Paper money millionaires: Big stock runup can impact Micron employees, Boise economy
Employees of Micron Technology have seen their personal net worth surge in recent months as the memory maker’s stock has soared by nearly 800%.
In the long run, if the company’s stock holds up, it could bring scores of new millionaires into the Boise Valley, with unknown impacts on the local economy and Micron. While Micron is valued at just more than $1 trillion, it has actually dropped more than 30% in the last month as Wall Street continually tries to calibrate how much the stock is worth in a dynamic and changing market for memory chips needed for artificial intelligence.
Micron has more than 56,000 employees around the world, with roughly 6,000 in Boise, according to The Street.
Micron’s surging stock
According to SEC filings reviewed by BoiseDev, the value of Micron’s stock-based employee compensation grew from $722 million in the first nine months of fiscal year 2025 to $954 million for the same period of 2026. The company actually granted a smaller number of shares in 2026 compared with last year, but because of the booming stock price, the shares were valued at more.
For longer-term employees of Micron, they might have stock options that vested in the past and benefited from the quick run-up in the stock in recent months.
David McIntosh, a Wealth Manager at Coldstream Financial in Boise, works with employees of large companies like Micron to manage their portfolios and financial goals. He said that employees checking the company’s internal dashboard for the value of their stock options can produce mixed feelings.
Employees of large companies like Micron often have a portion of their compensation paid in restricted stock units or RSUs, which don’t become available to the employee until they are employed with the company on a certain date. Even though the RSUs aren’t liquid, they can quickly increase how much an employee is worth on paper.
“At a lot of these big companies where they have RSUs, their company stock website flashes the big number in front of their face, where it says, ‘Here is your total amount vested,’ which can be an issue, because wealth feels real before people actually have it,” McIntosh said.
Impact on the future
Workers can look at the big number and contemplate buying certain homes or cars, but he advises caution.
“I always advise people to understand what they need first, and then set a few parameters on the future. For example, if Micron is trading at $500 and they say, ‘well, at $700 I’ll sell, because I can buy xyz home.’ I think it’s important to look at what they currently have, feel comfortable with what they have in terms of an amount, and then set savings goals, and then the rest they can let ride.”
McIntosh noted that the significant value in the stock options can prove tempting for Micron employees to explore leaving the company when the options vest and look at other ventures.
“You build something to a point you never thought, and people participate in that growth, and then they hit a point where they think, ‘Well, I could do something else,’ and then they leave,” McIntosh said. “That’s probably a big issue with executives.”
He said while it can cause talent to leave, it can also create opportunities for employees to move up. It also drops potential millionaires into the local economy who might go on to create the next big company. Micron itself was funded in its early stages by Boise-area entrepreneurs who had successes in other fields and decided to invest in a small memory chip maker located in the basement of a dentist’s office.
It also might mean diversifying away from Micron stock into other investments.
“Why not lock that away in something less volatile, short-term fixed income or money markets that are less volatile than stocks, especially one concentrated position, so they can sleep easier.”
‘Fear and greed’
McIntosh said that making decisions about money, especially in unexpected territory like the one Micron employees find themselves in, produces many decision points that can be in conflict with each other.
“(Former Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman) Charlie Munger said, ‘if you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.’ Fear and greed exist at the same time. I think the hardest decision for people… is deciding how much is enough. Some of the employees that I work with who work with stocks, or who have a concentration of their wealth in their company, anchor on future wealth and what they could have based on the current price. It’s such a tough mindset; it’s a brutal mindset to think that way. You have to think through what a stock price could be, and how much is enough?”