Sandisk’s 1,000% rally is turbocharged by Nvidia CEO’s remarks
Memory prices have been steadily climbing
[NEW YORK] Sandisk shares jumped as much as 25 per cent on Tuesday (Jan 6) hitting a record in their best intraday performance since February, after Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang highlighted the need for memory and storage in comments at the tech conference CES.
The stock is on a tear, leaping more than 40 per cent in the first three trading sessions of 2026 and soaring roughly 1,050 per cent since hitting a low on Apr 22. It’s the best performer in the S&P 500 Index Tuesday, followed by memory and storage companies Western Digital and Seagate Technology Holdings, both of which are posting double-digit percentage gains.
“For storage, that is a completely unserved market today,” Huang said at CES on Monday. “This is a market that never existed, and this market will likely be the largest storage market in the world, basically holding the working memory of the world’s AIs.”
Tight supply and a surge in memory pricing amid a growing need for artificial intelligence (AI) training and inferencing is helping to boost digital storage stocks, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Jake Silverman. Huang’s comments at CES “suggest that demand for Nand storage will remain robust across Nvidia systems,” he said.
Memory prices have been steadily climbing. Earlier this week, Korea Economic Daily reported that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were seeking to raise server DRAM prices by 60 per cent to 70 per cent in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of last year.
Sandisk and other memory and storage companies are seen as “key beneficiaries” of the push for “AI inferencing and AI at the edge” in 2026, Bank of America analysts led by Wamsi Mohan wrote in a note to clients on Jan 4. Mohan expects organisations to retain increasing amounts of data for training, analytics and compliance purposes, with demand for storage “skyrocketing in tandem”. In particular, he cited growing use in drones, surveillance, vehicles and sports technology.
“The focus of the AI investment theme has been levered so far to capex spending and a push for training AI models, that has created the next wave in hardware spending,” Mohan wrote. “As we look at 2026 and beyond, we expect AI Inference to dominate.” BLOOMBERG
Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
