The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Robert Cyran

NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Now worth $1.3 trln, the leading memory-chip supplier is gushing profit amid a severe shortage. Resulting price hikes are large enough to make even Apple squeal. While it says the market should gradually smooth out, such cycles tend to end suddenly and hard.

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Micron Technology said on June 24 that revenue for the quarter ending May 28 was $41.5 billion, compared to $9.3 billion in the same period last year. The memory company earned $28.2 billion, or $24.67 per share, versus $1.9 billion or $1.68 a share a year ago.

In a call with investors, Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said demand for DRAM and NAND memory continues to significantly exceed industry supply, and the company expects tight conditions to persist beyond 2027. He added that supply is anticipated to improve gradually in 2028.

Separately, Apple said on June 25 that it had raised prices on iPads and MacBooks in response to rapid increases in the prices for memory and storage chips. The price of the MacBook Air with 512 gigabytes of storage, for example, rose to $1,299 from $1,099. The company said in a statement to Reuters that "We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.”