Investopedia·2026-01-07 20:55Core Insights - Big tech stocks have seen a decline, but investor interest in momentum stocks remains strong, particularly in data storage following Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's comments on AI demand for memory and storage hardware [1][6] Group 1: Stock Performance - Sandisk (SNDK) shares surged over 27% on Tuesday, following a remarkable increase of more than 500% in 2025 and an additional 43% in the first three sessions of 2026 [2] - Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate Technology (STX) stocks, which tripled in value last year, rose 17% and 14% respectively on the same day [2] - Despite these gains, all three stocks experienced a pullback on Wednesday [2] Group 2: Market Dynamics - The AI sector has faced challenges, with concerns about an AI bubble impacting stock performance; as of Tuesday, all stocks in the Magnificent Seven, except Amazon (AMZN), were down this year [3] - Huang indicated that AI-specific storage and memory represent an unserved market, which is expected to become the largest storage market globally [4] - The demand for memory and data storage devices significantly outpaced supply last year, leading to a rise in prices; Micron's (MU) gross margins increased to 56% from 38% year-over-year [4] Group 3: Future Outlook - Companies like Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate are poised to benefit from the increasing data generated by AI, which is expected to double globally between 2024 and 2029 [5] - Analysts from Bank of America predict that the active data stockpile will continue to grow as organizations retain more information for AI training and analytics, forecasting 2026 as a significant year for AI inferencing [6]