People stop scrolling when they see a certain type of stock chart. This year, SanDisk is one of them. The company has grown from a quiet spinoff that received little attention outside of the storage industry to one of the most well-known names on the NASDAQ, up more than 509% since January. Every time you visit a retail investor forum or walk onto a trading floor, someone is discussing SNDK. It’s difficult to ignore it.
The peculiar aspect of this story is how recently it started. After being split off from Western Digital, which had purchased it for $16 billion almost ten years prior, SanDisk didn’t go public again until February 24, 2025. The red-and-black memory cards found in camera bags and laptop sleeves made the SanDisk brand seem like a holdover from the days of digital cameras for many years. Few predicted that the same name would be directly linked to the surge in artificial intelligence infrastructure within a year of relisting.
The April 30 earnings report served as the catalyst, and even seasoned analysts appeared somewhat taken aback. $5.95 billion in revenue was $1.15 billion more than anticipated. The non-GAAP EPS came in at $23.41, nearly twice as much as the company had predicted for investors. Such numbers typically don’t come in quietly. The demand for TLC SSDs in the new wave of AI server build-outs drove the Data Center segment’s 645% year-over-year growth to $1.47 billion. Investors believe that the company is no longer evaluated using the outdated NAND cycle guidelines.
The quarter was a critical turning point, according to CEO David Goeckeler, who left Western Digital to head the new organization. In contrast to spot-market volatility, he discussed locked-in contracts and multi-year commitments with clients. The $42 billion backlog he mentioned during the call has evolved into a sort of benchmark for the bull case. Despite its recent rise, the company’s valuation may still have room to grow if even a portion of that translates into higher-margin revenue management.
Naturally, whether the market is pricing in too much too quickly is still up for debate. The stock recently retested the rising trendline that has supported it since April, pulling back from its all-time high of about $1,455 to about $1,382. Technical traders interpret the RSI’s neutral position with some positive divergence on the dip as cautiously constructive. However, anyone who has followed semiconductor stocks for a considerable amount of time will recall that NAND has a tendency to humble its supporters. Cycles come to an end. Pricing changes. Inventory increases.
However, the larger picture is important. The demand from AI data centers has surpassed anyone’s projections since the major three NAND manufacturers reduced their supply years ago. Gross margins increased dramatically from 51.1% in the previous quarter to 78.4% in the most recent, indicating pricing power rather than just volume. As this develops, there’s a subtle resemblance to Nvidia’s appearance in 2023, before the market as a whole realized what was about to happen.
For the time being, the company that began with three engineers and a solid-state storage concept in a Milpitas office in 1988 is, in some respects, back where it began, listed under the same SNDK ticker that it had before Western Digital ever entered the picture. It is difficult to ignore the comeback itself, regardless of whether the rally continues or cools.
