Sandisk’s historic run is still taking off. Shares surged once again after the company issued earnings guidance that crushed Wall Street forecasts, extending a rally that now totals roughly 1,600% since its February 2025 IPO. This rally marks one of the most explosive climbs seen in a major tech stock in years.
The move highlights a powerful market shift: investors are rotating from AI hype at the software layer to the hardware backbone that makes large-scale AI possible. Sandisk, once seen as a cyclical memory supplier, is now viewed as core AI infrastructure.
AI Workloads Are Rewriting the Memory Story
The driver is a structural change in demand. AI models require massive data storage and ultra-fast access, pushing up demand and pricing for high-performance NAND flash. Analysts across major financial outlets described the company’s outlook as unusually strong, with profit projections landing far above consensus and prompting a wave of estimate revisions.
What stands out isn’t just growth, it’s the speed of the turnaround. Memory had been stuck in a deep downturn just two years ago. Now, AI data center expansion is creating one of the sharpest recoveries the sector has seen, with SanDisk emerging as a prime beneficiary.
Why the 1,600% Rally Isn’t Just Momentum
That gain reflects a re-rating, not just a squeeze. Investors are pricing Sandisk less like a boom-and-bust component maker and more like a strategic AI infrastructure provider.
Key forces behind the move:
- Exploding data center storage demand tied to AI training and inference
- Rapid upward revisions to earnings and revenue forecasts
- Valuation that still looks reasonable relative to projected growth
The result: a stock that has multiplied more than sixteenfold in under a year while still attracting new buyers.
Risks Haven’t Disappeared
Not every memory name is rising with it. Some peers posted solid numbers but failed to rally, showing the market is rewarding companies most directly tied to AI capacity growth. That selectivity also means expectations are high — and any slowdown in demand, pricing, or orders could trigger sharp swings. Memory remains cyclical by nature, even if AI is muting the traditional pattern.
Looking Ahead
The next test is sustainability. If AI infrastructure spending continues at the current pace, Sandisk could remain a leader in the hardware side of the AI build-out. But after a 1,600% surge, each earnings report carries more weight, and volatility is likely to stay elevated. For now, investors are treating storage not as a background component, but as a front-line asset in the AI economy — and SanDisk is one of its biggest beneficiaries.
