Supply bottlenecks flip the script on who holds pricing power.
Apple — one of the most valuable companies on earth — needs chips. Micron has them. So Micron names the price.
The result? Micron's net income jumped 42x in two years to $38 billion last quarter. That's $8 billion MORE than Apple made in the same period.
This isn't normal. It's what happens when you can't get what you need and someone else controls the tap. The company with the scarce resource sets terms. The giant buyer has no choice but to pay up.
Pricing power like this doesn't last forever — supply eventually catches up, competitors enter, buyers find alternatives. But right now, it's a textbook example of how market dynamics can invert in a supply crunch.
When scarcity rules, the supplier becomes king.
Apple — one of the most valuable companies on earth — needs chips. Micron has them. So Micron names the price.
The result? Micron's net income jumped 42x in two years to $38 billion last quarter. That's $8 billion MORE than Apple made in the same period.
This isn't normal. It's what happens when you can't get what you need and someone else controls the tap. The company with the scarce resource sets terms. The giant buyer has no choice but to pay up.
Pricing power like this doesn't last forever — supply eventually catches up, competitors enter, buyers find alternatives. But right now, it's a textbook example of how market dynamics can invert in a supply crunch.
When scarcity rules, the supplier becomes king.
