New York, February 18, 2026, 17:07 (EST) — After-hours
- Sandisk shares climbed roughly 1.6% late, recovering after a volatile session.
- Western Digital is selling 5.82 million Sandisk shares through a secondary offering, with the price set at $545.
- Settlement’s lined up for Feb. 19, leaving Western Digital holding roughly 1.69 million shares once it’s done.
Sandisk Corp’s stock climbed roughly 1.6% to $600.40 in after-hours moves Wednesday, following news that Western Digital—its former parent—set the price on a $3.17 billion secondary offering, putting a new chunk of shares up for grabs below market value. During the day, Sandisk traded between $560.59 and $616.68, with volume reaching around 25 million shares.
This one hits just as storage and memory stocks have surged, fueled by hefty AI infrastructure outlays. Here, a secondary offering means an existing holder is offloading shares—no new cash goes to the company itself. Still, more shares in the market can pressure prices, at least for now.
Western Digital expects the move to reduce its debt load, part of ongoing efforts after last year’s split of its flash unit into Sandisk. The deal hands over about 5.8 million Sandisk shares to affiliates of J.P. Morgan and BofA Securities in exchange for debt, with Western Digital planning to gradually offload its remaining Sandisk holdings.
Sandisk priced 5,821,135 shares at $545 apiece, saying it won’t see any of the proceeds. The deal should wrap up by Feb. 19, 2026. Once the debt-for-equity swap is done, Western Digital will be left with 1,691,884 Sandisk shares—those are earmarked for future exchanges or distributions to its shareholders.
According to a prospectus supplement filed with the U.S. SEC, Western Digital plans to swap shares in exchange for term loans worth about $3.086 billion. Those loans are set to be cancelled and retired once the transaction wraps. The filing also listed Sandisk’s outstanding shares at 147.6 million as of Feb. 6, pegging the deal’s block at about 4% of that total.
Stocks rallied across the board. Big tech names and AI plays bounced back, pushing the S&P 500 up 0.56% and sending the Nasdaq 0.78% higher by the close, Reuters reported. “Weakness in tech was bound to bring in the marginal buyer,” Baird investment strategy analyst Ross Mayfield said. Reuters
Sandisk is playing the same angle. On its latest quarterly call, the company flagged a pickup in enterprise solid-state drive demand—those quick flash units favored by data centers—as cloud heavyweights scale up for AI. CEO David Goeckeler said Sandisk is “accelerating enterprise SSD deployments” in response to growing AI requirements. Sandisk
Yet for most traders, a discounted block often sets an immediate cap, regardless of whether the seller just wants to tidy up the balance sheet, not signal anything negative about operations. That offering price? It’s the new benchmark, at least for now.
An overhang risk still looms. Western Digital has made clear it intends to offload the remainder of its Sandisk stake—a move that could keep shares under pressure. Any subsequent sale or distribution, especially if liquidity dries up, might add extra strain.
There’s also the question of the cycle. Flash memory prices are known for their wild moves—momentum can stall in a hurry if AI-driven demand loses steam or supply outpaces it.
Come Thursday, eyes are on the Feb. 19 settlement and whether the stock hangs near that $545 offering price as fresh shares hit the market. After that, investors are looking for news on Western Digital’s leftover stake, plus any indication that AI-fueled storage demand is sticking around into next quarter.
