Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of SNDK either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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On September 8, two SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) stock insiders disclosed dumping nearly $12 million worth of equity since the month started, for a massive increase relative to every other month since 2026 started.
Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Bernard Shek revealed on Tuesday that he sold 2,308 SNDK shares at an average price of $1,767 for a total of $4.08 million earlier on the same day.
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Notably, the SanDisk CLO is one of the company’s most prolific insider traders of 2026, as he disclosed a total of five separate sales since January 1 – 45% of the total. Additionally, this was his biggest stock market move of the year, as each of the previous sales involved 600 shares.
Meanwhile, Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Alper Ikbahar disclosed the second and third of his 2026 insider trades – both executed on September 3.
One of these involved 400 shares sold at $1,564 on average for a total of $625,557. The other was substantially larger, with 4,712 SNDK dumped at a slightly lower $1,541 for a total of $7.2 million. The EVP’s first 2026 insider sale took place in early June and raised $3.5 million.
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2026 SanDisk stock price performance Elsewhere, the latest SanDisk stock insider selling came as the equity started a relatively decisive recovery from the downturn that took hold in late June and led to a summer bottom in July.
Overall, SNDK shares are, at $1,737.99, 531.45% in the green year-to-date (YTD), and 71% above the recent lows, though they are still more than 25% under the 2026 highs.
SanDisk stock price 2026 chart. Source: Google Big tech sees massive upsurge in insider selling since August Lastly, while corporate insider trades are usually an unreliable indicator of the internal state of companies due to strict disclosure rules, the late August and early September trends among big tech firms can be seen as, at the very least, worth keeping in mind.
Specifically, after relatively tame selling through most of 2026, executives and other senior personnel across multiple blue-chip companies began dumping vast quantities of shares last month.
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So far, arguably the biggest stock market maneuvers were made by Jeff Bezos, who disclosed an intent to sell up to $4 billion and ended up dumping more than $300 million worth of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) in early August, and by Director Mark Stevens, who recently made the biggest Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) insider trade of the decade.
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Key Takeaways AI demand and tight NAND supply are driving SanDisk's powerful rally. Long-term contracts could improve revenue visibility and support margins. SNDK's bullish RSI leaves room for gains, but valuation risks remain. SanDisk (SNDK - Free Report) shares have been rallying hard, with the stock gaining over 16% over the past week and adding over 40% over the past month. So far this year, the stock is up over 530% thanks to the strong demand for memory used in AI infrastructure. Let’s find out what’s behind the rally and whether the rally can last.
Major Index InclusionSanDisk officially became a component of the Nasdaq-100 Index on April 20, 2026, replacing Atlassian Corporation. SanDisk was officially added to the MSCI Global Standard Indexes after the market close on August 31, 2026. The company is set to join the S&P 100 index on September 21, 2026, boosting its market visibility further.
AI Data-Center Storage BoomHyperscalers (Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Oracle) are pouring hundreds of billions into 2026 capex, with a large slice going to memory/storage. SanDisk’s data-center revenue jumped 437% year over year in FY2026 to about $5.15 billion, and data-center bits increased from about 12% to 38% of its mix.
AI Data???Center Storage Demand + NAND Pricing StrengthThe broader memory market rallied on evidence that enterprise SSD and high???capacity flash demand from AI data centers remains very strong, with industry data showing enterprise SSD revenue roughly doubling quarter over quarter in Q2 and NAND pricing staying firm. That is directly supportive of SanDisk’s margins and contracted revenues.
Management noted that roughly two-thirds of Q4 FY2026 sequential growth came from pricing, not units. Tight NAND supply pushed average selling prices up sharply, lifting gross margins into the mid-80s.
Explosive Earnings RevisionIn August, SanDisk’s fiscal 2026 revenue hit $20.25 billion (+175% year over year) while its Q4 revenue was $8.97B (+372% year over year) with EPS beating estimates. This triggered a wave of upgrades and target price hikes.
Based on short-term price targets offered by 22 analysts, the average price target for SanDisk Corporation comes to $2,155.45. The forecasts range from a low of $1,400.00 to a high of $3,000.00. The average price target represents an increase of 23.88% from the last closing price of $1,740.00.
Over the past 30 days, two out of five analysts raised Zacks Consensus Estimates for earnings for the quarter to be reported, while just one lowered the same. Over the past 60 days, three analysts raised earnings estimates for the September quarter, while none lowered them.
Upbeat Outlook Management projects mid-to-high-teens annual revenue growth from fiscal 2028 through 2030, with about 80% non-GAAP gross margins, about 75% operating margins and about 50% adjusted free-cash-flow margins – well above traditional NAND economics, as mentioned in Investing.com.
If those targets prove achievable, investors may continue to value SNDK more like a high-quality AI infrastructure company than a cyclical memory stock. SanDisk has also signed New Business Model (NBM) agreements with eight customers worth about $93.9 billion, covering 50% of fiscal 2027 bits and roughly two-thirds of fiscal 2028 bits.
The four-year contracts reduce earnings volatility and support the margin story, while reducing—but not eliminating—exposure to memory-price swings.
Can the Rally Last?Yes, SNDK can continue higher, particularly if NAND pricing remains tight. However, the most important test now is whether actual quarterly earnings and cash flow begin catching up with the FY2028-30 promises.
Coming to technical analysis, an RSI of 61.24 for SNDK generally means the stock has positive momentum but is not yet technically overbought. So, 61.24 suggests SNDK remains in a bullish momentum zone, with buyers still having the upper hand. It does not by itself signal that the stock is due for a decline.
Given SNDK’s huge recent rally, though, an RSI above 70 appears within reach. A move above 70 would indicate increasingly stretched momentum. SNDK currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
SanDisk-Heavy ETFs in FocusBelow, we highlight a few ETFs that are heavily weighted toward SanDisk.
Sandisk Corporation remains competitively positioned to benefit from the accelerating AI-driven NAND flash supercycle, reinforced by recent model and hardware advancements from Meta, OpenAI and Kioxia. The agentic inference shift is driving a rethink in next-generation AI models and architectures, with increasing NAND content closer to compute compounding already strong storage demand. This is corroborated by industry's expectation for agentic inference tokens to reach 3,600 quadrillion by 2030, underscoring the durability of the AI NAND supercycle despite consumer weakness.
SanDisk has turned in one of the most explosive stock runs of 2026, but Wall Street and one closely watched model are now pointing in opposite directions, and the gap between them could define where this trade goes next.
SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK | SNDK Price Prediction) has become one of the AI trade’s purest plays. Since spinning out of Western Digital in February 2025, the NAND flash pioneer has posted 646.97% YTD gains as datacenter revenue exploded 437% year over year in fiscal 2026.
CEO David Goeckeler told investors that “NAND is the most scalable semiconductor technology in the world, and it has become a critical component of the AI architecture.” With shares at $1,740, my question is direct: can this rally push to $2,500 by 2027?
What’s Making Traders Nervous After a Monster Run Momentum is intact. SanDisk is up 19.41% in the past week and 31.3% in the past month. The tension is what comes next. Q1 FY27 non-GAAP gross margin guidance of 83% to 85% sits just under the Q4 reading of 84.6%, and NAND has a long history of pricing cycles that compress margins fast.
Beta of 1.0 signals the risk sits in fundamentals. Bears argue memory pricing may have peaked, that Kioxia JV dependence is a chokepoint, and that a 500%+ move already prices in a lot of good news. Those concerns deserve serious weight.
Wall Street Sees Upside, Our Model Sees a Pullback The Street is broadly bullish. Analyst consensus target sits at $2,125.09, with 4 strong buy, 16 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell, and 1 strong sell ratings, an 83% bullish share. Our price prediction model disagrees.
It carries a base case of $1,423.38, an optimistic case of $2,395.42, and 0.9 confidence, translating to a -18.2% projected return. I think the model is being too cautious on multi-year visibility. With eight NBM customers and $16.5 billion in financial guarantees signed against those contracts, the boom-bust NAND cycle of prior decades looks structurally different this time around.
Getting SanDisk to $2,500 Per Share Reaching $2,500 from today’s price of $1,740 would require a gain of 43.7%. With forward EPS of $73.58, a price of $2,500 implies a forward P/E of 34x. Our base case of $1,423.38 already implies 25x, meaning the bold target requires roughly 9x of additional multiple expansion. That is a big ask, but earnings growth can compress it fast.
FY27 consensus EPS sits at $214.10 across 20 analysts, with 12 upward revisions versus 7 downward in the trailing 30 days. Goeckeler said “Demand from our customers is growing faster than our supply” and estimated the NAND market will approach $500 billion in calendar 2027.
Primary risk: a sudden NAND pricing rollover that compresses margins before NBM contracts fully insulate the model.
Where SanDisk Trades Today vs Its Earnings Power SanDisk currently trades at roughly 24x forward EPS. Given fiscal 2026 revenue growth of 175.3% and a free cash flow yield of 4.51%, that multiple looks reasonable given the growth profile.
The 52-week range runs from $69.57 to $2,354.39, and shares now sit roughly 10% off the high. Over the trailing five years shares are up 3,548.46%. That path is unrepeatable, but current valuation still leaves room for the bull thesis if EPS keeps compounding.
Is $2,500 Realistic? Here’s My Take Reaching $2,500 needs a 43.7% move from $1,740. My verdict: a stretch, but a credible one.
Three things need to break right. NAND pricing must hold through calendar 2027, NBM agreements need to expand toward the two-thirds of bits target for FY28, and BiCS8 must ramp cleanly to majority production.
What derails it: a hyperscaler capex pause that softens datacenter demand before NBM floors kick in. Returns at this level shouldn’t be expected every year, but we’ve outlined the blueprint for how SanDisk could reach $2,500 in 2027.
All of that hyperscaler buildout has to be powered, cooled, and stored by somebody, and the suppliers behind it are worth knowing. We rounded up seven of them in a free AI infrastructure report.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Sandisk Corporation remains a Strong Buy, with robust fundamentals and disciplined NAND supply positioning it for long-term outperformance versus DRAM-focused peers. SNDK's price floors and contracted revenues provide significant downside protection, with 54% of annual revenues secured at minimum pricing over the next four years. Even in a severe market downturn, SNDK's valuation appears above current levels, with upside remaining if supply shocks are less severe than modeled.
Sandisk is growing rapidly, trades at just 10x forward free cash flow, and offers significant upside potential. SNDK expects to generate about $24 billion in free cash flow for fiscal 2027, with management returning 100% of excess FCF to shareholders. The company boasts a rock-solid balance sheet with no debt and cash making up about 2% of market cap, enhancing its margin of safety.
Memory chip stocks have been some of the biggest winners in 2026, but have given back some of their gains recently. Both Micron (MU +6.10%) and Sandisk (SNDK +11.90%) are down about 20% from their all-time high, but I think one of them is clearly the better buy.
Which one of these two makes the most sense to invest in right now? Let's take a look.
Image source: Getty Images.
Micron has a wider net than Sandisk There are two primary types of memory chips: NAND and DRAM. DRAM memory is used in computing units for quick information access and is only manufactured by Micron. NAND is used for long-term data storage, and both Sandisk and Micron make it. Each type of memory is in short supply, which is causing prices to skyrocket.
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There really isn't much difference between the NAND memory that Micron and Sandisk produce. As a result, it's a commoditized product, as an AI hyperscaler could easily swap out a storage device with Sandisk or Micron memory in it without losing performance. Economic laws govern commoditized products, and when demand is high and supply is low, prices skyrocket.
That's exactly what has happened in 2026, as the AI hyperscalers consumed all available memory capacity across both types of memory. In fact, Sandisk attributed two-thirds of its revenue gains in its recent quarter to price hikes versus one-third to increased production capacity. That's unlikely to change in the near future, as it takes some time for new production capacity to come online.
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Micron informed investors during its last earnings event that the "tightness" in the memory chip market will persist beyond 2027, leaving plenty of time for both of these two businesses to make a fortune.
But of these two, I prefer Micron's business model. With exposure to both types of memory, it can thrive on one segment of its business if the other gains enough production capacity to solve the demand shortfall. Sandisk is all or nothing on the NAND side of memory as being in short supply, which makes it more of a boom-or-bust investment.
As a result, I'm giving this category to Micron.
Winner: Micron.
Both companies are growing too fast to declare a winner In their most recent quarters, the growth rates these two produced are nothing short of incredible.
MU Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts
We'll get more information regarding Micron's current growth rate on Sept. 30, when it reports results, but as of right now, Sandisk has a slight lead. This is splitting hairs, though, as both growth rates are downright incredible.
As a result, I'll declare this category a tie.
Winner: Tie.
Micron stock is cheaper From a valuation standpoint, Micron stock is cheaper than Sandisk's.
MU PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
Although a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 7.26 versus 6.18 sounds like a small difference, when the valuations get this low, a percentage point difference makes much more of a difference than a numerical one. Micron is 15% cheaper than Sandisk from this perspective, which is a fairly wide margin considering that these two operate in similar industries and are growing at nearly the same pace.
I think this tips the scales in favor of Micron, making it the outright winner as well.
Winner: Micron.
Micron makes the most sense as an investment Although Sandisk has had a better 2026 overall, Micron makes for the better long-term stock pick. By being involved in both memory areas, it has a better chance of riding the demand wave longer than Sandisk. It also has immense upside if the market chooses to price it at an average market valuation, (which is more than double) making the stock a strong pick right now.
Friday's rally made Sandisk the S&P 500's top performer before its September 21 index promotion. Summary
Summary: Index demand meets a NAND business already growing revenue at triple-digit rates.
Sandisk Corporation SNDK, the flash-memory powerhouse, earned promotion to the S&P 100 before trading opens September 21. The announcement followed an explosive Friday session that sent the stock 11.9% higher to $1,740, making it the S&P 500's biggest gainer and pushing its market value to roughly $273 billion. U.S. markets were closed Monday.
The operating numbers are just as dramatic. Sandisk's latest quarterly results showed revenue rocketing 372% to $8.97 billion, gross margin expanding to 84.6% and data-center revenue more than doubling sequentially to $2.98 billion. Management also lifted the remaining share-repurchase authorization to $15.5 billion and projected as much as $10.8 billion in revenue for the coming quarter.
That repurchase capacity represents approximately 5.7% of Sandisk's market capitalization, while S&P 100 admission could unlock another wave of index-fund demand. Yet the GuruFocus chart flashes a clear warning beneath the spectacular growth: Sandisk's GF Score is only 51 out of 100, with strong growth and financial strength offset by weak GF Value and momentum readings. Sandisk has squeezed exceptional profits from the memory boom, but sustaining a $1,740 valuation will require its long-term customer agreements to hold firm when NAND supply eventually catches up.
Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.
SanDisk stock SNDK has gained 500% this year so far. While the memory market has been notoriously cyclical, SanDisk is attempting to reduce its exposure to the traditionally cyclical NAND memory market through a new long-term agreement business model.
Under these agreements, the company commits to delivering specified volumes of products over multiple years, while customers commit to purchasing those volumes.
Pricing can include fixed and variable components, with financial guarantees providing additional protection if customers fail to meet contractual obligations.
According to the company’s fiscal 2026 10-K, SanDisk expects these new business models, or NBMs, to become its predominant way of doing business.
The company said the structure should improve revenue predictability, production planning and supply assurance, although it does not eliminate risks related to demand, market conditions or execution.
SanDisk has signed multi-year agreements with eight data-center customers, including three US hyperscalers.
The agreements have a minimum total contract value of $93.9 billion.
They are expected to cover 50% of the company’s bit shipments in fiscal 2027 and 67% in fiscal 2028.
The company’s CFO Luis Visoso said the agreements include pricing floors and ceilings, with floor pricing supporting gross margins of around 80%.
The contracts therefore provide SanDisk with greater visibility into both future volumes and profitability.
SanDisk also benefits from its long-standing manufacturing partnership with Kioxia Holdings.
The companies have extended their joint venture framework at Kioxia’s Yokkaichi plant in Japan through December 2034.
The partnership, which has operated for more than 25 years, allows the companies to jointly develop technologies and manufacture flash-based memory wafers.
Their combined manufacturing footprint accounts for 33% of global wafer production.
The company has attributed its capital efficiency to research and development innovation and the reuse of manufacturing tools.
This structure could help SanDisk manage the capital requirements associated with expanding memory production while sharing manufacturing resources with Kioxia.
SanDisk is also pursuing opportunities tied to artificial intelligence through high-bandwidth flash, or HBF.
The company and SK hynix jointly established the HBF standard to address memory-capacity constraints associated with high-bandwidth memory.
According to SanDisk’s investor presentation, HBF can provide eight to 16 times higher memory capacity at a given bandwidth. The technology is particularly aimed at high-context AI inference workloads.
SanDisk has completed the design of its first HBF chip and remains on track for a launch in 2027, followed by mass production in 2028.
The technology has received support from major cloud and AI companies, including Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Tenstorrent. Nvidia adoption remains pending.
Importantly, the potential contribution from HBF is not included in SanDisk’s current fiscal 2028 to fiscal 2030 projections, which target a mid-to-high-teens revenue compound annual growth rate.
From a valuation perspective, SanDisk trades at a higher forward EV/EBITDA multiple than its memory semiconductor peers.
The company’s one-year forward multiple is cited at 6.3 times, compared with a peer average of 4.1 times.
Lynx Research has also issued bullish price targets, setting a $2,450 target for SanDisk and $1,325 for Micron.
The firm argued that the extreme volatility seen in May and June had eased, with institutional buying becoming more deliberate.
Overall, SanDisk’s long-term contracts, manufacturing partnership with Kioxia and potential HBF opportunity provide several factors investors are watching as the company seeks to balance memory-market cyclicality with rising AI-related demand.
Compass Financial Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK – Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 364 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $828,000.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Sandisk during the second quarter worth about $23,408,732,000. State Street Corp acquired a new stake in Sandisk during the third quarter valued at approximately $491,053,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $297,293,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $518,889,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $190,425,000.
Trending Headlines about Sandisk Here are the key news stories impacting Sandisk this week:
Positive Sentiment: AI-driven memory demand is the main catalyst. Nvidia’s reported $12.9 billion acquisition of Hugging Face reinforced expectations that expanding AI data centers will require significantly more NAND storage. SanDisk rose alongside Micron and other AI-related semiconductor stocks. SanDisk Shares Surge Following Nvidia’s Hugging Face Deal Positive Sentiment: Analysts see substantial upside. Lynx Research set a $2,450 target for SNDK, while other bullish research points to accelerating NAND pricing, supply-and-demand advantages and strong AI-related growth. Zacks also maintained a Rank #1, or Strong Buy, view. Lynx Research Memory Stock Price Targets Positive Sentiment: SanDisk’s latest results provide fundamental support: earnings exceeded estimates, revenue rose 371.6% year over year, and management guided to $44–$46 in fiscal first-quarter 2027 EPS. The company’s $14 billion share-repurchase authorization may further support the stock. Neutral Sentiment: The broader semiconductor group is strong, but macro conditions remain mixed. A hot employment report pushed Treasury yields and rate-hike expectations higher, creating volatility for high-growth technology stocks. SanDisk will present at Citi’s and Goldman Sachs’ technology conferences on September 8–9, potentially providing additional guidance. SanDisk Investor Conference Participation Negative Sentiment: Investors continue to face risks from the memory industry’s cyclicality, elevated valuation and rising Chinese competition. Progress by China’s CXMT and other domestic producers could pressure SanDisk’s pricing and market share. A company insider also sold $915,360 of shares under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, although the sale was relatively small compared with the remaining holding. China Memory Market Share Concerns Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several equities analysts recently commented on SNDK shares. New Street Research set a $3,000.00 target price on Sandisk in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Sandisk in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Sandisk from $2,100.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. UBS Group reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $1,750.00 price objective on shares of Sandisk in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Sandisk in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $1,998.14. Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on SNDK
Sandisk Stock Performance NASDAQ SNDK opened at $1,740.00 on Monday. Sandisk Corporation has a 1-year low of $63.74 and a 1-year high of $2,354.39. The company has a 50 day moving average of $1,543.33 and a 200-day moving average of $1,289.76. The firm has a market cap of $254.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.87, a PEG ratio of 0.17 and a beta of 5.17.
Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $39.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $33.28 by $5.97. The business had revenue of $8.96 billion for the quarter. Sandisk had a return on equity of 87.84% and a net margin of 56.47%.The firm’s revenue was up 371.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.29 earnings per share. Sandisk has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 44.000-46.000 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Sandisk Corporation will post 208.92 earnings per share for the current year.
Sandisk declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 5th that allows the company to repurchase $14.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to purchase up to 6.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.
Insider Transactions at Sandisk In other Sandisk news, insider Bernard Shek sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,525.60, for a total value of $915,360.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 29,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,591,030.40. The trade was a 1.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,800 shares of company stock valued at $2,865,456. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.
Sandisk Profile (Free Report)
SanDisk Corporation offers flash storage solutions. The Company designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using flash memory, controller, firmware and software technologies. The Company operates through flash memory storage products segment. Its solutions include a range of solid state drives (SSD), embedded products, removable cards, universal serial bus (USB), drives, wireless media drives, digital media players, and wafers and components. It offers SSDs for client computing applications, which encompass desktop computers, notebook computers, tablets and other computing devices.
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Sandisk (SNDK +11.90%) earned $6.9 billion of net income in its latest quarter, largely because memory prices went on an extraordinary run. The market clearly doubts the run can last.
The growth stock still sits more than a quarter below its 52-week high. And the stock costs only about 8 times expected fiscal 2027 earnings. A price like that assumes much of today's profit won't survive the cycle.
The flash memory specialist's answer is written into contracts. It now has 10 long-term supply agreements with eight data center and edge customers, and they are expected to produce at least $93.9 billion of revenue over their lives -- assuming prices settle at their contractual floors. For scale, fiscal 2026 revenue, up 175% year over year, was $20.25 billion.
How much downside protection does a floor like that buy?
Image source: Getty Images.
A $93.9 billion minimumThe agreements (Sandisk calls them New Business Model agreements) commit the company to deliver, and its customers to buy, set volumes of flash memory over multiyear terms -- more than four years on a weighted-average basis, and up to five. Pricing combines fixed and variable elements, and the variable part is subject to floors and ceilings. The $93.9 billion is the minimum those terms produce if every variable price lands at its floor. It isn't an annual figure or a conventional backlog -- it's contracted revenue spread across the agreements' lives. The agreements also carry financial guarantees (customer cash deposits and other instruments totaling $16.5 billion) in case a buyer walks away. And on the company's August earnings call, chief financial officer Luis Visoso said Sandisk expects them to cover more than half of its bits (the volume of memory shipped) in fiscal 2027 (the fiscal year that began in July), and about two-thirds the following year.
Notably, the floor assumption cuts only one way. If market prices hold above the floors, revenue comes in higher, up to the contracts' ceilings.
The contracted book is still building, too. Remaining performance obligations (contracted product not yet delivered) went from $41.6 billion in early April to $59.8 billion by July 3. And two agreements signed after the fiscal year closed, with a combined contract value the annual report puts at $31.3 billion, aren't in that total.
How bad could the next bust be?Sandisk's recent history shows what an unprotected downturn looks like. In the final quarter of fiscal 2025, the company generated just $1.9 billion of revenue, ran a 26.2% gross margin, and posted a small net loss. Four quarters later, revenue was $8.97 billion, gross margin was 84.6%, and net income came to $6.9 billion.
Most of that swing came from price, not volume. Management said higher pricing accounted for about two-thirds of the quarter's growth from the prior quarter. And its outlook asks for more of the same: fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue of $10.3 billion to $10.8 billion, with non-GAAP gross margin expected to hold between 83% and 85%.
The floors are aimed at the reverse trip. In fiscal 2025, nothing stood between Sandisk's revenue and a falling spot price.
If the cycle turns now, more than half of this fiscal year's volumes can't reprice below their contractual minimums, whatever the spot market does. That, I'd argue, is the biggest change in Sandisk's story.
"We expect attractive margins even at floor pricing," Visoso said on the August call.
A price floor isn't a profit floorHowever, it's worth noting what that promise covers. Attractive margins at the floor make a case for staying profitable -- not a case that an 84.6% gross margin survives a downturn. In fact, the multi-year model management presented at its August investor day assumes non-GAAP (adjusted) gross margin settles near 80% for fiscal 2028 through fiscal 2030. And management hasn't said how far below today's prices the floors sit.
The rest of the business has no floor at all. Nearly half of this year's bits still sell at whatever the market pays. And no downturn has tested the structure, or customers' willingness to keep paying above-market minimums through one.
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
78/100
Today's Change
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11.90
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185.01
Current Price
$
1,740.00
Ultimately, the downside case shrinks, but it doesn't go away. A memory crash would still hit nearly half of Sandisk's volumes at full force, and it would still pull contracted pricing down toward the floors.
What it arguably can't do anymore is drag the company back to $1.9 billion quarters and a net loss, as long as customers honor their agreements.
At about 8 times expected fiscal 2027 earnings, I think the stock is priced for a steep decline in earnings, and the contracts make the harshest versions of that decline harder to reach. Still, I'd like to see one quarter where memory pricing falls and margins hold before treating the floors as proven. Until then, I'm not a buyer.
Sandisk (SNDK +11.90%) stock has been on a tear over the past year, with shares of the company rising by an incredible 2,400% during this period, as of this writing.
The semiconductor stock's stunning rise is justified by its phenomenal growth. The NAND flash storage products that the company manufactures are in terrific demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, a trend that's likely to continue over the coming year. In fact, I won't be surprised to see Sandisk stock jumping significantly higher over the next 12 months.
Let's see where this high-flying AI stock could be after a year.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Sandisk stock is headed higher, according to Wall StreetWall Street believes that Sandisk still has room to jump higher. This is evident from the stock's 12-month median price target of $2,200, which suggests potential upside of 26% from current levels. What's worth noting is that 25 of the 31 analysts covering Sandisk suggest buying the stock.
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
78/100
Today's Change
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11.90
%) $
185.01
Current Price
$
1,740.00
However, I think that Wall Street is underestimating Sandisk's upside potential. The NAND flash market that Sandisk serves is poised to keep growing next year. Market research firm TrendForce sees the NAND flash industry's revenue rising almost fourfold in 2026 to $271 billion from $71 billion last year. It anticipates another 40% increase in the NAND flash industry's revenue in 2027 to $379.4 billion.
Not surprisingly, Sandisk is confident of maintaining its phenomenal growth rate in fiscal 2027. The company released its fiscal Q4 2026 results (for the year ended July 3) on Aug. 5. Its quarterly revenue surged 372% year over year to $8.96 billion. What's more, the supply constrained environment in the NAND flash market led to an eye-popping 135x year-over-year increase in non-GAAP earnings per share to $39.25.
The company expects $10.3-$10.8 billion in revenue for the current quarter. That points to a potential year-over-year revenue increase of 357% at the midpoint. Meanwhile, the $45.00 earnings-per-share estimate for the current quarter suggests a potential 37x year-over-year jump in its bottom line. The guidance suggests that Sandisk's exponential growth is here to stay.
This also explains why analysts have increased their revenue and earnings per share forecasts for the current fiscal year.
SNDK Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts
Why Sandisk's returns could be higher than expectedSandisk's earnings could triple in fiscal 2027 on the back of a 142% jump in the top line. However, the company's fiscal Q1 forecast suggests it could exceed those numbers.
A key reason analysts anticipate Sandisk's growth will slow as the year progresses is a potential increase in NAND flash supply next year. Specifically, TrendForce predicts that NAND flash supply could overtake demand in the second half of 2027. For comparison, the NAND flash market could remain undersupplied by 4% to 5% in 2026.
However, it remains to be seen if that's actually the case. Major memory manufacturers have been prioritizing the production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) owing to higher margins and robust demand. As a result, NAND flash wafer starts at Samsung and SK Hynix, two of the leading players in NAND flash, dropped in 2025.
SK Hynix's NAND flash output dropped to 1.7 million wafers in 2025 from 1.9 million in 2024, according to market research firm Omdia. Samsung's output also fell slightly to 4.9 million wafers from 4.68 million wafers over this period. These companies account for 47% of the NAND flash market, and their production cuts could keep the market undersupplied even in 2027.
So, I won't be surprised to see Sandisk's growth exceeding expectations in fiscal 2027 (which will end in July next year). However, even if its earnings per share jump by 3x to $214.10, as seen in the chart earlier, and it trades at even 15 times earnings at that time, a significant discount to the S&P 500 index's forward earnings multiple of 21, this tech stock could soar to $3,211 over the next 12 months. That indicates potential upside of 84%.
Sandisk's shares have pulled back by 25% from their recent 52-week high. This gives savvy investors a nice buying opportunity, which they should consider capitalizing on due to its healthy upside potential.
Sandisk's 8 multiyear deals with datacenter players provide substantial revenue visibility, covering 50% of FY27 and 67% of FY28 bit shipments. Sandisk's Kioxia joint venture lowers capital intensity through shared technology development, manufacturing tools, and NAND production capacity through 2034. High-bandwidth flash (HBF) could address AI inference memory-capacity constraints, with 2027 product launch plans creating upside beyond Sandisk's current long-term financial outlook.
Zámořské akciové trhy zakončily dnešní obchodování v záporném teritoriu. Index Dow Jones klesl o 0,51 % na 53 414,25 bodu, S&P 500 odepsal 0,38 % na 7 718,60 bodu a technologický Nasdaq Composite ztratil 0,29 % na 26 506,99 bodu. Hlavním impulsem k poklesu byla překvapivě silná data z amerického trhu práce, která zvýšila pravděpodobnost, že centrální banka v září zvýší úrokové sazby.
Mezi sektory indexu S&P 500 se nejvíce dařilo průmyslu se ziskem 0,4 %, informačním technologiím s růstem o 0,2 % a utilitám, které stagnovaly. Naopak nejvýraznější pokles zaznamenala zbytná spotřeba se ztrátou 1,3 %, následovaná zdravotní péčí a energiemi se shodným poklesem o 1 %. Z jednotlivých akcií výrazně posílily společnosti Sandisk Corp (SNDK) o 12 %, KLA Corp (KLAC) o 7,3 %, Marvell Technology (MRVL) o 7,1 %, Coherent Corp (COHR) o 6,6 % a NRG Energy (NRG) o 6,4 %. Na opačné straně trhu se ocitla společnost Lululemon Athletica (LULU), jež po zhoršení celoročního výhledu propadla o 17 %. Výrazně ztrácely také společnosti Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) o 17 %, Autodesk (ADSK) o 8,3 %, Adobe (ADBE) o 6,7 % a Equifax (EFX) o 6,4 %.
Očekávání přísnější měnové politiky poslalo nahoru výnosy amerických vládních dluhopisů. Výnos dvouletého dluhopisu vzrostl na 4,37 %, výnos desetiletého dluhopisu stoupl na 4,78 %. Euro vůči americkému dolaru mírně oslabilo o 0,1 % na 1,1614 USD a japonský jen klesl o 0,3 % na 156,27 JPY za dolar. Ropa WTI mírně posílila o 0,1 % na 91,41 USD za barel, zatímco spotové zlato odepsalo 0,9 % na 4 432,58 USD za trojskou unci.
Index Dow Jones -0,51 % na 53414,25 b.
S&P 500 -0,38 % na 7718,6 b.
Nasdaq Composite -0,29 % na 26506,99 b.
Index S&P 500 -0,38 % na 7718,6 b. Nejsilnější sektory S&P Změna Nejslabší sektory S&P Změna Průmysl +0,4 % Zbytná spotřeba -1,3 % Informační technologie +0,2 % Zdravotní péče -1 % Utility +0 % Energie -1 % Nejsilnější akcie S&P Změna Nejslabší akcie S&P Změna Sandisk Corp (SNDK) +12 % Lululemon Athletica (LULU) -17 % KLA Corp (KLAC) +7,3 % Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) -17 % Marvell Technology (MRVL) +7,1 % Autodesk (ADSK) -8,3 % Coherent Corp (COHR) +6,6 % Adobe (ADBE) -6,7 % NRG Energy (NRG) +6,4 % Equifax (EFX) -6,4 %
Daniel Marván
Fio banka, a.s.
Prohlášení
It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Sandisk Corporation (SNDK - Free Report) . Shares have added about 23.6% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500.
But investors have to be wondering, will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Sandisk Corporation due for a pullback? Well, first let's take a quick look at its latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the recent drivers for Sandisk Corporation before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late.
SNDK Q4 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Rise on Datacenter GrowthSandisk reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 non-GAAP earnings of $39.25 per share that beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 14.63% and jumped 68% sequentially. The company reported earnings of 29 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.
Revenues surged 371.6% year over year to $8.97 billion and beat the consensus mark by 8%. Sequentially, revenues surged 51%. Stronger pricing, higher volumes and rapid Datacenter growth drove the upside, with Datacenter revenues hitting $2.98 billion in the reported quarter.
SNDK’s Revenue Growth Reflects Pricing StrengthSandisk said roughly one-third of the sequential increase came from higher volumes, while two-thirds came from higher pricing. The mix shift toward higher-value customers also supported the company’s revenue expansion. The top line also exceeded management’s prior guidance range of $7.75-$8.25 billion.
Datacenter revenues surged 103% sequentially. Growth reflected broader adoption of compute-focused TLC enterprise solid-state drives across hyperscale and AI infrastructure customers. Sandisk also began revenue shipments of its QLC Stargate platform, expanding its portfolio for high-capacity AI data lakes.
Edge revenues were $5.43 billion, up 48% sequentially and 392% year over year. Management highlighted demand shifting toward AI-enabled devices and premium configurations, which support higher storage content in smartphones and PCs. Consumer revenues fell 32% sequentially and 5% year over year to $556 million.
SNDK’s New Business Models Improve VisibilitySandisk has signed new business model agreements with eight Datacenter and Edge customers. These contracts have a weighted average duration of more than four years and include fixed and variable pricing elements with floors and ceilings.
The agreements represent minimum contracted revenues of $93.9 billion at floor pricing. Remaining performance obligations were $59.8 billion at quarter-end and would have been $91.1 billion including two agreements signed afterward. Financial guarantees totaled $16.5 billion. Sandisk expects the contracts to cover more than half of fiscal 2027 bits and roughly two-thirds of fiscal 2028 bits.
Sandisk’s Margins Expand on Operating LeverageNon-GAAP gross margin expanded to 84.6% from 78.4% in the previous quarter and 26.4% reported in the year-ago quarter. The result exceeded management’s 79-81% guidance range.
Non-GAAP operating expenses were $484 million, representing 5.4% of revenues, compared with 7.5% in the previous quarter. Year over year, operating expenses increased 20%.
Non-GAAP operating margin rose to 79.2% from 70.9%, reflecting strong revenue growth and cost leverage.
Sandisk’s Cash Flow Supports Larger BuybacksSandisk ended the quarter with $4.76 billion in cash and cash equivalents after repurchasing 2.836 million shares for $4.5 billion. The board authorized an additional $14 billion repurchase program, lifting remaining authorization to $15.5 billion.
Cash flow from operations was $7.13 billion. Adjusted free cash flow totaled $5.04 billion, excluding $1.94 billion of customer prepayments and deposits related to the new business models. Gross capital expenditures were $562 million, or 6.3% of revenues.
SNDK’s Q1 Outlook Calls for Further GrowthFor the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Sandisk expects revenues of $10.3-$10.8 billion. Sequential growth is projected to come from both bit growth and modest price increases.
Non-GAAP gross margin is expected between 83% and 85%, with operating expenses of $520-$540 million. Non-GAAP earnings are expected at $44-$46 per share.
Sandisk expects fiscal 2027 sellable bit growth in the mid-teens as it carries higher inventory to support customer commitments.
How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?It turns out, estimates review have trended upward during the past month.
The consensus estimate has shifted 11.17% due to these changes.
VGM ScoresAt this time, Sandisk Corporation has a strong Growth Score of A, though it is lagging a lot on the Momentum Score front with a D. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock was allocated a score of C on the value side, putting it in the middle 20% for value investors.
Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of A. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.
OutlookEstimates have been broadly trending upward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions looks promising. It comes with little surprise Sandisk Corporation has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). We expect an above average return from the stock in the next few months.
Performance of an Industry PlayerSandisk Corporation belongs to the Zacks Computer- Storage Devices industry. Another stock from the same industry, Teradata (TDC - Free Report) , has gained 6.8% over the past month. More than a month has passed since the company reported results for the quarter ended June 2026.
Teradata reported revenues of $410 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +0.5%. EPS of $0.69 for the same period compares with $0.47 a year ago.
Teradata is expected to post earnings of $0.58 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of -19.4%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed +6.9%.
Teradata has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) based on the overall direction and magnitude of estimate revisions. Additionally, the stock has a VGM Score of A.
U.S. equities slipped from Thursday’s rebound highs by midday Friday after a blowout August payroll report forced traders to price in a genuine chance the Federal Reserve raises rates this month.
Beneath a quiet index tape, the rotation was violent: memory and semiconductor names ripped while software and discretionary retail were gutted.
The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in August, nearly triple the 55,000 consensus and a sharp reversal from July’s upwardly revised 21,000 increase.
• Astera Labs stock is charging ahead with explosive momentum. What’s fueling ALAB momentum?
President Donald Trump is pressing for cuts while the rates market moved the opposite direction.
Markets now price a roughly 52% probability of a 25-basis-point increase in the federal funds rate this month, up sharply from Thursday.
Across U.S. equity markets by midday Friday, losses were shallow, but the internals were anything but calm.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% to 7,725.16, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 250 points, or 0.5%, to 53,436.22.
The Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.3% to 29,408.11, cushioned by chips.
Gold gave back ground as the dollar firmed on the jobs data, falling 0.8% to $4,437 an ounce after briefly cracking lower post-print. Silver dropped 1.2% to $66.14.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) fell 1.8% to below $80,000.
Friday’s Performance In Major U.S. IndicesAccording to the Benzinga Pro platform:
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) fell 0.3%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) slid 0.5%. The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) edged up 0.1%. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) gained 0.2%. Memory Melts Up, SaaS Bleeds and a Credit Score Monopoly BreaksThe Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) was the best performer, up 0.7%, followed by the Industrials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLI) at 0.4%.
The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) was the clear laggard, down 1.4%, dragged by the day’s retail wreckage, with the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC) off 1%, the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLV) down 0.8% and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLE) 0.7% lower alongside softer crude.
At the industry level, the U.S. Global Jets ETF (NYSE:JETS) led with a 1.6% gain as lower fuel costs fed through, and the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (BATS:ITB) added 0.6%.
The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) was the worst industry group, sinking 1.9% with bullion, while the SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (NYSE:KIE) fell 0.9%.
Semiconductors and storage were the day’s engine.
Astera Labs Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB) topped the Russell 1000 with a 12% surge to $316.86, riding a broad AI-connectivity bid that has analysts carrying an average price target near $390 on the stock.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) jumped 10.3% to $1,714.87 as the NAND pricing cycle accelerated.
Semtech Corp. (NASDAQ:SMTC) climbed 9.1% with no confirmed catalyst on the day, extending gains that followed Stifel’s price-target hike to $157 and Morgan Stanley’s call on accelerating AI optical momentum.
KLA Corp. (NASDAQ:KLAC) rose 8.2% after Susquehanna lifted its 2026 and 2027 estimates and flagged wafer-fab equipment spending running as high as $300 billion on longer semiconductor-capital-equipment backlogs.
Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) gained 7.3%, moving with the AI server and storage complex.
Peers followed: TTM Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) added 6.9%, Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) rose 7.0%, Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) and Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) each rose about 4.5%, Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC) advanced 4.4% and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) gained 4.1%.
Software went the other way, hard.
Guidewire Software Inc. (NYSE:GWRE) was the worst name in the index, collapsing 21% to $160.19. The insurance-software vendor reported fiscal fourth-quarter results after Thursday’s close that topped revenue expectations, but a price-to-earnings multiple above 100 left no room for anything less than a clean beat on subscription growth, and the stock had already faded from an intraday high above $204.
Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) fell 7.9% with no confirmed catalyst on the day — its quarter was reported back on Aug. 27 — making it a casualty of the broader de-rating in design and enterprise software on AI disruption fears.
Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) dropped 6.3% after naming insider Anil Chakravarthy chief executive days ahead of earnings, a continuity pick that did little to answer questions about its AI strategy.
Synopsys Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) lost 5.4%, Zscaler Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) fell 4.7% and Workday Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) slid 4%.
UiPath Inc. (NYSE:PATH) tumbled 16.7% despite delivering a clean quarter Wednesday evening. Revenue rose 13% to $410.3 million, beating consensus by roughly $12.5 million, and the company logged its fourth straight quarter of GAAP profitability with $31.6 million in operating income.
The problem sat in the guide: third-quarter revenue of $440 million to $445 million implies roughly 8% growth, about half the pace just delivered.
Fair Isaac Corp. (NYSE:FICO) plunged 16.6% to $933.80 after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to approve all lenders to use VantageScore, effectively ending the company’s mortgage credit-scoring monopoly. Mortgage originations account for roughly 71% of Fair Isaac’s B2B Scores revenue.
The credit bureaus fell with it as Pulte renewed his criticism of scoring costs: TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) lost 7.1% and Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) fell 6.3%.
Retail split down the middle.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) crashed 17.5% to $100.49 after second-quarter revenue fell 4% to $2.4 billion and comparable sales dropped 10%. Reported EPS of $2.92 cleared estimates, but $134.5 million in tariff refunds contributed 86 cents of that.
Management cut full-year revenue guidance to $10.35 billion to $10.5 billion against $11.03 billion consensus and EPS to $9.48 to $9.73 versus $10.84, with third-quarter revenue guided to a 10% to 11% decline.
Interim CEO Meghan Frank pointed to negative social media commentary and a greater-than-expected slowdown in core categories including leggings.
The mirror image was Five Below Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE), up 6.9% to $256.62 and still climbing days after its print. The discounter grew net sales 22.9% to $1.26 billion with comparable sales up 14.1%, delivered adjusted EPS of $1.68 against $1.33 consensus, expanded gross margin to 35.6%, and raised full-year revenue guidance to $5.63 billion to $5.71 billion and adjusted EPS to $9.83 to $10.31, both well ahead of the Street.
Elsewhere in the red, T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) fell 3.9% and rate-sensitive high-multiple names including Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) and Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) each shed close to 4%.
Friday’s Russell 1000 Top GainersFriday’s Russell 1000 Top LosersPhoto: Shutterstock
Memory stocks are surging into a rate-hike headwind that crushed the rest of the chip complex, and whether that split reflects a durable pricing cycle or an overstretched trade is the question every NAND investor needs to answer before next…
Memory and storage names are catching a strong bid Friday morning even as the broader market softens. The Roundhill Memory ETF (CBOE:DRAM) is up 4% to $58.45, and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is down 0.45% to $769.66. This puts the memory/storage segment in a lonely leadership spot on a tape that’s otherwise leaning red.
SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK | SNDK Price Prediction) stock is up 8% to $1,686 in Friday morning trading, leading the group by a wide margin. SanDisk stock was up 555% year to date through Thursday’s close, so today’s gain lands on top of an already crowded, high-beta position. SanDisk’s peers are also up, with Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock rising 5% to $1,003.22 and Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) rallying 4% to $460.19, which reads more like a cycle bid than a single-name squeeze.
Sector Flow Explains the Move SanDisk announced no company-specific news this morning. The session move is sector flow rather than a fresh headline, and the macro setup is what makes it interesting. The Labor Department reported that employers added 162,000 jobs in August against a forecast of 65,000, with the unemployment rate holding at 4.1%.
That’s a print strong enough to push rate expectations the wrong way for long-duration growth names, and memory is rallying into it anyway. According to CME FedWatch, expectations for a September rate hike rose to 60.2% from 49.4% on Thursday. What separates this group from the rest of the chip complex is that its earnings have already landed, which is the kind of near-term cash generation that holds a bid when the discount rate moves against everything else.
What the August Quarter Still Says SanDisk reported its fiscal fourth-quarter results on August 5. Revenue at SanDisk hit $8.96 billion, up 371.6% year over year, with adjusted earnings of $39.25 per share against a consensus estimate of $33.28. GAAP gross margin at SanDisk reached 84.6%, a level that reflects genuine NAND pricing power on top of the volume ramp.
Datacenter revenue for SanDisk rose 437% year over year for the full fiscal year. SanDisk guided fiscal first-quarter revenue to a range of $10.30 billion to $10.80 billion, above what the company just delivered, which points to a pricing cycle that hadn’t yet rolled over as of the report. The honest answer to whether NAND pricing is still accelerating is that the last hard evidence says yes, and today’s session doesn’t add to that read either way.
Peers Anchor the Cycle Read Micron Technology and Western Digital are the two other large listed ways to hold the same storage and memory pricing exposure, and how they trade alongside SanDisk is the better tell on whether this is a durable cycle bid. Micron flagged tight DRAM and NAND industry conditions persisting beyond calendar 2027 on its June call, with Strategic Customer Agreements locking in multi-year volumes at floor pricing that management said would still print gross margins well above prior peak margins.
Western Digital, now a pure-play hard-disk-drive business after the SanDisk separation, has framed AI inference and agentic AI as durable multi-year drivers of high-capacity storage demand, with blended average price per terabyte climbing into the high teens year over year in its June quarter. If the group stays tightly correlated on up days, the cycle read holds. A divergence where SanDisk pulls away from the peers on flow would strengthen the squeeze read.
What to Watch Next Traders can watch for whether relative strength across the memory-and-storage group holds through next week’s tape, particularly on days when broader rate expectations tighten further. The setup cuts both ways. SanDisk’s guided range is a company forecast rather than a delivered result, and the current-quarter print is the next data point that resolves the pricing question.
Investors sizing their SNDK stock exposure here should keep their positions modest given how much has already been priced in year to date, since a turn in memory pricing would cut as quickly as it lifted. Chasing a name that’s up 555% YTD means traders should consider abiding by some crucial rules, particularly the ten we spelled out in a free breakout guide. For SanDisk stock, the bull case rests on delivered earnings, expanding margins, and a raised outlook; the bear case rests on how crowded the trade has become at these levels.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Shares of Sandisk (SNDK +9.29%) charged sharply higher on Friday, jumping as much as 8.9%. As of 11:02 a.m. ET, the stock was still up 8.5%.
The semiconductor specialist rallied on news of a notable acquisition by an artificial intelligence (AI) peer.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Let the chips fall where they may Rumors have run rampant in recent days that Nvidia (NVDA +1.01%) was courting open-source AI and machine learning development platform Hugging Face. The speculation was put to bed late yesterday when the chipmaker confirmed the acquisition.
Nvidia will pay $12.9 billion for the AI model platform, in what many are calling a defensive move. In a blog post, Nvidia noted that Hugging Face has extensive reach in the AI developer community, boasting more than 18 million users, 3 million models, 500,000 data sets, and more than 1 million applications. Moreover, "more than 200,000 companies use the platform to discover, evaluate, customize, and deploy AI."
Furthermore, CEO Jensen Huang noted that more than half of Nvidia's sales are "largely driven by open models." Indeed, the company is already the largest contributor of open models and data to Hugging Face, so Nvidia is taking the relationship to the next level.
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
78/100
Today's Change
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Current Price
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So, what does this have to do with Sandisk? While the connection is tenuous, it is meaningful. Nvidia's chipmaking business has been supercharged over the past few years by the broad adoption of generative AI and the ongoing development of AI agents. Demand for Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs), which are critical to running AI in data centers, has also fueled demand for Sandisk's NAND flash memory chips, which are also crucial components.
Generally speaking, what's good for Nvidia is also positive for Sandisk, which is why the Hugging Face acquisition is driving Sandisk stock higher today.
On an unrelated note, it didn't hurt that during its earnings call earlier this week, Dell Technologies COO Jeffrey Clarke said that the supply imbalance for AI servers came down to one thing: memory. "The constraints remain the same," he said. "DRAM, DRAM, DRAM, followed by NAND, NAND, NAND."
And at 23 times earnings and just 8 times forward earnings, Sandisk stock is still attractively priced.
Things are going very well for Sandisk (SNDK +5.32%) and its shareholders. Soaring demand for memory from AI data centers has caused a shortage, driving memory prices much higher.
Sandisk's sales and earnings have skyrocketed as a result, sending the stock up 2,900% over the past year. Yes, you read that correctly: 2,900%.
While there's likely more growth ahead for the stock as memory demand and prices continue to rise, it's unlikely that returns over the next few years will be anywhere near as impressive as those of the past 12 months. Here's why.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Sandisk's future may not match its past I'll say up front that I think Sandisk stock is still worth owning, and that if you're considering buying it right now, it's probably a good idea. Western Digital, which bought it in 2016, spun it back off in early 2025, and Sandisk has operated as an independent, publicly traded company since then.
Sandisk sells NAND flash memory, which is heavily used in AI data centers. The world's largest tech companies are still ramping up their capital expenditures for AI, with spending expected to rise from $750 billion this year to $1 trillion next year.
This is causing a huge surge in demand for the memory solutions that Sandisk sells, and that sent the company's revenue, earnings, and margins soaring over the past year. While Sandisk's revenue surged by 175% to $20.2 billion in its recently completed fiscal 2026, its non-GAAP net income rose from just $2.99 per share to $70.88 per share.
What's more, Sandisk's margins skyrocketed from just 30% in fiscal 2025 to 71.5% the following year.
That's impressive and rapid growth across every metric, and it has all been fueled by AI. However, with such phenomenal growth already behind it, it likely won't be able to deliver similar relative gains, even though strong demand for AI memory persists.
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
78/100
Today's Change
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Sandisk will continue growing over the next three years, just not as much "The memory industry has been structurally transformed by the proliferation of AI," Sandisk CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said earlier this year. "We are only in the early innings of the significant innovation and productivity that can be unleashed in every part of the global economy over time."
A study from Counterpoint Research predicts that memory shortages will last through 2027 and even beyond. Former Apple CEO Tim Cook called the memory shortage a "100-year flood" because of the challenge it poses to consumer tech companies.
Clearly, we're still in a unique period for the memory market. This will likely keep Sandisk's margins elevated for a while, making its earnings impressive for the foreseeable future. With Sandisk stock trading at just 20 times its trailing 12-month earnings -- compared to the tech sector's average of about 35 -- the company's shares look cheap right now.
All this makes Sandisk stock worth owning. Just don't expect it to match the returns of the past 12 months. That would simply be too high a bar for it to clear.
Buy MU. DRAM and NAND pricing is firm (DRAM +57% QoQ, NAND +70% QoQ) and Micron is gaining share (DRAM 24%, NAND 15%). The market is treating memory like AI infrastructure: easing Treasury yields remove the multiple-compression pressure, while the real driver is AI-driven memory bottlenecks. HBM demand also survives the “less memory per chip” scare because Nvidia’s Rubin Ultra could ship more accelerators, keeping total HBM consumption rising; UBS lifted HBM ASP growth to ~79% YoY.
Key Risk: AI accelerators ultimately use far less HBM per system than expected, collapsing total memory consumption even if chip counts rise.
SNDK (SanDisk)
Buy SNDK. NAND pricing strength is the direct catalyst, and Bernstein’s thesis is supported by new long-term supply agreements with stronger pricing protections and upfront commitments—reducing earnings downside when the NAND cycle turns. With server/storage SSD demand improving and constrained supply keeping pricing power elevated, the stock has a clear path to higher fiscal 2027 earnings estimates.
Key Risk: New NAND capacity ramps faster than demand, breaking pricing power despite the contract protections.
Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) and SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) shares were back in favour again ahead of Friday’s opening bell, with the memory stocks rising 2% and 3%.
Micron gained 1.9% in premarket trading and SanDisk advanced 3% as Treasury yields eased ahead of the August jobs report.
Part of the rebound is macro relief. But the stronger argument sits underneath the move: DRAM and NAND pricing remains firm, AI infrastructure is consuming enormous amounts of memory, and analysts continue raising estimates.
Lower bond yields matter because Micron and SanDisk increasingly trade like high-growth AI stocks. When yields rise, investors become less willing to pay premium multiples for future earnings.
Friday’s easing therefore removed pressure that hit semiconductors earlier in the week.
Yet the memory cycle remained strong. Barron’s reported that global DRAM revenue jumped 57% quarter on quarter in Q2, while NAND revenue surged 70%. Micron increased its DRAM market share to 24% and its NAND share to 15%.
Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh has argued that memory remains a “key bottleneck” across the semiconductor supply chain, according to The Fly.
The firm maintained an Outperform rating on Micron pointing to elevated aggregate DRAM demand.
One concern has been whether future AI accelerators could require less high-bandwidth memory per chip.
UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri argues that conclusion may be too simplistic.
MarketWatch reported that Arcuri believes Nvidia’s changes to future Rubin Ultra configurations could allow it to ship more accelerators. If each chip carries less memory but far more chips are produced, total HBM consumption can still rise.
UBS raised its forecast for HBM average selling-price growth to about 79% year on year from 67%, while pointing to stronger NAND conditions as server and storage SSD demand improves.
That matters for Micron. Its AI opportunity increasingly depends on memory consumed across entire data-centre systems, not solely the HBM capacity attached to each GPU.
Nvidia’s procurement supports that view, as the company disclosed $279 billion of supply and capacity commitments, primarily tied to memory and manufacturing, showing how important component availability remains.
SanDisk continues to receive strong support from Wall Street.
Bernstein analyst Mark Newman has maintained an Outperform rating and a $3,000 price target on the stock, after raising the target from $1,700 in late June.
Newman’s bullish case centres on SanDisk’s new long-term memory supply agreements, which feature stronger pricing protections and upfront customer commitments that Bernstein believes could reduce earnings downside when the NAND cycle eventually weakens.
Bernstein also raised its fiscal 2027 earnings estimates on stronger NAND average selling prices.
That gives SanDisk a direct fundamental catalyst. AI data centres require expanding amounts of storage, while constrained supply continues to give NAND producers stronger pricing power.
The risk is that those conditions eventually attract enough new capacity to loosen the market.
China is already gaining ground as YMTC’s global NAND share reached 14% in the second quarter from 9% a year earlier, while SanDisk’s slipped to 11% from 13%. CXMT also increased its DRAM share.
MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) announced today management’s participation in the following upcoming investor conferences:
Event: Citi's 2026 Global TMT Conference
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2026 at 9:35 a.m. PT / 12:35 p.m. ET
Event: Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference 2026
Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2026 at 11:30 a.m. PT / 2:30 p.m. ET
The management presentations will be available as live webcasts, accessible through Sandisk's Investor Relations website at investor.sandisk.com. The archived replays will be accessible through the website after the conclusion of the presentations.
About Sandisk
Built on more than three decades of innovation, Sandisk is a vertically integrated global semiconductor company dedicated to delivering memory technologies that help people and businesses unlock the potential of their data. From the enterprise SSDs powering AI infrastructure to consumer devices and connected systems at the edge, Sandisk designs and manufactures memory solutions that fuel the modern digital economy. To learn more, visit www.sandisk.com.
Sandisk and the Sandisk logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sandisk Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Sandisk's Q4 revenue surged 372% to $8.97 billion, while adjusted free cash flow reached an exceptional $5.04 billion. New Business Models cover over 50% of fiscal 2027 bits and two-thirds of fiscal 2028 supply. Data center revenue increased 437% in fiscal 2026 as AI infrastructure transformed SanDisk's NAND demand mix.
Alamar Capital Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK – Free Report) by 23.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,768 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,915 shares during the quarter. Sandisk accounts for 14.7% of Alamar Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Alamar Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Sandisk were worth $29,031,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Osaic Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Sandisk in the 2nd quarter valued at $317,000. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk in the 3rd quarter worth about $408,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Sandisk during the 3rd quarter worth about $100,080,000. First Trust Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Sandisk during the 3rd quarter worth about $9,788,000. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL bought a new position in Sandisk during the 3rd quarter valued at about $591,000.
Insider Activity In other news, insider Bernard Shek sold 600 shares of Sandisk stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,525.60, for a total transaction of $915,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 29,884 shares in the company, valued at $45,591,030.40. The trade was a 1.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,800 shares of company stock valued at $2,865,456. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Trending Headlines about Sandisk Here are the key news stories impacting Sandisk this week: Positive Sentiment: Analysts and financial publications continue to highlight SanDisk as an AI data-center beneficiary, alongside NVIDIA, Micron and Lam Research. The investment thesis centers on rising demand for storage infrastructure as AI workloads expand. 4 Stocks to Buy Now to Ride the AI Data Center Spending Boom Positive Sentiment: A bullish Seeking Alpha analysis upgraded SNDK to Strong Buy, citing extraordinary AI-fueled growth, potential operating leverage, long-term contracts and business models that could reduce the company’s historical cyclicality. SanDisk’s latest results showed revenue growth of 371.6% year over year and earnings well above consensus. Sandisk: Dirt Cheap For No Good Reason (Rating Upgrade) Positive Sentiment: Another investor commentary argues that the market is underestimating SanDisk’s supply-and-demand advantage and the strength of the memory upcycle. Zacks also added SNDK to its Rank #1 Strong Buy list, reinforcing favorable near-term sentiment. There’s No Good Reason, Says Top Investor About SanDisk Stock Neutral Sentiment: Comparisons with ARM emphasize SanDisk’s much larger revenue base and sharply faster recent sequential growth, while separate analysis warns that investors should not underestimate the cyclical nature of the memory industry. ARM vs. Sandisk Negative Sentiment: Reports that China’s CXMT has made progress on an AI memory chip revived concerns that domestic Chinese competition could pressure SanDisk’s pricing, market share and future growth. MU and SNDK’s Nascent Rebound Faces a New Test Negative Sentiment: Chip-tariff uncertainty, rising bond yields and a broader move away from high-risk technology assets pressured the shares in recent sessions. Commentary also noted that billionaire investor David Tepper exited during the earlier rally, underscoring concerns about volatility and profit-taking after the stock’s substantial advance. David Tepper Exited SanDisk During Its Historic Rally Sandisk Stock Up 1.1% SNDK stock opened at $1,553.40 on Thursday. Sandisk Corporation has a twelve month low of $50.65 and a twelve month high of $2,354.39. The company has a market cap of $227.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.31, a PEG ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 5.17. The business has a fifty day moving average of $1,565.94 and a 200-day moving average of $1,275.38.
Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $39.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $33.28 by $5.97. The firm had revenue of $8.96 billion during the quarter. Sandisk had a return on equity of 87.84% and a net margin of 56.47%.Sandisk’s revenue for the quarter was up 371.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. Sandisk has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 44.000-46.000 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Sandisk Corporation will post 208.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Sandisk announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $14.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 6.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth A number of equities analysts have commented on SNDK shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $2,000.00 price target on shares of Sandisk in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Sandisk from $1,900.00 to $1,875.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Barclays upgraded shares of Sandisk from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $1,200.00 to $2,300.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Bank of America increased their price target on Sandisk from $2,100.00 to $2,500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Sandisk in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $1,998.14.
View Our Latest Report on SNDK
About Sandisk (Free Report)
SanDisk Corporation offers flash storage solutions. The Company designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using flash memory, controller, firmware and software technologies. The Company operates through flash memory storage products segment. Its solutions include a range of solid state drives (SSD), embedded products, removable cards, universal serial bus (USB), drives, wireless media drives, digital media players, and wafers and components. It offers SSDs for client computing applications, which encompass desktop computers, notebook computers, tablets and other computing devices.
Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Sandisk Striking Oil: How the U.S. Play for Venezuela Fuels Supermajors J.M. Smucker Stock’s Rally Has More Than Tariffs Behind It Wendy’s Rally Fades After Trian Steps Back: Was It Ever Real? GitLab’s Earnings Beat Just Gave Software Bulls a New SaaSpocalypse Test Want to see what other hedge funds are holding SNDK? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK – Free Report).
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Sandisk (SNDK +1.08%) stock gained 29% in August, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The company reported solid earnings, and investors seemed to believe that the previous sell-off had gone too far.
It's all about memory Sandisk is one of few companies that produce the memory products essential for highs-speed artificial intelligence (AI) deployment. Memory scarcity has caused demand, and prices, to skyrocket, and Sandisk has emerged as a major player in AI.
In the 2026 fiscal fourth quarter (ended July 3), revenue increased 372% year over year and 51% sequentially. Gross margin widened from 26.2% last year to 84.6% this year, and earnings per share (EPS), which were negative last year, rose 91% sequentially, from $23.03 to $43.97.
Image source: Sandisk.
The outlook for the 2027 first quarter doesn't expect any slowdown. Management is guiding for $10.5 billion in revenue at the midpoint, which would be a 357% increase over last year, and for gross margin of 83% to 84.9%.
Sandisk was spun off from Western Digital in early 2025 as an unprofitable company, and it didn't catch much attention at that time. The market caught onto it early this year as data centers and the compute capacity necessary to support AI development really exploded, and Sandisk stock has gained nearly 900% this year before investors realized the price had started to lose touch with reality. After falling for a few weeks, it got renewed strength after the fourth-quarter report.
How long can the party go on? At the current price, Sandisk stock is still up 554% year to date, and most Wall Street analysts think it will still go up; the median target price over the next 12 to 18 months is 42% higher than today.
Management recently changed its model to longer-term commitments to stabilize its supply chain, and it now has eight clients signed for its new business model (NBM) deals. It had $59.8 billion in remaining performance obligation at the end of the fourth quarter and $91.1 billion at the time of the report in early August.
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Most of Sandisk's growth is coming from its NAND memory products, which few companies produce and are a critical part of AI inference. Management believes that demand for NAND products is still accelerating and will reach $300 billion in 2026, triple from last year, and that it will reach $500 billion next year. So far, demand is still outstripping supply.
Sandisk stock trades at only 21 times trailing 12-month earnings, and that's lilkely to due concerns about growth already being priced into the stock and expected levelling off of demand at some point.
Sandisk (SNDK +1.08%) built its name on memory cards and flash drives. But in its fiscal fourth quarter of 2026, which ended July 3, the company sold $2.98 billion of storage to datacenter customers -- about a third of its $8.97 billion in total revenue. A year earlier, that datacenter business generated just $213 million in quarterly sales.
The scale of the change goes beyond one quarter. Sandisk separated from Western Digital in February 2025, and in fiscal 2026, its first full year on its own, it generated $20.25 billion of revenue, up 175%, with the datacenter piece up 437%.
But the bigger change isn't who is buying the company's storage. It's how they're buying it.
Image source: Getty Images.
A steep mix shiftShowing just how fast the customer base is moving, datacenter revenue has climbed for three straight quarters. It was $440 million in the fiscal second quarter, about 15% of the company's revenue. By the fiscal third quarter, it had grown to $1.47 billion, about 25%. And it hit $2.98 billion in the fourth, about a third of the total.
That said, the edge business, which sells flash storage to makers of PCs, smartphones, gaming consoles, and cars, is still the biggest piece of the company, at $5.43 billion of fiscal fourth-quarter revenue.
Consumer products, however, contributed just $556 million, about 6% of the quarter and down 5% year over year. In other words, the retail cards and drives Sandisk is named for are now its smallest business.
What do the contracts guarantee?Memory pricing is famously boom-and-bust, and Sandisk's answer is what it calls the New Business Model (NBM) -- multiyear supply agreements signed directly with large datacenter and edge customers.
The terms are what make the shift structural. Chief financial officer Luis Visoso said on the company's August earnings call that Sandisk now has 10 of these agreements across eight customers, five of them signed since April. The agreements run as long as five years, with a weighted average duration of more than four years. Pricing includes fixed and variable elements, with the variable portion subject to floors and ceilings. In total, the NBMs Sandisk has signed represent a minimum of $93.9 billion in expected revenue, assuming every variable price settles at its floor. The deals are also backed by $16.5 billion of customer cash deposits and financial instruments.
The contracted share is still growing, too. Management expects NBMs to cover about half of Sandisk's bit shipments in fiscal 2027, and about two-thirds in fiscal 2028.
Of course, contracted volume isn't the same thing as guaranteed revenue, and the ceilings may cap Sandisk's upside if spot prices keep climbing. But I'd argue the floors matter more than the $93.9 billion headline number. Minimum prices under a growing share of shipments change the downside math in an industry known for brutal crashes.
Higher prices did most of the workFor all that structure, fiscal 2026 was mostly a pricing story. Sandisk's total products sold rose by a mid-teens percentage on an exabyte basis (a measure of raw storage volume shipped), while revenue rose 175%. And management said about two-thirds of the fiscal fourth quarter's sequential revenue growth came from higher pricing, with one-third from higher volumes.
That pricing boom shows up most clearly in profitability. Gross margin reached 84.6%, up from 26.2% in the year-ago period.
The company also swung to $6.9 billion of quarterly net income from a small loss a year earlier. And free cash flow for the full year went from a $120 million outflow in fiscal 2025 to $11.5 billion.
Management doesn't expect a cooldown yet, either. It guided fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue between $10.3 billion and $10.8 billion, up 15% to 20% sequentially, with gross margin expected to stay at 83% to 85%.
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The market remains skeptical, though. Shares trade around $1,537 as of this writing, down about 35% from a 52-week high, at about 21 times fiscal 2026 earnings.
Measured against expected earnings for fiscal 2027, the price-to-earnings multiple falls to about 7. A steep decline in memory pricing, in other words, is arguably already priced in.
Is Sandisk a different company now? On the customer side, I think it clearly is. A third of revenue comes from data centers, about half of this fiscal year's shipments are already committed under contract, and there are price floors where prices used to float freely.
However, the new model hasn't been tested by a downturn yet. And even Sandisk's own long-term financial model, laid out at its August investor day, calls for non-GAAP (adjusted) gross margins of about 80% for fiscal 2028 through 2030 -- below the 84.6% it just reported. The floors cushion a fall in contracted pricing. They don't make fiscal 2026's boom prices permanent.
Sandisk is securing multiyear sales deals with customers to provide more revenue visibility. Microsoft, Nvidia, and Alphabet have signed contracts locking up 70% of Samsung's memory production through 2031.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
ARM: Examining the Relatively Steady Revenue Generation Trends Over the Past YearARM (ARM -2.93%) primarily generates revenue through licensing and royalty collection on its proprietary chip designs. It conceptualizes, engineers, and licenses its core processing unit (CPU) designs, system intellectual property solutions, graphics processing units (GPUs), and supplementary software development tools to original equipment makers globally.
It published its quarterly financial results while engaging with external analysts on the broader computing infrastructure landscape, and recorded an operating margin of approximately 7.6% for the quarter ended June 30, 2026.
Sandisk: Tracking the Recent Acceleration in Overall Revenue Generation TrendsSandisk (SNDK -1.90%) earns its revenue by designing, manufacturing, and supplying a broad and diverse array of digital storage solutions, embedded memory components, solid-state drives, and removable memory cards that rely entirely on advanced flash memory technology.
While it commenced manufacturing operations for its newest generation of flash memory at a facility in Japan and executed several regional workforce reductions, it reported an operating margin of approximately 78% for the quarter ended July 3, 2026.
Why Understanding Corporate Revenue Trajectories Matters for Everyday Retail InvestorsRevenue here refers to the standardized income-statement revenue line item. Tracking this metric helps retail investors understand the absolute size and current growth trajectory of a company's operations before accounting for operating costs, corporate taxes, employee salaries, or other internal business expenses.
Comparing Quarterly Revenue Trends for ARM and SandiskCalendar quarterARM RevenueSandisk RevenueQ3 2024$844.0 million (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2024)$1.9 billion (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2024)Q4 2024$983.0 million (quarter ended Dec. 31, 2024)$1.9 billion (quarter ended Dec. 27, 2024)Q1 2025$1.2 billion (quarter ended March 31, 2025)$1.7 billion (quarter ended March 28, 2025)Q2 2025$1.1 billion (quarter ended June 30, 2025)$1.9 billion (quarter ended June 27, 2025)Q3 2025$1.1 billion (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2025)$2.3 billion (quarter ended Oct. 3, 2025)Q4 2025$1.2 billion (quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025)$3.0 billion (quarter ended Jan. 2, 2026)Q1 2026$1.5 billion (quarter ended March 31, 2026)$6.0 billion (quarter ended April 3, 2026)Q2 2026$1.3 billion (quarter ended June 30, 2026)$9.0 billion (quarter ended July 3, 2026)Data source: Company filings. Data as of Aug. 26, 2026.
Foolish TakeSandisk is on a much sharper growth trajectory, largely due to higher selling prices for its products. Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) is extremely high for high-capacity solid-state storage. The key factor to watch for Sandisk is whether its long-term supply agreements with customers can remove the historical quarter-to-quarter volatility in selling prices and drive more stable revenue generation over the next several years.
ARM's revenue shows consistent year-over-year growth, although it fell sequentially in the second quarter. While ARM is known for supplying chip designs widely used in consumer devices like smartphones, it is gaining momentum in expanding into the data center market. This will be a key source of growth for the company.
Whether Sandisk can maintain its massive revenue size and continue to grow comes down to demand and selling prices for storage products. The more long-term agreements it signs and the more the AI infrastructure boom continues, the more likely Sandisk will continue to scale its business.
Sandisk (SNDK -1.90%) has been the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, rising by around 550%. That's well above second-place Moderna, which has risen by around 420%. With a stellar performance like that, some investors may be surprised to learn that Sandisk is actually down more than 30% from the all-time high it established at the end of June.
I think now could be the perfect time to buy Sandisk stock, as the trends that pushed it higher at the start of the year are still prevalent. These conditions will stick around for a while, and could be exactly what is needed to propel Sandisk to new highs before the year is over.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
The memory chip shortage isn't going to be resolved anytime soon Sandisk makes memory chips and devices that go into them. It focuses on NAND memory, which is used in long-term storage products such as flash drives and solid-state drives (SSDs). SSDs are widely used in data centers, and they're consuming the majority of NAND chips in the market. Data centers have eaten up so much of the memory that produces are able to manufacture that there isn't enough to meet market-wide demand, so prices have been rising sharply. Until the balance between supply and demand shifts out of shortage, prices could continue rising, which will further help Sandisk's top and bottom lines.
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Because Sandisk's input costs aren't changing much, the revenue growth coming from its price increases flows down to the bottom line as pure profit, and that has delivered incredible results for Sandisk and its peers. During Sandisk's fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 (which ended July 3), its revenue rose 51% quarter over quarter. Management attributed two-thirds of that growth to increased prices and another third to higher production output. While all of the major memory makers are working on adding new production capacity, those foundries won't be online until 2027 or 2028, so it's possible that prices could continue soaring, boosting Sandisk's revenue and profits over the next few years.
For Sandisk's fiscal 2027 (which ends June 28, 2027), Wall Street expects an incredible 142% revenue growth rate. However, the market is skeptical that Sandisk will be able to hold on to those gains over the longer term, which is why the stock trades for a mere 7 times forward earnings.
SNDK PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.
If Sandisk can rise throughout the year to the 30 times forward earnings price tag established at the end of its fiscal year, the stock is primed to quadruple. I'm not sure if it will rise that much, but a double seems well within the realm of possibility. That leads me to conclude that it's well worth an investment, as it's hard to find stocks that could easily double in price in under a year's time.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its stake in Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK – Free Report) by 113.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 825 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 438 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Sandisk were worth $1,876,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in shares of Sandisk by 35.1% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 57,564 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $130,885,000 after purchasing an additional 14,964 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of Sandisk by 84.2% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 4,521 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,073,000 after purchasing an additional 2,067 shares during the period. Tredje AP fonden acquired a new position in shares of Sandisk in the 4th quarter valued at $7,821,000. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in Sandisk by 1,301.5% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 33,637 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,985,000 after purchasing an additional 31,237 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FourThought Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Sandisk in the 4th quarter worth about $422,000.
More Sandisk News Here are the key news stories impacting Sandisk this week:
Positive Sentiment: Japan expansion supports long-term growth: Sandisk backed a planned $31 billion NAND flash-memory expansion in Japan through 2032. The investment is intended to increase production capacity and position the company to benefit from demand for data centers, AI infrastructure, and enterprise storage. The scale of the commitment is bullish if demand remains strong, although it also increases capital requirements and execution risk. Sandisk Backs $31 Billion Japan Flash Memory Expansion Through 2032 Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain optimistic on memory stocks: Mizuho described Micron and Sandisk as highly attractive values, reinforcing the view that their rapid growth and exposure to AI memory demand are not fully reflected in current valuations. A separate investment analysis also identified Sandisk as the more compelling AI-memory opportunity relative to Micron. Mizuho Reiterates Bullish Stance on Memory Stocks Positive Sentiment: Fundamentals remain strong: Sandisk’s latest results showed revenue growth of 371.6% year over year and earnings well above consensus, while management provided strong forward guidance. These results support the bullish AI and storage-demand narrative. Neutral Sentiment: ETF flows show concentration risk: AI- and semiconductor-focused ETFs have attracted substantial 2026 inflows and benefited Sandisk indirectly, but recent outflows suggest investors may be reducing exposure to crowded memory trades. These 5 ETFs Have Raked in Cash This Year Negative Sentiment: Competition and cyclicality remain risks: Reports that China’s CXMT has made progress on a new AI memory chip could challenge established suppliers. Investors are also concerned that the $31 billion NAND buildout may add capacity just as the memory cycle eventually turns, potentially pressuring pricing and returns. China’s CXMT Reportedly Makes Major Breakthrough With New AI Memory Chip Sandisk Price Performance NASDAQ:SNDK opened at $1,566.70 on Tuesday. Sandisk Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $50.07 and a fifty-two week high of $2,354.39. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $1,581.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1,262.28. The stock has a market cap of $229.40 billion, a PE ratio of 21.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 5.21. Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $39.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $33.28 by $5.97. The firm had revenue of $8.96 billion for the quarter. Sandisk had a return on equity of 87.84% and a net margin of 56.47%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 371.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. Sandisk has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 44.000-46.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Sandisk Corporation will post 208.92 earnings per share for the current year.
Sandisk announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 5th that permits the company to repurchase $14.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to buy up to 6.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.
Insider Buying and Selling In other Sandisk news, insider Bernard Shek sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,162.16, for a total value of $697,296.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 30,915 shares in the company, valued at $35,928,176.40. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,800 shares of company stock valued at $2,991,696. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth A number of research firms have commented on SNDK. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Sandisk from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Zacks Research raised shares of Sandisk from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Sandisk in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Barclays upgraded shares of Sandisk from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $1,200.00 to $2,300.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Sandisk from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sandisk has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $1,998.14.
Check Out Our Latest Report on Sandisk
About Sandisk (Free Report)
SanDisk Corporation offers flash storage solutions. The Company designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using flash memory, controller, firmware and software technologies. The Company operates through flash memory storage products segment. Its solutions include a range of solid state drives (SSD), embedded products, removable cards, universal serial bus (USB), drives, wireless media drives, digital media players, and wafers and components. It offers SSDs for client computing applications, which encompass desktop computers, notebook computers, tablets and other computing devices.
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Marek Kameništiak
Fio banka, a.s.
Prohlášení
Sandisk (SNDK +0.00%) has taken investors on a ride in 2026. It's still the best-performing component of the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.25%) this year, but lost a significant amount of value since its highs in late June.
Sandisk is down around 35% since then, but is this a screaming bargain that investors should scoop up in September, or is this stock better left alone?
Let's take a look at some trends and see if Sandisk's sell-off occurred for a good reason or if now is the time to strike.
Image source: The Motley Fool
Sandisk stock appears incredibly cheap Sandisk makes NAND memory, which is often used for long-term information storage. There is currently a huge memory chip shortage, mainly because the AI data center buildout has consumed all available capacity. There isn't much that separates one memory chip producer from another, so the entire market is fairly commoditized. Commoditized products follow economic theory very closely, and this dictates that as supply is low and demand is high, prices soar.
That's exactly what Sandisk has experienced and why its stock skyrocketed.
None of Sandisk's input costs have changed, but what it can sell its products for has dramatically increased. This is showing up in its financials, as its revenue rose 51% quarter over quarter. Most companies would be thrilled to grow at a 51% rate in a year over year comparison. Sandisk grew more than 50% in just three months. Of that gain, it informed investors that a third of the growth came from increased production while two-thirds came from higher prices. Year over year growth was a jaw-dropping 372% increase, and Sandisk's future is still bright.
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The only way this shortage will alleviate is through increased production capacity or decreased demand. Based on language from the AI hyperscalers, demand won't be decreasing anytime soon. It takes years to build new production facilities, and while the memory chip industry is working at building new capacity, it may be a while before that's available. Furthermore, there's no saying that new capacity won't be immediately used up by hyperscalers, prolonging the shortage.
The reality is that the market conditions that drove Sandisk's stock higher are going to stick around, and that helps justify purchasing the stock today.
As another boost, the stock is dirt cheap.
SNDK PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
At just seven times forward earnings, the market is skeptical about the longevity of the memory chip market conditions. If the shortage persists over the next year and a half and beyond, Sandisk stock is a genius buy right now and will make investors a nice return on investment over the next year.
Flash memory specialist Sandisk (SNDK +0.00%) and its long-term manufacturing partner Kioxia said Thursday that they plan to invest more than $31 billion in Japan through 2032. The money is earmarked for infrastructure at the Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants (the factories where the two companies produce their NAND flash memory), along with related technology development.
The plan is contingent on Japanese government support.
Over the alliance's more than 25 years, the two companies have invested more than $50 billion in Japan, according to the announcement. The new plan would spend about 60% of that sum again in about six years.
Both figures are floors ("more than"), so the proportion is approximate. The plan's scale is not. And the announcement looks odd next to what Sandisk management itself told investors three weeks earlier: that the company is increasing supply through technology improvements rather than large capacity expansions, with capital expenditures falling as a percentage of revenue.
So which one is it?
Image source: Getty Images.
Who pays whatThe plan is joint, not a $31 billion check from Sandisk alone. The two companies manufacture through a joint venture structure called Flash Ventures, which operates at eight facilities in Japan (six in Yokkaichi and two in Kitakami). In January, they extended that framework through December 2034.
Sandisk holds a 49.9% stake in the Flash Ventures entities, and Kioxia owns the facilities themselves. Each side gets roughly half of the production. And Sandisk's annual report says the company is obligated to finance between 49.9% and 50% of the capital expenditures that the joint ventures decide to make, to the extent that the joint ventures' own cash flow cannot cover them.
Neither company has detailed its share, and Sandisk's obligation covers only the joint ventures' own investments. But if about half of the plan flows through Flash Ventures, something close to $1.3 billion a year falls on Sandisk, before what the Japanese government contributes.
Doesn't that break the capital-light story?"We grow supply primarily through nodal transitions rather than wafer additions, delivering mid- to high teens bit growth," CEO David Goeckeler said on the company's earnings call on Aug. 5. And chief financial officer Luis Visoso supplied the figure, guiding capital expenditures to about 6% of revenue for fiscal 2027 even as the company accelerates its newest manufacturing technologies.
At first glance, a $31 billion build program appears to contradict all that. But if you follow how the money flows, I would say the capital-light story holds up for the most part.
For one thing, Sandisk's funding obligation is a backstop, not a blank check. The company covers its share of the joint ventures' investments only when Flash Ventures' own operating cash flow cannot.
That said, the 6% guidance and the $31 billion plan are the same money. What Visoso guided is gross capital expenditures, which already includes Sandisk's share of what Flash Ventures builds. The company's own property purchases totaled just $177 million in fiscal 2026, far short of 6% of revenue, and it also put a net $275 million into the joint ventures. So the plan's bill has to fit within that guidance, not sit beside it.
And then there is Sandisk's explosive revenue base. The company's revenue in fiscal 2026 rose 175% year over year to $20.25 billion, and guidance for the fiscal first quarter of 2027 alone projects revenue of $10.3 billion to $10.8 billion. Against a business of that size, that bill fits within Sandisk's 6% guidance.
Demand still has to lastOf course, the hardest issue for shareholders is durability. The plan runs through 2032, and memory has long been a wildly cyclical business.
However, Sandisk has more visibility on that than in past cycles. Long-term agreements with eight customers already cover about half of the company's expected bit shipments for fiscal 2027, and Sandisk values those agreements at $93.9 billion over their lives, based on the minimum prices they guarantee. The demand secured in writing may be what makes a six-year build plan defensible.
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Sure, the uncontracted half of the business still floats on market prices, and no contract protects years beyond its term. But this announcement amounts to two of the industry's biggest players betting that the storage boom for artificial intelligence (AI) will last longer than this quarter's debates about it.
Still, the growth stock closed Thursday near $1,485, 37% below its June peak.
At that price, the shares cost about 7 times forward earnings for the next fiscal year. In other words, the market still doubts how long the boom's earnings can last. The $31 billion headline sounds like a strategy shift. The structure beneath it -- jointly funded, contingent on government support, and sized to a revenue base that nearly tripled last year -- looks more like the plan management described, operating at the scale the boom now demands.
SanDisk just committed to a $31 billion NAND expansion at the exact moment investors are asking whether the AI memory boom is just another cycle waiting to collapse. The answer hinges on a contract structure unlike anything the industry has…
SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK | SNDK Price Prediction) and Japanese partner Kioxia said this week they will invest more than $31 billion in Japan over six years to expand NAND flash capacity for the AI era, including roughly $11.3 billion for a new facility at Kioxia’s Kitakami plant to produce jointly developed tenth-generation BiCS Flash.
This is a joint figure covering both partners, and the company’s share has not been disclosed. The plan leans on Japanese government support, so treat it as a proposal at this stage. The reason it matters is that this is a NAND bet, while most AI headlines focus on high-bandwidth memory. NAND is used in enterprise SSDs that store training data, checkpoints, and inference results. Shares closed at $1,484.98 on Friday, up 525.57% year to date, so the market has already priced in significant upside.
Why This Bet Looks Different From Past NAND Cycles Memory has burned investors before because capacity gets built into peak pricing and arrives during a glut. That history is the single most important context for this deal.
What differs now is that SanDisk is locking down demand before pouring concrete. Management said it has signed new business model agreements with eight data center and edge customers, with a weighted average duration of over four years.
CEO David Goeckeler put the visibility bluntly: “A year ago, we were talking about visibility in this business of three months,” and now the company has “over four years of visibility.”
The backlog is real. Remaining performance obligation stood at $59.8 billion and, including two agreements signed after quarter-end, reached $91.1 billion, backed by $16.5 billion in customer financial guarantees. Total minimum expected NBM revenue at floor pricing is $93.9 billion. Those are contracted floor economics tied to fixed volumes.
Numbers Behind the Rally Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue reached $8.96 billion, up 371.59% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $39.25 against a $33.28 estimate. Datacenter revenue rose 437% for the full year, and non-GAAP gross margin expanded to 84.6% from 26.4% a year earlier.
Roughly two-thirds of sequential revenue growth came from pricing, which reverses fastest when supply catches demand. Free cash flow of $11.494 billion and a zero-debt balance sheet give SanDisk room to fund its share of Kitakami without breaking the model. The board authorized an additional $14 billion in buybacks.
At a forward P/E near 23x, the stock is priced for NBM economics to hold, not for a return to spot NAND volatility.
Verdict on the $31 Billion Question Can AI demand absorb this capacity without recreating the oversupply that has repeatedly hurt memory pricing? Likely yes, provided the NBM structure holds, and hyperscaler forecasts do not compress. Management expects bits to remain in allocation beyond calendar year 2027, and analysts note a structural memory shortage that is unlikely to ease before 2028. New Kitakami capacity arrives inside that window.
The risks are the ones the Palo Alto Networks CEO flagged this week: structural memory shortage unlikely to ease before 2028. Reddit sentiment has already turned on concerns that the memory supercycle will eventually become cyclical. The counter is that bearish will sit inside contracts with floors, insulating the mix even if spot NAND rolls over.
The bet is defensible because SanDisk is expanding into demand it has already sold. That is the argument for owning the stock through the next headline about cycle risk.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
The Tradr 2X Long SNDK Daily ETF is rated Hold due to near-term volatility and mixed technical signals despite Sandisk's long-term growth potential. SNDK's recent -56% drawdown is attributed to exogenous market factors, not structural weaknesses, with future upside tied to AI-driven storage demand. SNXX offers strong liquidity and market depth but carries significant compounding and volatility risk, making it suitable only for short-term, active trading.
Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,078 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,451,000.
Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new position in shares of Sandisk in the second quarter worth approximately $909,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in shares of Sandisk in the 2nd quarter worth about $135,521,000. Eschler Asset Management LLP bought a new stake in Sandisk in the second quarter worth $2,512,000. Trybe Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Sandisk in the second quarter worth about $191,769,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Sandisk during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,236,765,000.
Sandisk News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Sandisk this week:
Positive Sentiment: AI and NAND-cycle optimism: Investor sentiment improved after reports that demand for AI infrastructure is boosting high-capacity storage, while tighter NAND supply could support pricing and margins. This has helped Sandisk maintain strong momentum after its sharp one-year advance. SanDisk Stock Climbs As NAND Optimism Lifts Memory Stocks Positive Sentiment: Capital-return plans attract attention: Jim Cramer highlighted Sandisk’s substantial share-buyback plans, which may support earnings per share and signal management confidence following the stock’s surge. Jim Cramer Highlights Sandisk’s Massive Buybacks Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains constructive: Mizuho reduced its price target modestly to $1,875 but retained an “outperform” rating, implying considerable upside from the reference price. Other recent commentary also points to Sandisk’s momentum and potential margin expansion. Why Sandisk Is a Strong Momentum Stock Neutral Sentiment: Volatile sector trading: Sandisk and other memory stocks rebounded after a broad sell-off, but the group also faced renewed pre-market weakness as investors reassessed valuation and near-term memory pricing. The mixed trading indicates that sentiment remains highly sensitive to sector news. Memory Stocks Rebound After Sell-Off Negative Sentiment: Chinese competition is a longer-term risk: Yangtze Memory Technologies is targeting greater NAND market share by 2027, potentially increasing pricing pressure and challenging established suppliers such as Sandisk. YMTC Targets NAND Dominance Insider Activity at Sandisk In other Sandisk news, insider Bernard Shek sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,162.16, for a total transaction of $697,296.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 30,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,928,176.40. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Alper Ilkbahar sold 2,000 shares of Sandisk stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,756.58, for a total transaction of $3,513,160.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 52,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $92,531,364.66. This trade represents a 3.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 3,800 shares of company stock worth $6,504,856 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock. Sandisk Price Performance Shares of Sandisk stock opened at $1,499.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a PEG ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 5.20. Sandisk Corporation has a 12 month low of $47.40 and a 12 month high of $2,354.39. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $1,623.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,242.46.
Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $39.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $33.28 by $5.97. Sandisk had a return on equity of 87.84% and a net margin of 56.47%.The firm had revenue of $8.96 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. Sandisk’s revenue for the quarter was up 371.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sandisk has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 44.000-46.000 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Sandisk Corporation will post 208.92 earnings per share for the current year.
Sandisk announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $14.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to purchase up to 6.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.
Analyst Ratings Changes Several research analysts recently issued reports on SNDK shares. Weiss Ratings cut Sandisk from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Sandisk from $1,100.00 to $1,750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Sandisk from $1,300.00 to $1,600.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Sandisk from $2,500.00 to $2,100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Sandisk from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $1,998.14.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on SNDK
About Sandisk (Free Report)
SanDisk Corporation offers flash storage solutions. The Company designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using flash memory, controller, firmware and software technologies. The Company operates through flash memory storage products segment. Its solutions include a range of solid state drives (SSD), embedded products, removable cards, universal serial bus (USB), drives, wireless media drives, digital media players, and wafers and components. It offers SSDs for client computing applications, which encompass desktop computers, notebook computers, tablets and other computing devices.
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Investors don't have to look for small, hidden growth stocks to beat the S&P 500 over long stretches. Some of the most well-known companies have been doing that for years, and some of those same picks look like they can extend their rallies.
Buying and holding solid companies with strengthening fundamentals has been a winning formula for long-term investors. These three stocks fit the bill and are worth holding for the next 10 years.
Image source: Getty Images.
Nvidia Nvidia's (NVDA -4.58%) GPUs have become the defining piece of the AI trade. Its chips are essential in data centers that want to keep up with hyperscalers' demands. The stock is up by more than 800% over the past five years, and while the past year hasn't been as fruitful, the stock is still delivering solid returns.
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Its returns should accelerate, thanks to its recent earnings report. Nvidia continues to amaze with a 106% year-over-year revenue surge in its fiscal 2027 second quarter. That was an 18% sequential jump, and it's this type of growth that makes a stock a buy-and-hold candidate over many years.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang cited a "golden age of new AI labs and start-ups" that are accelerating demand for chips. He also touted physical AI coming online as another major catalyst.
All of this growth is also coming with better margins. Net income grew by 126% year over year, outpacing revenue growth in the process. Nvidia closed out the quarter with a 62% net profit margin as its chips continue to fly off the shelves.
Sandisk Sandisk (SNDK +0.00%) has established itself as a key part of the memory boom. Its 3,000% return over the past year caught most investors by surprise. The positive Nvidia earnings suggest that Sandisk's rally isn't over, but the company's attractive valuation and underlying fundamentals also imply that higher returns are on the way.
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The company is actually growing faster than Nvidia while crushing guidance by wide margins. Sandisk earned $8.97 billion in its fiscal 2026 fourth quarter and only guided for up to $8.25 billion in the previous quarter.
The 51% sequential growth rate comes as Sandisk secures multiyear partnerships with its customers. Those deals offer more revenue visibility, with Sandisk mentioning strong financial growth and shareholder returns are expected to carry through fiscal 2030 at a minimum.
Just like Nvidia, Sandisk is also achieving this growth while boosting net profit margins. Net income was up by 91% sequentially. It closed the quarter with a 77% net profit margin.
Amazon Amazon (AMZN +3.97%) has been gaining market share in multiple key industries. Its online marketplace still brings in the majority of its sales, but the tech giant has also emerged as the largest cloud computing provider.
This positioning has helped it benefit from the rising demand for artificial intelligence. Amazon Web Services revenue has been accelerating for multiple quarters, including a 37% year-over-year jump in Q2. That was the highest growth rate for Amazon Web Services in more than four years.
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The company has also been gaining market share in online advertising, which helps with net profit margins. Advertising revenue was up by 26% year-over-year, and operating income jumped by 43% year over year.
All of this impressive growth comes at a time when Amazon trades more like a value stock than a growth stock. It is only valued at a 21 P/E ratio, while it commanded a P/E ratio in the 30s earlier in the year. Solid fundamental growth and a sluggish start to the year explain the low valuation.
As Amazon gains market share in its key industries while expanding into AI through agentic AI and chips, the company has a good shot at outperforming the S&P 500 in the long run.
Japan's Kioxia (285A.T) and U.S.-based Sandisk (SNDK.O) said on Thursday they planned to invest more than $31 billion in Japan through 2032 to drive semiconductor technology and expand production capacity, as the AI boom boosts demand for memory chips.
The joint investment is contingent on "government support", they said in a statement.
As part of the six-year investment plan, a new memory chip production facility will be built at Kioxia's Kitakami plant in northern Japan, with an investment of 1.8 trillion yen ($11.30 billion), Kioxia CEO Hiroo Ota said.
The growth of AI has fuelled a turnaround for Kioxia, which was once seen as a symbol of Japan's chipmaking struggles.
Kioxia is manufacturing 10th-generation BiCS Flash memory, developed with Sandisk, at its Kitakami plant.
Ota and Sandisk CEO David Goeckeler met with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday.
Buy SNDK. Nvidia’s margin pressure from memory shortages is a direct read-through: tight NAND supply is likely to persist, supporting NAND pricing and SanDisk revenue/margins. Add the structural angle: HBF for AI can be capacity-hungry, and SanDisk’s long-term customer contracts (floor pricing) reduce earnings volatility versus pure commodity peers.
Key Risk: Memory prices fall fast because new supply ramps sooner than AI demand, crushing NAND pricing and margins.
MU (Micron)
Buy MU as the higher-beta beneficiary of the same shortage narrative. If Nvidia’s warning extends the tight memory cycle, both NAND/DRAM pricing power improves; MU should capture upside from AI memory demand while benefiting from industry-wide pricing strength.
Key Risk: AI memory demand cools or customers delay purchases, so pricing power fades even if supply is tight.
SanDisk stock NASDAQ:SNDK jumped nearly 5% in Thursday premarket trading after Nvidia’s earnings delivered an unexpected positive signal for memory suppliers.
SNDK closed Wednesday at $1,499.37, up 1.3%, then rose 3.7% after hours before extending gains.
Nvidia said memory shortages are limiting how quickly it can satisfy demand and pressuring gross margins.
That is the fundamental logic behind Thursday’s sharp rebound.
Nvidia expects demand to keep accelerating, but finance chief Colette Kress warned that soaring memory prices and higher component costs will pressure margins.
The chip giant expects adjusted gross margin to fall from about 75% in fiscal Q2 to 74% in Q3, then bottom around 71%-72% in Q4.
Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro told MarketWatch that memory inflation is “mostly cyclical,” but added that such cycles have a “habit of lasting longer than expected.”
With few major memory producers controlling supply, manufacturers retain substantial pricing power.
That is the direct SanDisk read-through. Stronger NAND pricing can support revenue and margins even as those costs squeeze customers buying memory-intensive AI systems.
Thursday’s move therefore reflects more than Nvidia sympathy. Investors are treating Nvidia’s warning as evidence that tight industry conditions may persist longer than assumed.
Bernstein analyst Mark Newman recently called SanDisk’s High Bandwidth Flash technology a “game changer for AI and the memory industry” and maintained an Outperform rating with a $3,000 target.
Newman argues HBF could require three to four times more factory space per exabyte than conventional NAND, potentially consuming wafer capacity and causing shortages to last “far longer than even the bulls expect.”
JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a December 2027 target of $2,250.
Sur said SanDisk is “uniquely positioned” to benefit from the structural increase in NAND demand driven by AI inference.
He also highlighted eight long-term customer agreements representing about $94 billion in total contract value at floor pricing.
Those contracts could provide more earnings visibility than investors historically associate with commodity memory producers.
The risk is that memory remains cyclical because strong pricing encourages more investment.
SanDisk closed at $1,499.37 on Wednesday after trading above $1,825 earlier this month and below $1,000 in late July, illustrating how violently expectations can shift.
SanDisk and Kioxia said they plan to invest more than $31 billion in Japan through 2032 to expand semiconductor technology and production capacity as AI demand rises.
The programme depends partly on Japanese government support.
New capacity gives SanDisk more ability to capture AI growth, but it also creates the longer-term question investors cannot ignore: could supply eventually expand faster than demand?
Following hedge fund moves is possible by examining a firm's 13-F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, disclosing their end-of-quarter holdings. Because investors only get updates once per quarter, the key is to find a fund that's not trading in and out of stocks on a daily basis. One that I follow that has a more long-term investing mindset is the Duquesne Family Office, run by Stanley Druckenmiller. It made several interesting moves in the second quarter, including selling Sandisk (SNDK +0.00%) and buying Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM -2.29%). Although we don't know exactly when these moves happened, they are interesting because Sandisk is the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.25%) this year.
So, was this a smart move by Druckenmiller? Let's take a look.
Image source: Getty Images.
Sandisk has declined a lot since Q2 ended To start 2026, Sandisk rose to its peak right before June ended, increasing nearly 900%. After the calendar flipped to July, the stock sold off heavily, although it's still up more than 500% this year. If Druckenmiller sold at the end of June, he's likely sitting on major gains from his sales, demonstrating why hedge funds are considered the smart money.
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Taiwan Semiconductor's 2026 hasn't been nearly as impressive, but it has still risen nearly 40% for the year, which is great considering it's a multitrillion-dollar company.
But none of Druckenmiller's moves in the past matter now; what really matters is which stock is the better buy for the future -- and Wall Street has something to say about that.
Wall Street prefers Sandisk stock, barely Wall Street analysts offer one-year price targets on stocks, which can be useful. Although an individual analyst may have a high or low price target, seeing where the analyst community is on average gives investors a good idea about where the analyst community believes a stock is heading.
Taiwan Semiconductor has an average price target of $555 per share. That implies a 33% gain during the next year, which is likely to beat the market. This backs up Druckenmiller's move of buying Taiwan Semiconductor stock in the quarter, but what do analysts think about Sandisk?
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Analysts currently have a $2,126 price tag on Sandisk's stock, indicating about 41% upside. That's slightly better than what they expect from Taiwan Semiconductor, making it seem like Wall Street is far more bullish on Sandisk's stock.
This would also suggest that Druckenmiller's sale was a mistake, but it all depends on when he sold the stock. If he sold it at its peak, at more than $2,300 per share, that would have been above the price target, indicating that Druckenmiller made the right move. After the sell-off, it may be time to reverse his moves.
But what should you do? I think both stocks are viable in today's market, and with huge demand for the artificial intelligence (AI) chips that these two produce, I think they will both make for fantastic investments during the next year. However, because Sandisk is involved in the memory chip market (which is more cyclical than TSMC's logic chip products), the risk is definitely higher with Sandisk than for Taiwan Semiconductor.
As a result, because TSMC is less risky and has similar one-year upside projections, I think it's the better buy of the two, and Druckenmiller was right to sell Sandisk and buy more Taiwan Semiconductor. We'll see how these two pan out during the next year, but with major spending from the AI hyperscalers expected to last through the end of the decade, there is still plenty of room for upside.
Continued investments through 2032 will further strengthen the companies’ long-standing joint venture and drive meaningful, multi-year flash memory-supply
Investments align with economic policy goals of Japanese government and reflect strong U.S. – Japan relations
TOKYO & MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kioxia Corporation, a subsidiary of Kioxia Holdings Corporation (TOKYO: 285A) and Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced anticipated significant investments in Japan, totaling over $31 billion (approximately 5 trillion yen) contingent upon government support. The investments through 2032 will continue to strengthen the Kioxia and Sandisk partnership, one of the most successful joint ventures across any industry. The partnership has helped drive decades of NAND flash memory innovation and invested over $50 billion (approximately 9 trillion yen) in Japan over the past 25 years. Kioxia and Sandisk will continue to deliver leading technology to support the growing demands of an AI and a data-driven world.
Aligned with market trends, these investments will support the ongoing buildout of infrastructure at the Yokkaichi Plant and the Kitakami Plant, along with related infrastructure, technology. Kioxia and Sandisk each has committed to drive meaningful, multi-year bit growth and ensuring stable supply to address the strong demand for their innovative flash memory technology. In line with these commitments, the announced investments are intended to fuel the joint venture’s long-term success and ability to deliver leading-edge flash memory innovations at scale and with stability.
“This joint investment further strengthens our longstanding partnership with Sandisk and underscores Kioxia’s strong commitment to contributing to the advancement of an AI-driven society,” said Hiroo Ota, President and CEO of Kioxia. “Kioxia will continue to meet growing demand for high-capacity, high-performance, and power-efficient flash memory, which is essential to the growth of an AI-driven society. We sincerely appreciate the support of the Japanese government to date and recognize the importance of its continued strategic support in maintaining further strengthening our global competitiveness.”
“For decades, Sandisk and Kioxia have jointly developed world-class NAND flash memory technology,” said David Goeckeler, Chairman and CEO of Sandisk Corporation. “In line with our business strategy and financial guidance, these planned investments will ensure our ability to support our customer’s increasing demands for our technology, while providing new economic opportunities for the communities we operate in and serving as a premier example of U.S.-Japan economic collaboration.”
These investments are aligned with economic policy goals of Takaichi administration, supporting a strategically important sector with the expansion of advanced manufacturing for cutting-edge semiconductor technologies.
In January, Kioxia and Sandisk announced the extension of their joint venture framework at Kioxia’s Yokkaichi Plant through December 2034. Through the joint venture, which has spanned more than 25 years, Kioxia and Sandisk collaborate in the development and manufacturing of flash-based memory wafers. This announcement reflects the strength of the longstanding partnership and its ability to leverage AI-enabled smart manufacturing at scale to ensure stable production of advanced 3D flash memory.
About Sandisk
Built on more than three decades of innovation, Sandisk is a vertically integrated global semiconductor company dedicated to delivering memory technologies that help people and businesses unlock the potential of their data. From the enterprise SSDs powering AI infrastructure to consumer devices and connected systems at the edge, Sandisk designs and manufactures memory solutions that fuel the modern digital economy. To learn more, visit www.sandisk.com.
About Kioxia
Kioxia is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is committed to uplifting the world with “memory” by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. Kioxia's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH™, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems.
SANDISK and the SANDISK logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sandisk Corporation or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws, including, without limitation, statements regarding expectations for: Sandisk Corporation’s (the “Company’s”) and Kioxia Holdings Corporation’s planned investments in Japan, including the timing, amount, scope, intended use, and anticipated benefits of those investments; the ongoing buildout of infrastructure at the Yokkaichi Plant and the Kitakami Plant; the impact of artificial intelligence and data-driven applications on demand for high-performance flash memory technologies and the companies’ ability to support such demand; the companies’ long-standing joint venture, including its durability, long-term success, and ability to deliver leading-edge flash memory innovations at scale and with stability; the role of the companies’ investments in supporting economic growth, regional economic development, the long-term growth objectives of the joint venture, multi-year bit-supply growth, and advanced manufacturing scale, and the impact of these investments on the U.S.-Japan relations. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Key risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include: adverse changes in global or regional economic conditions, including the impact of evolving trade policies, tariff regimes, and trade wars, and the effects of global health crises; volatility in demand for the Company’s products; pricing trends and fluctuations in average selling prices; inflation; changes in interest rates and a potential economic recession; the impact of business and market conditions; the impact of competitive products and pricing; development and introduction of products based on new technologies and management of technology transitions; risks associated with strategic initiatives, including restructurings, acquisitions, divestitures, cost saving measures and joint ventures; risks related to product defects; difficulties or delays in product ramps, manufacturing or other supply chain disruptions; reliance on strategic relationships with key partners, including Kioxia Corporation; risks related to the Company’s long-term agreements, or "NBMs"; fluctuation of operating results, including due to changes in demand, industry cycle and timing of customer deployments, and the Company’s ability to accurately forecast demand; the attraction, retention and development of skilled management and technical talent; risks associated with the use of artificial intelligence in the Company’s business operations; risks related to financial guarantees and other financial obligations; risks related to the Company’s share repurchase program; changes to the Company’s relationships with key customers or consolidation among the Company’s customer base; compromise, damage or interruption from cybersecurity incidents or other data system security risks; reliance on intellectual property; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; actions by competitors; risks associated with compliance with changing legal and regulatory requirements; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on August 17, 2026, to which your attention is directed. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect new information or events, except as required by law.
Kioxia and Sandisk to Invest Over $31 Billion in Japan, Extending Leadership in Memory Industry Kioxia Corporation, a subsidiary of Kioxia Holdings Corporation (TOKYO: 285A) and Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced anticipated significant investments in Japan, totaling over $31 billion (approximately 5 trillion yen) contingent upon government support. The investments through 2032 will continue to strengthen the Kioxia and Sandisk partnership, one of the most successful joint ventures across any industry. The partnership has helped drive decades of NAND flash memory innovation and invested over $50 billion (approximately 9 trillion yen) in Japan over the past 25 years. Kioxia and Sandisk will continue to deliver leading technology to support the growing demands of an AI and a data-driven world.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260827797147/en/
Aligned with market trends, these investments will support the ongoing buildout of infrastructure at the Yokkaichi Plant and the Kitakami Plant, along with related infrastructure, technology. Kioxia and Sandisk each has committed to drive meaningful, multi-year bit growth and ensuring stable supply to address the strong demand for their innovative flash memory technology. In line with these commitments, the announced investments are intended to fuel the joint venture’s long-term success and ability to deliver leading-edge flash memory innovations at scale and with stability.
“This joint investment further strengthens our longstanding partnership with Sandisk and underscores Kioxia’s strong commitment to contributing to the advancement of an AI-driven society,” said Hiroo Ota, President and CEO of Kioxia. “Kioxia will continue to meet growing demand for high-capacity, high-performance, and power-efficient flash memory, which is essential to the growth of an AI-driven society. We sincerely appreciate the support of the Japanese government to date and recognize the importance of its continued strategic support in maintaining further strengthening our global competitiveness.”
“For decades, Sandisk and Kioxia have jointly developed world-class NAND flash memory technology,” said David Goeckeler, Chairman and CEO of Sandisk Corporation. “In line with our business strategy and financial guidance, these planned investments will ensure our ability to support our customer’s increasing demands for our technology, while providing new economic opportunities for the communities we operate in and serving as a premier example of U.S.-Japan economic collaboration.”
These investments are aligned with economic policy goals of Takaichi administration, supporting a strategically important sector with the expansion of advanced manufacturing for cutting-edge semiconductor technologies.
In January, Kioxia and Sandisk announced the extension of their joint venture framework at Kioxia’s Yokkaichi Plant through December 2034. Through the joint venture, which has spanned more than 25 years, Kioxia and Sandisk collaborate in the development and manufacturing of flash-based memory wafers. This announcement reflects the strength of the longstanding partnership and its ability to leverage AI-enabled smart manufacturing at scale to ensure stable production of advanced 3D flash memory.
About Sandisk
Built on more than three decades of innovation, Sandisk is a vertically integrated global semiconductor company dedicated to delivering memory technologies that help people and businesses unlock the potential of their data. From the enterprise SSDs powering AI infrastructure to consumer devices and connected systems at the edge, Sandisk designs and manufactures memory solutions that fuel the modern digital economy. To learn more, visit www.sandisk.com.
About Kioxia
Kioxia is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is committed to uplifting the world with “memory” by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. Kioxia's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH™, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems.
SANDISK and the SANDISK logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sandisk Corporation or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws, including, without limitation, statements regarding expectations for: Sandisk Corporation’s (the “Company’s”) and Kioxia Holdings Corporation’s planned investments in Japan, including the timing, amount, scope, intended use, and anticipated benefits of those investments; the ongoing buildout of infrastructure at the Yokkaichi Plant and the Kitakami Plant; the impact of artificial intelligence and data-driven applications on demand for high-performance flash memory technologies and the companies’ ability to support such demand; the companies’ long-standing joint venture, including its durability, long-term success, and ability to deliver leading-edge flash memory innovations at scale and with stability; the role of the companies’ investments in supporting economic growth, regional economic development, the long-term growth objectives of the joint venture, multi-year bit-supply growth, and advanced manufacturing scale, and the impact of these investments on the U.S.-Japan relations. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Key risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include: adverse changes in global or regional economic conditions, including the impact of evolving trade policies, tariff regimes, and trade wars, and the effects of global health crises; volatility in demand for the Company’s products; pricing trends and fluctuations in average selling prices; inflation; changes in interest rates and a potential economic recession; the impact of business and market conditions; the impact of competitive products and pricing; development and introduction of products based on new technologies and management of technology transitions; risks associated with strategic initiatives, including restructurings, acquisitions, divestitures, cost saving measures and joint ventures; risks related to product defects; difficulties or delays in product ramps, manufacturing or other supply chain disruptions; reliance on strategic relationships with key partners, including Kioxia Corporation; risks related to the Company’s long-term agreements, or "NBMs"; fluctuation of operating results, including due to changes in demand, industry cycle and timing of customer deployments, and the Company’s ability to accurately forecast demand; the attraction, retention and development of skilled management and technical talent; risks associated with the use of artificial intelligence in the Company’s business operations; risks related to financial guarantees and other financial obligations; risks related to the Company’s share repurchase program; changes to the Company’s relationships with key customers or consolidation among the Company’s customer base; compromise, damage or interruption from cybersecurity incidents or other data system security risks; reliance on intellectual property; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; actions by competitors; risks associated with compliance with changing legal and regulatory requirements; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on August 17, 2026, to which your attention is directed. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect new information or events, except as required by law.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260827797147/en/
Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.
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Nvidia’s AI ramp is directly tied to HBM demand, and MU is already shipping HBM4 for Nvidia’s Vera Rubin (36GB, higher bandwidth and >20% better power efficiency). The article shows MU’s fundamentals improving fast (revenue and cash flow/FCF up sharply), while the stock is being sold on “can MU scale shipments + protect pricing/margins?” That’s a timing dislocation: if Vera Rubin ramps as expected, MU’s HBM4 volumes should catch up and margins follow.
Key Risk: Vera Rubin production ramps slower than expected or MU can’t scale HBM4 shipments fast enough, leading to weak pricing/margins despite strong AI demand.
Sell Western Digital (WDC)
WDC is being hit by both market skepticism and analyst pressure (Summit Insights downgrade to Hold). Unlike MU’s clear HBM linkage, WDC’s near-term setup is more exposed to NAND/flash supply growth and pricing swings. With Kioxia/SanDisk planning $31B of Japan investment through 2032, the industry’s supply outlook can pressure flash pricing, hurting WDC’s earnings power even if AI stays strong.
Key Risk: Flash/NAND pricing holds up (or demand accelerates) enough that WDC’s earnings don’t get squeezed despite the new supply build.
Memory stocks fell on Thursday despite Nvidia's strong earnings and outlook supporting the broader technology sector.
Micron Technology MU declined 2%, while SanDisk fell 1.7% and Western Digital dropped 2.7% as investors appeared to weigh company-specific factors alongside the continued strength in artificial intelligence demand.
Nvidia reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $96.22 billion, up 106% from the prior year.
Data-center revenue reached $89 billion, while the company forecast current-quarter revenue of $108 billion, with a possible variance of 2%.
Nvidia's results are particularly relevant to Micron because high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is used alongside AI accelerators to supply them with data.
Micron began volume shipments of its 36-gigabyte HBM4 during the first quarter for Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform.
The component delivers more than 2.8 terabytes per second of bandwidth and is more than 20% more power efficient than Micron's HBM3E.
Micron's recent financial results also point to significant growth in the memory market.
Fiscal third-quarter revenue rose to $41.46 billion from $23.86 billion in the previous quarter. Operating cash flow more than doubled sequentially to $25.39 billion, while adjusted free cash flow reached $18.3 billion.
Despite these improvements, Micron shares declined on Thursday.
The movement suggests investors may be separating Nvidia's strong AI demand outlook from expectations for Micron's own ability to translate that demand into higher HBM shipments, pricing and margins.
Micron will need to scale shipments as Nvidia's Vera Rubin racks enter full-scale production while also managing conventional memory capacity to avoid a potential surplus.
BMO initiated coverage of Micron with a $1,300 price target on August 20, while Mizuho lowered its target to $1,300 from $1,375 on August 25.
The average price target among 47 analysts surveyed by S&P Global stood at $1,515. Of those analysts, 43 had Buy or Strong Buy recommendations.
SanDisk stock faced pressure after the company announced massive investment plans.
Kioxia and SanDisk announced plans to invest more than $31 billion in Japan through 2032, subject to government support.
The investments are expected to support infrastructure expansion at Kioxia's Yokkaichi Plant and Kitakami Plant, as well as related technology development.
The companies said the spending is intended to support multi-year flash memory supply growth and address demand for NAND flash memory.
Kioxia and SanDisk said they have invested more than $50 billion in Japan over the past 25 years through their joint venture partnership. In January, the companies extended their joint venture framework at the Yokkaichi Plant through December 2034.
Western Digital also faced pressure on Thursday. Its shares fell 3.6% to $452.
The stocks saw decline after an initial rally in memory and storage stocks after Nvidia's strong forecast. Summit Insights also downgraded Western Digital to Hold from Buy, adding further pressure to the shares.
Accelerating digital transformation, edge computing, the proliferation of AI workloads and enterprise cloud adoption are driving demand for reliable, scalable and cost-efficient data storage solutions, supporting long-term growth for the Zacks Computer-Storage Devices industry. As hyperscalers double down on AI clusters, companies like Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) are benefiting from orders for high-capacity hard disk drives (HDDs) and enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs) and emerging storage architectures. HDDs remain the most reliable and economical solution for mass data storage, forming the backbone of global data infrastructure.
As cyberattacks continue to increase in frequency, the demand for end-to-end encryption will also drive growth in secure storage solutions. These factors propel the demand for sophisticated data storage solutions, bolstering computer storage product requirements. These factors are favorable for prominent industry players like Sandisk Corporation (SNDK - Free Report) , Western Digital and Super Micro Computer (SMCI - Free Report) . Escalating trade and geopolitical tensions and their impact on supply chains, along with global macroeconomic turbulence and associated inflation, remain headwinds.
Industry Description The Zacks Computer-Storage Devices industry houses companies that design, develop, manufacture and market various HDDs and SSDs. These drives are utilized in PCs, laptops, mobiles, servers, network-attached storage devices, video game consoles, digital video recorders and other consumer electronic devices. Some industry participants, including Pure Storage, provide software-defined all-flash solutions that are uniquely fast and cloud-capable for customers. Many industry players offer high-performance modular memory subsystems, mount and blade server systems, enterprise storage and data management software, and hardware products and services. Some industry participants also provide purpose-built servers for storing and accessing data over a shared network or the Internet.
3 Trends Shaping the Computer-Storage Industry's Future AI’s Impact on the Storage Devices Industry: Rapid proliferation of AI is overhauling the entire tech landscape. AI workloads like training large language models and running inference are driving demand for high-speed, high-capacity and low-latency storage solutions. Traditional storage architectures are insufficient for the data throughput required by AI applications, prompting a transition toward NVMe-based SSDs (PCIe Gen 4/5/6), software-defined storage and storage-class memory. Object storage is best suited for storing unstructured data, a common prerequisite for AI workloads. Other fast-emerging solutions include Parallel File Systems Optimized for AI and QLC NAND SSDs for AI Data Lakes.
According to a report from Gartner, worldwide IT spending is now projected to reach $6.37 trillion in 2026, calling for an increase of 14.2% from 2025 levels, driven by data center systems and IaaS. Spending on data center systems is expected to be $822 billion in 2026, added the research firm.
Innovation in Cloud Storage Technologies to Drive Adoption: Broader storage options from collocated hardware (such as hard disks and tape drives) to many cloud storage solutions have put the industry on a growth trajectory. Industry players are well-poised for growth owing to a rapid increase in data, the complexity of data formats and the need to scale resources at regular intervals. These companies rely on AI for IT Operations and machine learning to manage and optimize storage solutions.
To streamline data storage, companies are focusing on virtualization technologies. As more data is added from IoT, companies are turning to edge computing architecture to reduce latency and boost flexibility. Moreover, increasing uptake of containerized applications is accelerating demand for Kubernetes-native storage solutions that enable greater scalability, portability and automation across cloud environments. These trends support wider deployments of scalable enterprise and hyperscale storage systems. Moreover, the industry’s focus is shifting from one-time hardware sales to recurring, usage-based revenue streams as cloud-native storage models (object storage and Storage-as-a-Service) gain traction.
Macro Conditions Remain a Concern: Escalating trade tensions and tariffs are emerging as a key concern. These are weighing heavily on global macroeconomic conditions and can disrupt supply-chain dynamics. Uncertainty in the macro backdrop and inflationary pressure could affect spending across small and medium-sized businesses globally. The uncertainty in business visibility could dent the industry’s performance in the near term.
Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Bright Prospects The Zacks Computer Storage industry is housed within the broader Zacks Computer and Technology Sector. The industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank #21, which places it in the top 9% of more than 247 Zacks industries.
The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, which is the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates bright near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than two to one.
Before we present a few stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio, due to bright prospects, let us look at the industry’s recent stock-market performance and valuation picture.
Industry Outperforms the S&P 500 and the Sector The Zacks Computer-Storage Devices industry has outpaced the S&P 500 composite and the broader sector in the past year.
The industry has risen 396.1% in this period compared with the S&P 500’s growth of 20% in the past year. The broader sector has gained 26.7% in the same time frame.
One-Year Price Performance
Industry's Current Valuation On the basis of forward 12-month Price/Earnings (P/E), which is a commonly used multiple for valuing computer storage device companies, we see that the industry is currently trading at 9.98X compared with the S&P 500’s 20.34X. The metric is also below the sector’s forward 12-month P/E of 20.82X.
In the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 97.84X and as low as 8.25X, with the median being 14.27X, as the charts below indicate.
Forward 12-Month Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio
Forward 12-Month P/E Ratio
3 Computer Storage Devices Stocks to Add to Portfolio Sandisk: SNDK was formed after Western Digital completed the separation of its HDD and Flash businesses into two independent, publicly traded companies, each with a specific focus on the respective market. Sandisk manages the Flash business.
Datacenter has become the company’s fastest-growing end market, rising from roughly 12% of its bits a year ago to 38% exiting fiscal 2026. Demand for NAND storage products is increasing rapidly as investments in data centers and AI infrastructure ramp up.
Sandisk is benefiting from its BiCS technology across TLC and QLC, while high-bandwidth flash also represents a longer-term opportunity. The company also started shipping the QLC Stargate platform, which expands its portfolio across performance-intensive compute workloads and high-capacity AI data lakes.
A key differentiator in Sandisk’s strategy is the introduction of the new business models (NBMs), which are reshaping its revenue visibility. Sandisk added that it has signed NBMs with eight customers, representing 50% of bits in fiscal 2027 and nearly two-thirds of bits in fiscal 2028
Revenues for the fiscal fourth quarter surged 51% sequentially and 372% year over year to $8.97 billion. Datacenter revenues rose 103% sequentially to $2.98 billion, while Edge revenues increased 48% to $5.43 billion.
Fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenues are expected to be in the range of $10.3-$10.8 billion, supported by bit growth and higher pricing.
At present, SNDK flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2027 bottom line is pegged at $213.30, unchanged in the past seven days. The stock has surged 2847.5% over the past year.
Price and Consensus: SNDK
It is gaining from AI infrastructure buildout and increasingly broadening enterprise CPU-based server, storage and IoT product lines. The company’s Data Center Building Block Solutions, or DCBBS, integrate GPU-CPU servers, enterprise storage, direct liquid cooling, high-speed data switch, chilled door, water tower and networking, data center management software, and full-cycle services, potentially improving both customer deployment times and SMCI’s profitability.
SMCI is ramping its manufacturing capacity and recently announced a new 32-acre DCBBS facility featuring advanced optical photonics networking labs and data center-scale manufacturing. Across the globe, total manufacturing capability remains on track to surpass 6,000 racks per month, including more than 3,000 direct liquid-cooled racks per month, as highlighted by the management on the last earnings call.
Fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 revenues rose 93% year over year to $11.1 billion, while non-GAAP gross margin jumped to 17.6%. More than $60 billion worth of new orders were received during the fiscal fourth quarter, strengthening backlog numbers. Management expects more than 80% of revenues going forward to be tied to AI-related solutions. For the fiscal first quarter, SMCI expects revenues of $14.5-$15.5 billion.
At present, SMCI sports a Zacks Rank #1. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its fiscal 2027 bottom line is pinned at $4.43, unchanged in the past seven days. The stock has declined 15% in the past year.
Price and Consensus: SMCI
Western Digital enters fiscal 2027 with strong demand visibility, led by AI, cloud expansion and the continued proliferation of data-intensive workloads. Management sees the shift from model training toward inference, agentic AI and physical AI as a structural source of capacity demand because these workloads generate and retain data continuously. Management expects physical AI to contribute to growth in calendar 2027 and beyond.
For the fiscal fourth quarter, revenues of $3.75 billion surged 44% year over year with fiscal 2026 revenues up 36% year over year to $12.9 billion. Nearline remains the key growth engine, while the company is ramping higher-capacity products to support rising storage requirements.
WDC is currently ramping UltraSMR with its third major customer and expects the technology to account for around 60% of nearline exabyte shipments exiting fiscal 2027.
Strong revenues and free cash flow generation are aiding in sustaining shareholder returns. The company returned $3.1 billion to its shareholders during fiscal 2026. In the fiscal fourth quarter, it repurchased common shares for $1 billion and paid $54 million in dividends. WDC expects the first quarter of fiscal 2027 revenues of $4.1 billion (+/- $100 million), implying 45% year-over-year growth at the midpoint.
At present, WDC holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WDC’s fiscal 2027 bottom line stands at $20.03, unchanged in the past seven days. The stock has skyrocketed 471.5% in the past year.
Key Takeaways SNDK has the edge, backed by stronger revenue and earnings momentum, margins and free cash flow.KLA sees AI infrastructure lifting process-control demand as chipmaking and packaging complexity rises.SNDK's multiyear customer deals improve visibility as Datacenter demand continues to outpace supply. KLA (KLAC - Free Report) and Sandisk (SNDK - Free Report) are both benefiting from strong AI infrastructure spending. AI infrastructure benefits KLA by increasing semiconductor manufacturing complexity and, consequently, the need for advanced process-control equipment. Sandisk is benefiting from rapidly expanding storage requirements. AI inference and agentic AI generate large amounts of data that must be stored, retrieved and served with low latency, driving demand for high-capacity NAND flash and enterprise SSDs.
So, KLAC or SNDK, which is a better buy under the current scenario?
The Case for KLAKLA is benefiting from rising semiconductor manufacturing complexity and accelerating investments in AI infrastructure. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, revenues increased 15% year over year to a record $3.66 billion, driven by strength in leading-edge foundry/logic, memory and advanced packaging. Semiconductor Process Control revenues rose 13% year over year to $3.26 billion, while PCB and Component Inspection revenues jumped 56%.
AI infrastructure remains a major long-term catalyst for KLAC. Increasing adoption of high-bandwidth memory, EUV in DRAM, hybrid bonding and advanced packaging is raising process-control intensity because increasingly complex chips require more inspection and metrology. KLAC now expects advanced packaging process-control systems revenues to reach approximately $1.1 billion in calendar 2026, representing growth of more than 70% and almost twice the expected growth rate of the overall advanced-packaging market. Specialty Process and PCB and Component Inspection products are expected to grow more than 25% in calendar 2026.
Near-term momentum remains favorable. KLAC expects revenues of $4 billion, plus or minus $200 million, for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, with a non-GAAP gross margin of 62.5% and earnings of $1.16 per share, plus or minus 10 cents. KLAC expects second-half calendar 2026 revenues to grow approximately 20% from the first half, followed by continued sequential growth into 2027.
However, memory-component pricing remains a margin headwind, while tariffs, trade restrictions and semiconductor capital-spending cyclicality add risks. Despite these challenges, KLAC's market leadership and exposure to multiple semiconductor technology transitions provide considerable business durability.
The Case for SandiskSandisk is experiencing substantially faster growth as AI inference transforms NAND demand. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, revenues surged 372% year over year and 51% sequentially to $8.97 billion, with approximately two-thirds of the sequential increase coming from higher pricing and one-third from higher volumes.
Datacenter has rapidly emerged as SNDK's most important growth engine. Fiscal 2026 Datacenter revenues surged 437% year over year to $5.15 billion, while Datacenter’s share of Sandisk’s bits increased from roughly 12% a year earlier to 38%. Sandisk has ramped BiCS 8 to the majority of bit production, supporting TLC and QLC products with better performance, density and power efficiency. The company also began revenue shipments of its QLC Stargate platform, broadening its portfolio across performance-intensive compute workloads and high-capacity AI data lakes.
SNDK's New Business Models (NBMs) also provide strong forward visibility for a historically cyclical NAND business. Sandisk has agreements with eight Datacenter and Edge customers, with a weighted-average duration exceeding four years. These agreements are expected to represent more than 50% of bits in fiscal 2027 and approximately two-thirds in fiscal 2028. Signed NBMs represent at least $93.9 billion of expected revenues at floor pricing, while remaining performance obligations would reach $91.1 billion, including agreements completed after the quarter. Customer financial guarantees total $16.5 billion.
SNDK expects first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenues between $10.3 billion and $10.8 billion, non-GAAP gross margin of 83%-85% and non-GAAP earnings in the $44-$46 per share range. Sandisk expects customer demand to continue exceeding supply, with bits remaining on allocation beyond calendar 2027. Adjusted free cash flow reached $5.04 billion, or 56% of revenues, in the fiscal fourth quarter, while Sandisk has $15.5 billion remaining under its share-repurchase authorization.
KLAC’s & SNDK’s Earnings Estimate Revision Goes NorthThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for KLA’s fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at $5.43 per share, up 7.1% over the past 30 days, indicating a 44.41% increase over fiscal 2026’s reported figure.
The consensus mark for SNDK’s fiscal 2027 earnings has jumped 10.6% to $213.30 per share over the past 30 days. The company reported earnings of $70.88 per share in fiscal 2026.
Stock Price Performance and ValuationKLA shares have returned 50.7% year to date, underperforming Sandisk’s appreciation of 527.1%.
Performance: KLAC vs. SNDK
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Valuation-wise, shares of both KLA and Sandisk are overvalued. In terms of forward 12-month price/sales, KLA shares are trading at 13.08X, higher than Sandisk’s 4.33X.
While KLA has a Value Score of D, Sandisk has a Value Score of C.
KLAC and SNDK Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
ConclusionSNDK appears to have the edge over KLAC right now. KLAC offers a highly attractive combination of process-control leadership, recurring service revenues, strong margins and relatively durable exposure to semiconductor capital spending. However, SNDK currently offers significantly stronger revenue and earnings momentum, substantially higher margins and free cash flow, accelerating Datacenter exposure and improving visibility through multiyear NBMs. SNDK's combination of AI-driven demand, supply constraints, pricing strength and long-term customer commitments gives it the stronger near-term growth profile and the edge over KLAC.
Sandisk currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while KLA currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
After Western Digital spun off Sandisk (SNDK +0.00%) last February, the company returned to being a stand-alone specialist selling NAND flash storage accompanying solid-state drives (SSDs) into three end markets: data centers, edge devices like PCs, phones, cars, and gaming consoles, and branded consumer storage solutions.
This all sounds quite boring... that is, until the workloads leveraging Sandisk's products changed. Training and running large language models does not stop at consuming GPUs. Generative AI also consumes high-speed storage for data lakes, model weights, and cache as inference deployments scale.
AI hyperscalers are increasingly expanding their capital expenditure (capex) budgets downstream (beyond chips), creating something of a supercycle in the memory market. Here's the thing: Most investors following the AI trade already know these industry dynamics. What they may not know, however, is how to price the scale of this move.
Over the past year, Sandisk stock has risen roughly thirtyfold. In 2026 alone, shares are up more than 500%, and that's after sliding about one-third from its peak back in June. The question is whether Sandisk's rally is finished. The case that it is not hinges on one number: $93.9 billion. Read on to learn why this figure is key to Sandisk's future.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Sandisk's growth looks familiar For the fiscal year ended July 3, Sandisk generated $20.2 billion in revenue, up 175% year over year. The company earned $73.76 GAAP earnings per share (EPS) after posting a loss in the year prior. On the surface, these figures don't reveal much other than that Sandisk is booming. But why? It's the company's revenue mix that tells the real story.
Edge remains Sandisk's largest business at $12.2 billion, up 195% year over year. This makes sense as AI-enabled PCs and phones are absorbing more flash. Sales from the company's Consumer division grew by a modest 29% to $2.9 billion. Meanwhile, Sandisk's data center business jumped 437% to $5.2 billion. During the fourth quarter alone, data center revenue nearly doubled sequentially to $2.9 billion and was up more than twelvefold from a year ago.
The rate of this growth is not merely a pedestrian imitation of Nvidia's (NVDA -4.58%) first surge during earlier phases of the AI revolution. During Nvidia's fiscal 2024, the company's data center revenue rose 217% to $47.5 billion. In the following year, Nvidia's data center business grew 142% to about $115 billion.
It makes sense that Sandisk's data center operation is smaller than Nvidia's in absolute dollars. A couple of years ago, the hyperscalers prioritized GPU procurement above anything else in the chip value chain. However, smart investors are starting to realize that initial waves of GPU demand fueled the current tailwinds supporting the AI memory landscape. Underneath the surface, investors can see that the percentage climb in Sandisk's data center business is already in the same neighborhood as Nvidia's early breakout.
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Sandisk's new contracts are like Nvidia's chip architecture launches The $93.9 billion figure referenced above is Sandisk's floor, not a lofty forecast. The company has signed New Business Model (NBM) agreements with eight data center and edge customers. These deals lock in committed bit volumes and mix fixed and variable pricing with floors and ceilings.
According to management, the NBMs run as long as five years and have a weighted average term of more than four years. At the end of the fourth quarter, Sandisk boasted $59.8 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPO), a figure that climbed to $91.1 billion after accounting for two post-quarter agreements.
The structure of these deals does for Sandisk what a new chip architecture used to do for Nvidia. When Nvidia first announced Hopper or Blackwell, the hyperscalers lined up almost immediately, providing the company with years of visible data center demand. Sandisk's new business contracts perform the same job without a product codename attached. In other words, these agreements convert Sandisk's historically cyclical price swings into a more defined backlog.
Sandisk stock is cheap relative to Nvidia's early breakout Despite a stock price of nearly $1,500, the market is treating Sandisk stock like a cyclical memory name. Sandisk's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is around 20, while its forward earnings multiple hovers around 7.
SNDK PE Ratio data by YCharts.
In comparison, Nvidia was never this inexpensive on a forward basis in fiscal 2024 and 2025. Back then, Nvidia's forward P/E initially popped to around 30, but eventually sustained above 50 as the company captured the bulk of the initial AI infrastructure build-out.
NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.
Sandisk is unquestionably the cheaper stock in this comparison, and by a wide margin. A company whose data center business is compounding at Nvidia-like rates, and that has nearly $94 billion of minimum contracted revenue, is being priced as if a downcycle is the base case. To me, this is the tell.
Sure, Sandisk's stock price has had a spectacular year so far, but its underlying valuation hasn't had its "Nvidia moment" yet. If the company's revenue mix continues shifting toward the data center segment, expansion in Sandisk's multiples should be inevitable.
