpress has frequently gone on sale and been cheaper than Western brands, and if they can get production numbers up, I'd buy them. I have no loyalty to corporations. If the Western corpos want to price fix and get their lunch eaten by China, then bring it on!
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#43
LabRat 891
Hecate91Those 2 out of 3 consoles will also be affected by the ram "shortage". AMD can't do anything with console SoC's if there's no RAM to manufacture consoles.
On PC, their market share keeps declining, also recently AMD takes the blame for VRAM pricing going up by $20-40, despite Radeon and their AIBs having little or no control over VRAM allocation compared to Nvidia and their control over the market. It makes no sense at this point for AMD to be in the consumer dGPU market.
IMO, AMD will only exit if, nVidia and Intel exit. -Which, would be the literal 'Personal Computing Apocalypse'.
-no more add-in cards. -no more dGPUs. -no more modularity or upgradability. What you bought, is what you got, period. o_O
Post-Apocalypse, HBM-equipped APUs/SoCs would (probably) be the last bastion for high-performance "PC gaming".
Hecate91If the bubble does pop I wouldn't be surprised if Micron does come back begging consumers to buy branded RAM and SSD's again,
I'm thinking that we may be vastly underestimating the profitability of the consumer sector. Even, if 'the bubble pops' "the correction" will include massive production cuts, and actively-sought scarcity. Basically, "You think NAND and DRAM are expensive now? Watch this!"
Hecate91but weird or not I'll gladly blacklist any company who throws away their brand and reputation to ride on the AI hype train.
(Excepting Apple)
I'm not particularly-friendly with the idea of personally blacklisting Domestic brands of a high-demand product otherwise dominated by Foreign companies. Given enough 'change' in the behavior or products of a given Domestic company, I will happily reconsider them.
TheinsanegamerNCUSU memory from Aliexpress has frequently gone on sale and been cheaper than Western brands, and if they can get production numbers up, I'd buy them. I have no loyalty to corporations. If the Western corpos want to price fix and get their lunch eaten by China, then bring it on!
TPUniqueIt's also where I think PRC companies will pick up the tab. Chinese manufacturing has the scale, and soon enough the skills, to address the consumer market.

10 years from now, I may well have a PRC-designed and -made APU running one of my computers.
Point(s). I'm not sure things are as they have been, though...

We're in a scenario today, where lobbyists and regulators could and are actively encumbering those kinds of imports/sales.

Conversely, I could see Chinese NAND and DRAM companies compensatorily underprice their products exported to the US so-hard, that an entire grey-market supply chain of re-exporting undercut US-market Chinese-made NAND/DRAM spawns :laugh:
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#44
EnviousFrog
WirkoAlso, if and when Micron smells retail revenue again, it won't be very costly to re-establish their retail sales network. Brand name doesn't matter very much, it will probably be Spaghetti (by Micron) or Inchworm (by Micron). Even among DIYers, they remain a well-known and respected chip manufacturer. The only exception is a small number of weirdos who keep ever-growing personal blacklists of brands to avoid forever.
Brand name is not Crucial. FTFY.

It is interesting how Micron is stopping consumer DRAM production, but Samsung is moving manufacturing capacity from HBM3E to DRAM.
www.techpowerup.com/343642/samsung-could-convert-some-hbm3e-capacity-to-regular-dram-to-meet-demand
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#46
SemperPC09
nRag3Jenson has already spoken publicly that they are working on building out super computer farms in Saudi Arabia to "simulate" quantum computing to act as error correction for actual quantum computers. The guy is already moving on from AI.
Oh, I missed that. When did he say that?

Well, Quantum here we come. Oh boy, I am soooo happy for another thing that will drive up prices. Just for ONE year can we have it where all pc parts hit MSRP or below, below would be really nice. I need to get a new rig without sacrificing my wallet and a couple kidneys and other expensive organs to get one.

Please mind the satirical nature of a large portion of this post.
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#47
Wirko
TheinsanegamerNCUSU memory from Aliexpress has frequently gone on sale and been cheaper than Western brands, and if they can get production numbers up, I'd buy them. I have no loyalty to corporations. If the Western corpos want to price fix and get their lunch eaten by China, then bring it on!
CXMT has about one-seventh or one-ninth the revenue of either of the big three, I commented on that a bit earlier:
Wirko in Winbond Launches 8Gb DDR4 DRAM Built on 16 nm for Industrial and Embedded ApplicationsIt's very impressive that Winbond survives and continues to develop their own technology. Their revenue is ridiculous next to the big three + CXMT. (CXMT's quarterly revenue was $1.5B according to thi…
They have ambitious expansion plans but it's questionable how fast they can buy and build machinery. And they have the Chinese domestic market to feed, which sure isn't shrinking.
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#48
Philaphlous
Wow so my Crucial SSD and Crucial DDR5 memory will soon be a relic of time!
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#49
MagicBoy
SquaredI suppose it's indicative of the trends in the PC industry. People use phones instead of PCs today, and people that do buy PCs buy laptops with soldered RAM and never upgrade the SSD. Very few people other than PC gamers buy desktop parts and probably even fewer buy laptop parts. If PC gaming didn't already exist, it would not begin to exist in today's world. The market came to be in a world where every home had a desktop PC.
Maybe at home, to a degree. My work still buy every employee a new laptop every 4 years. PCs aren't going anywhere, they're still selling 250 million units a year.
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#50
haswrong
this is a painful low blow 👊. makes me wanna stomp 🦶🦶 on my crucial ballistix tacticals ddr3, but i have no replacement :D
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