Driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the global demand for data storage is experiencing an unprecedented boom. NAND flash storage manufacturer Sandisk (SNDK) is at the center of this surge, with its stock price rallying 27.6% on Tuesday.
This continues a meteoric rise that began around mid-last year, culminating in an astounding 871% gain over less than a year, making it the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 index last year. The momentum shows no signs of slowing in 2026.
Recent positive news flow is amplifying the heat in the memory sector. Industry research firm TrendForce reported that disciplined supplier capacity management and robust server demand, which is crowding out other applications, are expected to drive contract prices for all NAND Flash product categories up by 33–38% in the first quarter. Notably, solid-state drive (SSD) pricing is projected to surge over 40% quarter-over-quarter.
Adding to the sector tailwinds, Nvidia (NVDA) highlighted its new storage platform optimized for agentic AI inference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), promising up to five times greater power efficiency than traditional platforms. While no specific vendors were named, such efficiency gains are expected to significantly boost demand for AI inference servers, which predominantly use NAND flash as the preferred storage medium. Analysts suggest Nvidia’s innovation could sustain and extend the current memory “supercycle.”
This price surge, which began around mid-2025, is seen as a delayed reaction to the AI boom that took off in 2023. Following a prolonged post-pandemic downturn, expanding AI use cases—particularly agentic inferencing—are driving massive new demand for memory and storage across data centers and at the edge. While supply will eventually catch up, bringing new capacity online takes time, positioning major players for potentially another year or more of ultra-high profitability.
Sandisk’s journey has been marked by transformation. Originally acquired by Western Digital for approximately $16 billion in May 2016 (styled as “SanDisk”), the company regained its independence in February 2025 when Western Digital spun off its flash memory business, creating the newly independent “Sandisk.”
The company focuses on designing and manufacturing data storage devices based on NAND flash technology. While Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) remain cheaper, NAND SSDs offer superior speed, durability, and energy efficiency. Executives at Pure Storage (PSTG) have predicted that by 2028, practically no new all-HDD storage systems will be sold for enterprise data center computing, citing flash’s lower total cost of ownership despite a higher upfront cost.
Although HDDs have also seen significant price increases due to supply shortages, the long-term trend favors flash. According to Counterpoint Research, Sandisk gained 2 percentage points of NAND market share in the 12 months ending June 2025. While still ranked fifth, it gained ground as industry leaders Samsung, SK Hynix, and Kioxia each lost at least 2 percentage points of share. The only other notable gainer was fourth-place Micron Technology.
Wall Street projects Sandisk’s adjusted earnings to grow at an annual rate of 112% through the fiscal year ending June 2028. This robust growth outlook makes its current price-to-earnings ratio of around 110 times appear somewhat justified. However, the current supply-constrained environment may represent a peak in the NAND cycle. A potential future supply glut could lead to a significant downward re-rating of its valuation multiple.
This risk is reflected in tempered near-term expectations. Among 23 analysts covering the stock, the median price target is $280 per share, implying only about 4% upside from its current price of approximately $269.
