Micron Posts Record Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $33.199 Billion
Key Facts
Micron said adjusted free cash flow was $33.199 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter ended September 3, 2026, up from $18.304 billion in the previous quarter and $803 million in the year-earlier period. That put cash flow well above both comparison periods cited by the company, while TSMC also recorded a quarterly increase in free cash flow in the third quarter of 2026. Micron said AI-driven demand and strong operational execution support its expectation of a record fiscal year in 2027. But the two companies’ results cover different fiscal periods, and the available figures do not establish a direct comparison between their cash flows or show that either outperformed NVIDIA. No verified figures for Samsung’s free cash flow are available here to confirm the earlier headline comparison among the three companies and NVIDIA.
Micron’s results show a widening gap between adjusted free cash flow in the fiscal fourth quarter and its levels in the quarterly and annual comparisons: cash flow was $18.304 billion in fiscal third-quarter 2026, then rose to $33.199 billion in the following quarter, compared with $803 million in fiscal fourth-quarter 2025. For the full fiscal year, adjusted free cash flow was $62.308 billion in 2026, compared with $3.721 billion in 2025. This came alongside a rise in fiscal fourth-quarter revenue to $54.23 billion from $41.46 billion in the previous quarter and $11.32 billion a year earlier. Operating cash flow was $43.97 billion, versus $25.39 billion in the previous quarter and $5.73 billion in the year-earlier period. The company tied its expectation of a record year in 2027 to AI-driven demand and operational execution, without specifying a figure for that outlook here.
TSMC recorded free cash flow of NT$476.56 billion in the third quarter of 2026, an increase of NT$189.20 billion from the previous quarter. The company attributed the rise mainly to higher cash flow from operating activities and lower capital expenditure during the quarter. Its data show free cash flow of NT$287.36 billion in the second quarter of 2026 and NT$139.38 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Operating cash flow was NT$919.77 billion in the third quarter, compared with NT$783.36 billion in the previous quarter and NT$426.83 billion a year earlier. In the same period, capital expenditure was NT$443.21 billion, while the company reported consolidated capital expenditures of $13.84 billion; the two figures are in different currencies, as stated in its data.
On business activity, TSMC recorded revenue of NT$1,494.24 billion in the third quarter, up 17.6% from the second quarter and 50.9% from the same quarter of 2025, with a gross margin of 66.4%. At Samsung, consolidated revenue reached 195.3 trillion won, up 14% quarter on quarter, and operating profit was 107.4 trillion won. The company said its memory business achieved its highest quarterly revenue and operating profit in its history, with its product mix focused on AI products amid capacity constraints. The DS division recorded revenue of 147.1 trillion won and operating profit of 106.5 trillion won, with sales up 15% from the previous quarter. These figures describe revenue and profit performance at the three companies, but do not provide a standardized, comparable value for Samsung’s free cash flow.
Capital spending plans reflect continued expansion alongside improvement in some cash metrics. Samsung’s capital expenditure was 29 trillion won in the third quarter, up 12.2 trillion won from the previous quarter and 19.8 trillion won from the year-earlier period. The company expects 2026 capital expenditure to reach about 84.4 trillion won, including 76.8 trillion won for the DS division. At TSMC, the company attributed higher free cash flow to lower capital expenditure during the quarter, reporting NT$443.21 billion for that item. Samsung links its memory mix focused on AI products to capacity constraints and said semiconductor demand is expected to remain strong.
In the market, U.S.-listed TSMC shares closed at $404.8, Micron shares at $855.1, and NVIDIA shares at $206.69 on November 3, 2026. These are individual closing prices from one session; they do not measure the companies’ cash flows or establish that capital shifted to a particular category of semiconductor suppliers. No verified share prices for AMD and Intel were available in the session data. Comparisons among the companies’ cash flows remain constrained by differences in fiscal periods and currencies, as well as the absence of a verified Samsung free cash flow figure and a corresponding figure for NVIDIA for the same period. The figures published here are therefore limited to results reported by each company and share prices from the specified session.
For the coming outlook, TSMC said it expects revenue of between $52.3 billion and $54.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2026. NVIDIA forecast revenue of $108 billion, ±2%, in its fiscal third quarter of 2027 and said supply constraints would remain a bottleneck until at least the end of fiscal 2028. In its fiscal second-quarter 2027 earnings call, NVIDIA management said it returned $26 billion to shareholders during that quarter, including $20 billion in share repurchases and $6 billion in cash dividends. It also said it had returned 60% of free cash flow since the start of the fiscal year through that date. Samsung, for its part, set a board meeting for late January 2027 to discuss its next shareholder return policy, the final amount and the plan to execute the remaining 2026 returns.