Milpitas, California, May 8, 2026, 09:07 PDT
SanDisk shares jumped nearly 12% in Friday morning trading, pushing toward $1,500 and extending a record run after analysts lifted forecasts on the back of surging AI-linked storage demand. The stock recently traded at $1,497.99 after touching $1,498.30, giving the company a market value of about $235 billion.
The move matters now because the AI trade has spread beyond graphics processors and into NAND flash, a type of storage memory used in solid-state drives and other data devices. Higher demand from big cloud customers is lifting prices for SanDisk and memory peers such as Micron and Western Digital, while also putting pressure on buyers of consumer electronics.
SanDisk last week reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $5.95 billion, up 251% from a year earlier, and GAAP net income of $3.62 billion. Datacenter revenue rose 233% sequentially to $1.47 billion, while the company forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion and adjusted diluted earnings of $30 to $33 a share.
The company also said it had signed three “New Business Model” agreements in the quarter and two more early in the current quarter. In plain English, those are multi-year customer supply deals with financial commitments, an effort to make a historically boom-and-bust memory business less dependent on spot pricing. Sandisk
A May 1 filing showed $41.6 billion in remaining performance obligations, mainly tied to long-term customer agreements, with about 15% expected to be recognized as revenue over the next 12 months. The same filing said customer advances pushed contract liabilities to $511 million at April 3.
Chief Executive David Goeckeler told Reuters the company was trying to move away from “the boom-bust cycle” and toward “consistent, predictable economics.” He said the five agreements range from one to five years, with three signed in the March quarter worth at least $42 billion. Reuters
Wall Street has moved fast. Bernstein raised its target on SanDisk to $1,700 from $1,250, while Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan lifted his target to $1,550 from $1,080 and kept a buy rating, TheStreet reported. Mohan wrote that the contracts offer protection if customers back out in a downcycle, adding: “This dynamic offers some protection to SNDK.” TheStreet
Other firms have followed, though not in lockstep. Investing.com reported that Cantor Fitzgerald raised its target to $1,800, Jefferies to $1,400 and RBC Capital to $1,000, reflecting both optimism over NAND pricing and a wide spread in views on how long the margin surge can last.
Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider raised his target to $1,200 from $700 and kept a buy rating, citing strong pricing, tight supply-demand conditions and rising demand for datacenter SSDs, or solid-state drives used to store and retrieve data in servers. Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis also pointed to five long-term customer agreements, including some contracts stretching beyond 2030.
But the risk sits in the same contracts that investors now like. SanDisk warned in its quarterly filing that long-term deals expose it to execution, financial and market risks; if it cannot deliver required volumes or specifications, it could face price or volume reductions, damages or termination, and customer guarantees may not fully offset lost revenue.
For now, investors are paying for the possibility that AI storage demand has changed SanDisk’s earnings profile, not just delivered one strong quarter. The next test is whether NAND pricing and contracted demand hold once cloud customers move beyond urgent capacity buying.
