Sandisk (SNDK) has turned into one of the market’s loudest AI winners, and the move is starting to look less like a quick trade and more like a full-blown rerating. The flash-memory maker has ridden a wave of demand from AI data centers, where storage has become one of the hottest bottlenecks in the buildout. Reuters said the stock jumped to fresh highs on May 28 as analysts again lifted targets, while investors kept betting that memory shortages could last well into the cycle.
Sandisk is not some new AI startup trying to catch a trend. It is an old storage name that got a new life after spinning out from Western Digital (WDC) in February 2025. Since then, it has become a pure-play NAND story, with its chips showing up in everything from consumer drives to enterprise storage systems. That matters now because AI workloads are eating memory at a pace the market did not fully appreciate a year ago
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How Did SNDK Stock Perform?
The stock’s run has been wild. It closed at $1,641.64 on May 28, after touching an intraday record of $1,697.96, and it has climbed more than 4,300% since the spinoff. The stock is up 597.4% year-to-date (YTD), while the 12-month gain sits at 4,191%. AI demand, tight supply and hopes for high-bandwidth flash for later in 2026 have kept buyers interested even after the huge move.
On valuation, Sandisk still does not look as crazy as the chart does. The stock is trading at 25 times forward earnings, in line with the broader semiconductor index. That is the strange part of this story. The market has already marked the shares up like a momentum rocket, but the earnings multiple still looks restrained for a name tied to one of the strongest demand waves in tech.
Sandisk’s Next AI Growth Driver
The next leg could come from high-bandwidth flash, or HBF, which is Sandisk’s attempt to push flash storage closer to the speed needs of AI systems. Investors like that because it gives the company another way to stay relevant even if the current pricing boom cools.
A fresh report said Sandisk is set to launch HBF products later in 2026, and that helped keep the AI-memory trade in focus. In other words, this shows Sandisk trying to turn a commodity-like business into a more strategic part of the AI stack.
Sandisk Tops Q1 Earnings Report
The latest quarter made that case even louder. For fiscal third quarter 2026, Sandisk posted revenue of $5.95 billion, up 251% from a year earlier, and adjusted earnings of $23.41 a share, versus a loss of $0.30 a share last year.
Data center sales jumped 233%, and Reuters said the company also signed five long-term supply agreements worth at least $42 billion in total. Management then guided for another huge quarter, calling for sales of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion and adjusted profit of $30 to $33 a share. The company authorized a $6 billion buyback, which is a pretty good clue that management thinks the cycle still has room to run.
Sandisk is trying to make the business less wild. It extended its Kioxia (KXIAY) joint venture through 2034, and the long-term contracts include price floors and ceilings to smooth out some of the memory-cycle drama. That helps explain why investors are warming to the idea that this is no longer just a boom-bust chip trade.
What Do Analysts Think of SNDK Stock?
Analysts are still chasing the stock, and they are not being shy. Mizuho lifted its target to $1,825, Barclays raised its call to $2,300 and upgraded the stock to “Overweight,” and Evercore started coverage with a $1,200 target and said Sandisk is becoming a structural AI beneficiary.
The majority of analysts now rate it a “Strong Buy,” even though many targets still sit below the current share price. That is the real debate here. Sandisk may still have upside, but after a move this big, the easy money is probably gone. What remains is whether AI memory demand stays hot long enough to justify the next leg higher.
On the date of publication, Nauman Khan did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com