MILPITAS, California, May 6, 2026, 08:01 PDT
Sandisk has smashed through the $200 billion mark in stock-market value, vaulting the recently spun-off flash-memory specialist into the upper ranks of U.S. semiconductor names riding the artificial-intelligence wave.
Shares were changing hands at $1,391.24 Wednesday morning, down from an earlier high of $1,507. The company’s market cap sat near $218.5 billion. Those moves have drawn new focus to a $4,000 one-year stock call—and raised the bigger question: can Sandisk turn its notoriously cyclical memory business into something resembling contracted infrastructure?
The timing is key as AI demand shifts past just chips used to train massive models. Companies now require high-speed storage for inference—the phase when AI models respond to queries, process lengthy documents, and need data within easy reach. NAND, the flash memory found in solid-state drives, has become a crucial piece of that infrastructure.
Last week, Sandisk announced five new long-term supply deals with customers; three of those are guaranteed to bring in at least $42 billion. Two more agreements have been secured this quarter. CEO David Goeckeler told Reuters the strategy is to break free from the sector’s “boom-bust cycle” and get to “consistent, predictable economics.” Reuters
Here’s what’s behind the surge: Fiscal Q3 revenue jumped to $5.95 billion, marking a 97% increase from the previous quarter and 251% above last year’s result. Non-GAAP EPS landed at $23.41. Datacenter sales soared, climbing 233% from Q2. Sandisk projects Q4 revenue in the $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion range, with adjusted earnings expected between $30 and $33 a share.
During the earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Luis Visoso highlighted that the new deals involve both fixed and variable pricing, financial guarantees topping $11 billion, and $400 million in prepayments already booked on the balance sheet. The company also introduced a discussion of remaining performance obligations—essentially contracted revenue waiting to be recognized—a yardstick typically associated with software but not often seen in the memory chip space.
Goeckeler pointed out that Sandisk’s data-center segment is seeing a lift from stronger enterprise SSD demand—these are the solid-state drives that power high-performance AI setups. NAND, he added, is now “a critical component” in AI infrastructure. Looking ahead, Sandisk expects revenue shipments of its QLC Stargate, the company’s higher-density flash line, to begin in the fiscal fourth quarter. The Motley Fool
Investor sentiment has shifted since Western Digital spun off the company in February 2025. According to Leverage Shares on TradingView, Sandisk is moving beyond its retail roots, now focusing more on corporate and data-center clients. Datacenter sales are taking a bigger slice, while consumer revenue plays a smaller part in the overall narrative.
Peers are in focus as well. Sandisk’s market value now sits above Western Digital’s $158.9 billion and Seagate’s $176.8 billion—both swept up in the AI-storage surge—though Micron is still in another league, standing at $743.3 billion.
The bullish chatter on Sandisk is picking up. On Wednesday, Motley Fool’s Harsh Chauhan floated a fresh target—$4,000 a share within a year—if earnings for fiscal 2027 land at $168 and the stock commands a 22x multiple. His reasoning? Tight supply, NAND prices moving higher, and new customer deals could keep the momentum alive.
There’s a more cautious angle here. The Techie over at Seeking Alpha points out the quarter leaned on price and product mix, not volume—bit shipments actually dropped by a high-teen percentage sequentially, and some technical signs look stretched. That’s the key risk: should NAND prices soften quicker than forecast, or if buyers start rejecting contract terms in a slacker market, Sandisk’s operating leverage could turn into a negative, just as quickly as it boosted results.
At this point, Sandisk is delivering an unusual mix for memory chip investors: a beat, a hefty buyback, surging AI storage demand, and customer contracts worth tens of billions. The big question? Whether those deals still look as strong once the present supply crunch fades.
