Micron has announced it will stop selling its ‘Crucial’ branded memory and storage solutions to commercial customers from the end of Q2 2026 in order to improve supply and support its “larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments.”

In a statement, the company said it would continue Crucial consumer product shipments through channel partners until the end of February and would work closely with customers through the transition period.

“The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage,” said Sumit Sadana, EVP and chief business officer at Micron, in a statement outlining the decision.

“Thanks to a passionate community of consumers, the Crucial brand has become synonymous with technical leadership, quality, and reliability of leading-edge memory and storage products. We would like to thank our millions of customers, hundreds of partners, and all of the Micron team members who have supported the Crucial journey for the last 29 years.”

The announcement comes as the industry attempts to grapple with a shortage of storage and memory hardware, with the size and scale of many AI data center build-outs announced this year seemingly having caught the market off guard and resulting in a capacity crunch some are forecasting could last up to two years.

This is perhaps best exemplified by the OpenAI partnership with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, a deal which saw the three companies sign a letter of intent in October for the eventual supply of 900,000 DRAM wafers a month in order to meet the memory demands of its Stargate project.

DCD takes a closer look at the shortages facing the storage market in the upcoming issue of the DCD Magazine. You can subscribe here.