Jan 29 (Reuters) - Western Digital WDC.O forecast third-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, signaling that demand for its hard drives and flash storage for AI servers would continue to drive growth.

Shares of the San Jose, California-based company were up around 2% in after-hours trading. The stock rallied over the past year, having more than tripled in 2025.

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and data-driven workloads by hyperscalers, powered by staggering demand for hard drives in the global race to scale up AI-related infrastructure, is driving robust demand for Western Digital's products and solutions.

Western Digital's high-capacity hard disk drives, or HDDs, are essential for mass-storing the vast datasets used to train AI models, while its enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs) provide the high-speed performance needed for AI workloads.

Analysts also see a stable pricing environment as demand continues to outpace supply.

Western Digital expects third-quarter adjusted revenue of $3.2 billion, plus or minus $100 million, compared with analysts' estimate of $2.96 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

It sees adjusted earnings per share of $2.30, plus or minus 15 cents, compared with estimates of $1.96 per share.

Western Digital's second-quarter revenue came in at $3.02 billion, compared with the analysts' average expectation of $2.92 billion.

Meanwhile, memory storage firm Sandisk SNDK.O also beat Wall Street expectations for second-quarter revenue on Thursday, sending its shares up around 12% in extended trading.

Sandisk reported second-quarter revenue of $3.03 billion, compared with estimates of $2.64 billion.