Why Sandisk, Memory Stocks Have Soared While the AI Trade Treads Water
Yahoo Finance·2026-01-07 20:28

Core Insights - Memory and storage stocks have shown significant performance, particularly in early 2026, driven by strong demand from the artificial intelligence sector [2][6] - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the unserved market for AI-specific storage and memory, predicting it will become the largest storage market globally [5] Company Performance - Sandisk (SNDK) shares surged over 27% on a recent Tuesday, following a remarkable increase of more than 500% in 2025 and an additional 43% in the first three sessions of 2026 [3] - Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate Technology (STX) also experienced substantial gains, with stock prices rising 17% and 14% respectively on the same day [3] - Memory chip maker Micron (MU) reported an increase in gross margins to 56% from 38% year-over-year, reflecting the high demand and supply constraints in the market [5] Market Dynamics - The AI sector has faced challenges, with many stocks in the "Magnificent Seven" underperforming, except for Amazon (AMZN) [4] - Despite concerns about an AI bubble, memory and storage stocks have thrived due to a severe supply crunch and booming demand [6] - The International Data Corporation forecasts that the amount of data stored worldwide will double between 2024 and 2029, indicating a growing market for data storage solutions [7]