---
title: "Micron's 10-K put a number on the contracts: $134 billion. The next sentence says not to read it as revenue."
description: "Micron's FY2026 10-K answers the six lines its earnings release left open. Remaining performance obligations went from about $5 billion in May to about $134 billion, with a disclaimer that survived word for word. Plus $12.75 billion of deposits repayable 2029 to 2031, a rewritten price risk factor, the patent licence, the customer table, and a $35.16 billion buyback authorisation that appears in no 8-K. Every figure from the filings, with accessions."
canonical: https://evidinvest.com/blog/mu-fy2026-10k-134-billion-rpo-what-the-annual-report-adds-2026-10-13
date: "2026-10-13"
last_updated: "2026-10-13"
author: "EvidInvest Team"
publisher: "EBD Sweden AB (EvidInvest)"
tags: ["MU", "Micron", "memory", "DRAM", "NAND", "HBM", "remaining performance obligations", "10-K", "SEC filings"]
---

# Micron's 10-K put a number on the contracts: $134 billion. The next sentence says not to read it as revenue.

- Published: 2026-10-13
- Author: EvidInvest Team, EvidInvest (published by EBD Sweden AB)
- Canonical URL: https://evidinvest.com/blog/mu-fy2026-10k-134-billion-rpo-what-the-annual-report-adds-2026-10-13
- Research, not investment advice.

> Micron's FY2026 10-K answers the six lines its earnings release left open. Remaining performance obligations went from about $5 billion in May to about $134 billion, with a disclaimer that survived word for word. Plus $12.75 billion of deposits repayable 2029 to 2031, a rewritten price risk factor, the patent licence, the customer table, and a $35.16 billion buyback authorisation that appears in no 8-K. Every figure from the filings, with accessions.

*Every figure below was read from Micron's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year
ended 3 September 2026, filed 9 October (**accession `0000723125-26-000023`**), or from the
earlier filings cited with their accessions. One section quotes a filing by another company,
Netlist, and says so. We show no analyst estimates and no consensus, because they are not
filed, and nothing from the conference call. Ratios, sums and differences Micron does not
print are our arithmetic on filed values and are marked *(Ours.)* Research, not investment
advice.*

On 30 September we [read Micron's fourth-quarter release back against twelve
lines](https://evidinvest.com/blog/mu-fq4-2026-results-twelve-lines-read-back-2026-09-30) and marked six of them
"waits for the 10-K". The release had no remaining performance obligations, no
price-and-bits sentence, no name behind a $500 million patent charge, no customer table and
no risk factors. The annual report landed on Friday. It answers all six.

One answer changes the size of the story. In the third-quarter 10-Q
(`0000723125-26-000015`), the transaction price allocated to remaining performance
obligations was "approximately $5 billion". In the 10-K it is **approximately $134
billion**. That is about the same as Micron's entire fiscal 2026 revenue of $133,188
million. *(Ours.)* The sentence two lines below it tells you how not to read it, and most
of what follows is about that sentence.

If you came for a view on the stock, wrong page. This is what was filed.

## 1. $134 billion, and the sentence under it

**Filed**, Note 16, "Revenue and Customer Contract Liabilities":

> As of September 3, 2026, the transaction price allocated to our remaining performance
> obligations was approximately $134 billion, of which $13 billion has been recognized as
> contract liabilities.

Then: "Approximately one-fourth of the remaining performance obligations as of September 3,
2026 are expected to be recognized as revenue over the next twelve months," and the rest
"within the next five years." At 28 May the 10-Q said about one-third of approximately $5
billion.

*(Ours.)* One-fourth of $134 billion is about $33.5 billion inside twelve months. The balance
is roughly 27 times the May figure. The remaining three-fourths, about $100 billion, sits in
years two to five.

Now the sentence. Last time we said to check whether it survived word for word. It did:

> Our remaining performance obligations are based on expected purchases to satisfy committed
> volumes and minimum pricing and are not expected to be indicative of future revenue under
> these contracts.

Two things follow from Micron's own wording. The figure is built on **minimum** pricing, so it
is a floor-priced count of committed volume, not a revenue forecast. And agreements "that do
not have either fixed pricing or price bands" are **excluded**, as are contracts of a year or
less. The $134 billion leaves things out on purpose, in both directions.

## 2. The deposits, the letters of credit, and when they go back

**Filed**, MD&A, liquidity: "In connection with these strategic customer agreements, we
received cash deposits of $12.75 billion in 2026. Nearly all of the deposits are scheduled to
be repaid between 2029 and 2031." Separately, letters of credit "issued, or contractually
committed to be issued, by third-party financial institutions was $7 billion as of September
3, 2026", which the revenue note calls "the maximum potential proceeds available to us in the
event of customer default or breach."

The mechanism, in Micron's words: deposits "are returned to the customer if the customer meets
the minimum purchase commitments. If the customer does not meet the minimum purchase
commitments, we may retain all or a portion of the deposit."

*(Ours.)* Cash deposits plus letters of credit come to $19.75 billion of security. The 10-Q
had said Micron expected "$22 billion for agreements concluded to date", approximately $18
billion of it in cash. The 10-K does not restate an expected total; it reports what was
received. Since the balance sheet already carries **$12,895 million** of noncurrent customer
contract liabilities, the dates matter more than the size: this is cash Micron holds today and
is scheduled to hand back in 2029 to 2031.

One sentence in the same section is new in this filing. It appears zero times in the 10-Q and
zero times in the FY2025 10-K (`0000723125-25-000028`):

> We expect gross margins from our strategic customer agreements with price bands, even at
> floor pricing levels, to yield gross margins meaningfully above our peak quarterly margins
> in any past cycle.

That is Micron's expectation, not ours, and it comes with no number. "Meaningfully above" and
"peak quarterly margins in any past cycle" are both left for the reader to locate.

## 3. Price, not bits: the full-year sentence is there, the quarterly one is not

**Filed**, MD&A, results of operations:

| | FY2026 change | Average selling prices | Bit shipments |
|---|---|---|---|
| DRAM sales | +252% | approximately +180% | mid-20% range |
| NAND sales | +274% | approximately +200% | mid-20% range |

Revenue by technology (Note 16): DRAM **$100,679 million**, NAND $31,785 million, other
(primarily NOR) $724 million. *(Ours: DRAM is 75.6% of revenue.)* Consolidated gross margin
was 81% against 40%, and MD&A credits the move "primarily" to average selling prices.

This is the [price-not-bits pattern](https://evidinvest.com/blog/memory-supercycle-price-not-bits-2026-09-26) in
Micron's own annual numbers: shipments grew in the mid-20s, prices roughly tripled.

The sequential sentence we asked for, the fourth quarter against the third, is **not in the
10-K**. The word "sequential" appears zero times. So the last quarterly price-and-bits
statement on file is still the third quarter's DRAM line, a "low-60% range increase in average
selling prices". That absence is the answer.

## 4. The price risk factor was rewritten

**Filed**, Item 1A. The FY2025 10-K said that "in the past five years, annual percentage
changes in DRAM average selling prices have ranged from plus low 40% to a minus high 40%
range", with NAND from "plus low 30% to a minus low 50%". The FY2026 version:

> Over the past five fiscal years, annual percentage changes in DRAM and NAND average selling
> prices have ranged from an increase of approximately 200% to a decrease of approximately
> 50%. In recent periods, industry demand has outpaced supply, driving average selling prices
> higher, but as we and others increase supply, average selling prices may decline,
> particularly if demand growth slows or declines.

The sentence about "we and others" increasing supply is new. So is a paragraph inside the
customer risk factor that reads the long-term agreements from the other side:

> Efforts by us and our competitors to align supply to long-term customer agreements could
> contribute to industry supply exceeding demand if customers were to breach their purchase
> obligations and if overall demand is lower than anticipated. In addition, customer purchases
> in excess of production needs to satisfy their obligations under long-term agreements may
> result in elevated customer inventories.

Neither passage appears in the 10-Q or the FY2025 10-K. Read next to section 2, the filing now
names both halves: the contracts give visibility, and the same contracts are a channel through
which an oversupply could form.

## 5. The $500 million patent charge, and a settlement dated four days earlier

**Filed**, Note 17: "Patent license charges" of **$500 million** in 2026, against $57 million
in 2025 and nil in 2024. The contingencies note says: "Except for the patent license charges
recognized in the fourth quarter of 2026, we are unable to predict the outcome of any of the
matters noted above."

The 10-K does not name a counterparty for the charge. The patent-matters list does end with
one dated line: "On October 5, 2026, Netlist and Micron agreed to dismiss all litigation
claims against one another pursuant to settlement and license agreements." Above it sit
Netlist cases in Texas, Delaware, California, Düsseldorf and a Section 337 complaint the ITC
instituted on 23 September, several of them naming HBM products.

Netlist filed its side of the deal on 6 October (8-K `0001104659-26-113897`): a five-year,
non-exclusive licence to its "entire worldwide patent portfolio", with Micron paying
"quarterly license fees of $30 million for each of the twenty calendar quarters from the
fourth calendar quarter of 2026 through the third calendar quarter of 2031, for a total value
of $600 million." Micron also bought 10 million Netlist shares for $1 million in aggregate.

*(Ours.)* Neither filing ties Netlist's $600 million to Micron's $500 million charge, and
neither reconciles the two figures. We do not either. What is filed is the timing: the charge
in the quarter to 3 September, the settlement on 5 October, the payments over twenty quarters.

## 6. No customer above 10%

**Filed**, Note 21: "No customer accounted for 10% or more of total revenue in 2026." In 2025
one customer was **17%**, "primarily included in the CMBU segment". Item 1A adds that "over half"
of revenue came from the top ten customers and that "approximately 60%" came from the data
center end market.

By customer headquarters (Note 22), the United States was **$91,323 million** of the $133,188
million. *(Ours: 68.6%.)* Taiwan was $16,950 million.

*(Ours.)* The largest customer shrinking below the disclosure line while total revenue grew
256% means Micron's revenue spread across more large buyers. The 10-K does not name any of
them, and HBM still has no revenue line: the word appears 42 times, in product
descriptions, plant plans and legal proceedings, and none of them is an HBM revenue figure.

## 7. Inventory: most of the build is work in process

**Filed**, Note 6, with the May column from the 10-Q:

| | 3 Sep 2026 | 28 May 2026 | 28 Aug 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finished goods | $958m | $621m | $1,094m |
| Work in process | **$8,252m** | $6,960m | $6,401m |
| Raw materials and supplies | $1,162m | $986m | $860m |
| Total | $10,372m | $8,567m | $8,355m |

*(Ours.)* Inventory rose $1,805 million in the fourth quarter. Work in process was $1,292
million of it, 72%. Finished goods rose $337 million but remain below the year-earlier
level. The release showed the total; the note shows that the build sat mostly in wafers still
moving through the fabs, not in product waiting for buyers. The 10-K gives no reason for it.

## 8. Capex for 2027, and a buyback authorisation that is only in the 10-K

**Capex, filed** (MD&A): "approximately $11.5 billion in the first quarter of 2027,
approximately $25 billion in the first six months of 2027, and higher in the second half of
2027", net of government incentives. Fiscal 2026 was $27,367 million on the same net basis (the
release's figure; the 10-K's cash flow statement shows $30,712 million gross). *(Ours: the first half
of 2027 alone is 91% of all of fiscal 2026.)* Purchase obligations for property, plant and
equipment were approximately $4.18 billion against $2.93 billion in May.

**Buyback, filed** (Item 5): "On October 8, 2026, our Board of Directors authorized an increase
in the amount authorized under this stock repurchase program for a total authorization of
$35.16 billion." Repurchases "will be made from December 9, 2026". The sizing rule is spelled
out: the $2.16 billion left under the 2018 authorisation, "plus 100% of our adjusted free cash
flow, less proceeds of CHIPS Act grant incentives received with respect to capital
expenditures and less dividends paid, for the quarter ended September 3, 2026."

*(Ours.)* The release's fourth-quarter adjusted free cash flow was $33,199 million
(`0000723125-26-000018`); $2.16 billion plus that is about $35.36 billion, so grants and
dividends account for roughly $0.2 billion of the difference. Micron filed no 8-K for the
authorisation; it is in the annual report.

Two limits sit next to it. Since 2019, "expenditures for share repurchases in any one year
have ranged from no repurchases to a high of $2.66 billion of repurchases." And 9 December 2026 is when the
CHIPS Act agreements' first two years end; for the final three years, repurchases "are subject
to financial and other conditions, including limitations based on free cash flow." No shares
were bought under the programme in the fourth quarter.

Headcount: approximately **61,000** employees at 3 September, against approximately 53,000 a
year earlier. *(Ours: +15%.)*

## Run it yourself

Start with the sentence, because it takes ten seconds. Open [/filings/MU](https://evidinvest.com/filings/MU), go to
the 10-K, search "remaining performance obligations" and read the paragraph through to "not
expected to be indicative of future revenue". Then search "Nearly all of the deposits" for the
2029 to 2031 schedule, and "work in process" for the inventory split.
[/financials/MU](https://evidinvest.com/financials/MU) has the annual and quarterly statements, and
[/earnings/MU](https://evidinvest.com/earnings/MU) the filed quarterly series.

[/valuation/MU](https://evidinvest.com/valuation/MU) lets you run your own valuation on the filed numbers; try the
growth inputs against a floor-priced backlog rather than a revenue line, and see how much the
answer moves. Then write down what you expect before the first-quarter 10-Q.
[Thesis Monitor](https://evidinvest.com/thesis-monitor) reads each new filing against that thesis: the $134 billion
balance and its one-fourth, deposits held against 2029 to 2031, the new oversupply paragraph,
work in process at $8,252 million. It tells you which of them moved. If you work inside an
agent, the same filings are on the [EvidInvest MCP server](https://evidinvest.com/developers). It is free to start,
credit packs from $10, and there is no subscription.

The headline number in the annual report is $134 billion. The filed instruction for reading
it is one sentence long.

*Sources. Micron Technology FY2026 Form 10-K, fiscal year ended 3 September 2026, filed 9
October 2026: accession `0000723125-26-000023`
([sec.gov](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/723125/000072312526000023/mu-20260903.htm)).
FQ3 2026 Form 10-Q, quarter ended 28 May 2026: `0000723125-26-000015`
([sec.gov](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/723125/000072312526000015/mu-20260528.htm)).
FQ4 2026 earnings release, Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K: `0000723125-26-000018`. FY2025 Form 10-K:
`0000723125-25-000028`. Netlist, Inc. Form 8-K (Items 1.01, 3.02, 8.01), filed 6 October 2026:
`0001104659-26-113897`
([sec.gov](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1282631/000110465926113897/tm2626949d1_8k.htm)).
No analyst estimate, consensus figure, price target or call remark appears on this page.
Multiples, shares, sums and differences are arithmetic on those filed values, labelled as ours
where they appear. Research, not investment advice.*

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