New York, Feb 27, 2026, 10:02 EST — Regular session
- Sandisk shares slipped in early trading, erasing some of Thursday’s rebound and leaving SNDK choppy heading into month-end.
- SK hynix and Sandisk’s fresh move to standardize “High Bandwidth Flash” has thrown AI-infrastructure memory into the spotlight again.
- A new short call is circulating, with traders debating whether the rally has pushed past what the cycle can support.
Sandisk slipped 1.4% to $642.73 in early trading, following Thursday’s close at $651.90. Shares have been volatile all week, highlighting just how fast sentiment is shifting in AI-related storage stocks.
It’s significant: Sandisk, a name now heavily trafficked by traders betting on flash-memory shortages for data centers, is moving more on story than on hard figures. Since its split from Western Digital roughly a year back, the stock’s attracted a polarized crowd—momentum chasers on one side, doubters on the other.
SK hynix and Sandisk announced late Wednesday they’ve started working together through the Open Compute Project to set standards for “High Bandwidth Flash” (HBF). The companies are positioning HBF as a new tier, sitting between high-speed HBM (high-bandwidth memory) and SSDs (solid-state drives). SK hynix projects demand for advanced memory like HBF could ramp up by 2030. An executive pointed to ambitions to “optimize the entire ecosystem” supporting AI infrastructure. PR Newswire
Some skepticism has surfaced at these levels. Citron Research’s Andrew Left told investors this week he’s betting against Sandisk, claiming the stock is being “priced like it’s $NVDA.” Left cautioned that the memory sector is cyclical, and flagged the risk that Samsung might step up pressure as supply issues begin to resolve. Business Insider
Sandisk bucked the trend Thursday, climbing while other chip stocks faltered. Micron, Seagate, and Western Digital all faced selling, but Sandisk managed to close in positive territory.
Sandisk’s bullish comments on AI-fueled data center demand and constrained supply lit a fire under the stock, propelling last month’s robust outlook and sharpening the market’s focus on NAND flash pricing muscle. The chips, critical for SSDs, have kept investors zeroed in.
Sandisk execs are on deck for the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on March 3, then the Cantor Global Technology & Industrial Growth Conference just over a week later on March 11, a company notice shows.
Still, there’s a clear risk in the short term for bulls. Should NAND pricing momentum lose steam, or if AI infrastructure budgets shift, that premium could evaporate quickly. It can also take a while for standard-setting efforts to actually generate orders.
Right now, traders are eyeing whether Friday’s dip spirals into something steeper, and if Sandisk can use those March conference stops to finally put concrete figures behind its demand, supply, and the shift from “HBF” chatter to actual revenue.
