SanDisk stock rallies after Sandisk earnings forecast cites AI-driven storage squeeze

SanDisk stock jumped Friday after Sandisk earnings topped expectations and management issued a sharply higher outlook, pointing to surging demand for enterprise solid-state drives and NAND flash tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure. The move pushed SNDK into the spotlight as investors increasingly treat storage as a potential bottleneck in the AI buildout—not just compute.

As of 12:17 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, SNDK stock was around $605, up about 12% from Thursday’s close, after touching an intraday high near $676.

Sandisk stock jumps on guidance and momentum

Friday’s rally extended a blistering month for sandisk stock, which has surged roughly 160% in January through Thursday’s close, propelled by the market’s renewed conviction that memory and storage suppliers can price tighter conditions for longer. Traders focused on the size of the company’s forecast beat: Sandisk’s midpoint outlook for the current quarter implies demand running well ahead of what Wall Street had modeled heading into the print.

The reaction also reflects positioning. After a rapid run-up, the bar for “good” results was high—yet the guidance was strong enough to pull more buyers in, even at elevated prices.

What Sandisk earnings showed in fiscal Q2

Sandisk reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 revenue of $3.03 billion and adjusted earnings of $6.20 per share, both above consensus expectations. The company emphasized a richer mix of higher-value products, especially enterprise SSDs, and a sharper ramp in data-center-related demand as cloud and AI deployments broaden.

The results reinforced the idea that Sandisk’s post–Western Digital separation has given investors a cleaner way to express a view on NAND and enterprise storage pricing power—without the same level of blended exposure across multiple storage categories.

AI is changing how investors view storage supply

A central driver of Friday’s move was management and analyst commentary around sustained tightness in memory and storage components. AI servers and data platforms are consuming more NAND capacity than prior cycles, and customers appear willing to pay for performance and reliability—particularly for enterprise SSDs that sit closer to mission-critical workloads.

That demand is colliding with a supply backdrop that hasn’t fully normalized. The market’s working thesis is that even incremental demand surprises can translate into outsized earnings power when inventories are lean and pricing firms—an equation that helps explain why sndk earnings can move the stock violently.

Longer-term manufacturing ties: Kioxia deal extension

Sandisk also highlighted a major strategic update: an extension of its flash memory supply and joint-venture framework with Kioxia through 2034. For investors, that kind of agreement matters because it supports longer-duration planning for capacity, technology transitions, and cost structure—critical variables in a market that can swing from glut to shortage.

While it doesn’t eliminate cyclicality, a longer runway with a key manufacturing partner can reduce uncertainty around supply access at moments when demand spikes faster than industry output.

What to watch next for SNDK stock

With the stock now pricing in a sustained “tight supply, strong demand” environment, the next catalysts are execution and confirmation:

• Whether pricing and product mix hold through the quarter implied by the $4.4B–$4.8B revenue outlook.

• Any signals that competitors are adding capacity aggressively enough to loosen conditions later in 2026.

• Updates on enterprise SSD adoption curves, especially among hyperscale and AI-centric customers.

• How quickly the market shifts from celebrating upside to demanding visibility, given how far the shares have already run.

For now, Sandisk has made a clear statement: AI-era infrastructure isn’t only about GPUs and compute—it’s also about the storage layers that keep those systems fed with data.

Sources consulted: Sandisk (Investor Relations press release); Reuters; Barron’s; Investor’s Business Daily; Business Wire.