New York, Feb 23, 2026, 10:03 EST — Regular session.
- Sandisk shares jumped roughly 5% in early trading, following a turbulent start to the session.
- Traders are watching Western Digital’s stake reduction and its implications for SNDK stock supply.
- All eyes shift to Feb. 25, as investors scan for new cues on AI infrastructure demand.
Sandisk Corp jumped 5.2% to $683.53 mid-morning Monday, with shares bouncing from $645.88 up to $691.50. Volume hit roughly 5 million shares traded.
The flash-memory manufacturer now stands in as a proxy for the growing AI data-center buildout. Demand for NAND flash—the storage chips powering solid-state drives—has pinched supply in some areas and handed memory suppliers more pricing leverage up the chain.
The stock’s showing a sharper edge lately—any sign of softer demand, or a flood of sellers, and it moves right away. This week, both are in play.
Western Digital last week announced plans to raise $3.17 billion by offloading part of its Sandisk stake, agreeing to exchange around 5.8 million Sandisk shares for debt held by JPMorgan and BofA Securities affiliates. The move, according to Western Digital, will help shave down its $4.69 billion debt load as of January. After the deal, the company expects to hang onto roughly 1.7 million Sandisk shares, with an eye toward selling those too.
Sandisk shares were priced at $545 each in the deal, but with no new stock being issued, the company isn’t pocketing any of the proceeds—this is a secondary sale by an existing shareholder. Evercore ISI’s Amit Daryanani called out Western Digital’s faster debt paydown as a result, and flagged possible capital moves like buybacks.
The memory crunch theme isn’t letting up. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis described the supply bottleneck as a memory “choke point” for AI, with major tech firms scrambling for what’s available. Business Insider
Sandisk echoed the trend in its own results: Fiscal second-quarter revenue landed at $3.03 billion, with non-GAAP earnings coming in at $6.20 per share as of late January. For the third quarter, the company is looking at revenue between $4.40 billion and $4.80 billion. CEO David Goeckeler called Sandisk’s products a “critical role” in powering AI. Sandisk
Western Digital shares picked up 0.8% as trading opened Monday.
Management commentary is up next, plus whatever signals the AI bellwethers send. Hyperscalers—those giants running the major clouds—have the power to swing component demand just by tweaking their capex.
The situation isn’t one-way. Memory supply could ramp up sooner than forecasts suggest, or AI infrastructure budgets might not materialize as hoped. That could erode Sandisk’s pricing power in a hurry. And Western Digital? Its sizable stake remains an overhang, regardless of when it decides to sell.
Sandisk execs will take the stage Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET for Bernstein’s “What’s Next in Tech?” TMT forum. The company plans to webcast the event. Seeking Alpha
Nvidia is set to hold its quarterly results call at 5 p.m. ET, a moment watched closely by investors tracking the pace of AI development and its supply chain.
