Micron Gives Crucial the Lexar Treatment, Shutters Memory Brand

Micron, the maker of Crucial memory, including SSDs, has announced that it will shutter the Crucial brand and exit the consumer memory business to focus on supplying AI data centers.

“The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments,” explains Sumit Sadana, EVF and Chief Business Officer of Micron Technology.

Sadana continues, expressing Micron’s thanks for nearly three decades of Crucial memory products.

When the fiscal Q2 ends in February 2026, Micron will stop supplying Crucial consumer products to retailers. The company says it will continue to provide warranty service and support for Crucial products, but no new ones will enter the market once February arrives.

Micron says its decision to shutter Crucial and focus on AI reflects the company’s commitment to profitability. Put another way, Micron is chasing the AI money, as many technology companies are these days. Despite concerns that AI might be a bubble, and that AI technology is primarily just costing companies billions of dollars, some, like Nvidia, are making money hand over fist. Micron wants a piece of that pie, and Crucial is dying because of it.

That said, it’s not immediately clear if the loss of Crucial is as bad as it may seem. Over extended use, PetaPixel has experienced bad luck with recent Crucial SSDs, which are failing at a near-100% rate. As a result of this, PetaPixel will no longer be including Crucial SSDs on comparison charts. Granted, given that Crucial SSDs are soon to be a thing of the past, this is perhaps no great loss.

However, as The Verge writes, the Crucial brand going the way of the dodo is still bad news for PC builders and hobbyists, who face “skyrocketing RAM prices” already, thanks to other companies catering to the demands of AI companies rather than consumers. Micron, following this trend, will only make a bad situation worse.

Failing Crucial SSDs are not the first time that Micron has run afoul. The company ticked off many photographers back in 2017 when it, bafflingly, decided to kill Lexar memory cards. Fortunately, Longsys stepped up the following year to revive Lexar, and the brand continues to this day in good standing.

“I believe Micron has made a series of bad decisions in recent years, and this appears to be the latest,” says PetaPixel editor-in-chief Jaron Schneider. “Dumping Lexar was a particularly poor choice and I don’t think Micron will look back at this decision to do the same with Crucial particularly fondly.”

Image credits: Elements of header photo licensed via Depositphotos.