SanDisk Corp. (SNDK.US), a global leader in SSD storage products, released its fiscal Q1 2026 earnings report before the market opened on Friday, Beijing time. The results significantly exceeded Wall Street analysts' average expectations, further validating the "storage super cycle" narrative led by industry giants such as Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron Technology, Western Digital, and Seagate. The explosive demand for AI training/inference computing power and the recovery in consumer electronics driven by on-device AI adoption have fueled rapid expansion in DRAM/NAND storage products, particularly HBM memory in the DRAM segment and enterprise-grade SSDs in the NAND space.

In February 2025, Western Digital (WDC.US) completed the spin-off of its flash memory business, with SanDisk re-emerging as an independent company focused on NAND Flash chips and SSD storage products. SSDs, which use NAND Flash as the primary storage medium, are widely deployed in computers, servers, and data centers. The SSD market is highly concentrated, with SanDisk ranking behind Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. Since its spin-off, SanDisk's stock has surged nearly 500%, driven by unprecedented AI-driven storage demand. Following the strong earnings release, SanDisk's shares jumped over 10% in after-hours trading.

As AI training/inference systems push the limits of computing hardware (GPU/HBM), the bottleneck shifts to efficiently feeding massive datasets to these systems—a role perfectly suited for enterprise SSDs. SanDisk's Q1 revenue rose 23% YoY and 21% QoQ to $2.31 billion, beating the $2.1 billion consensus. Non-GAAP EPS reached $1.22, far exceeding last quarter's $0.29 and the $0.89 estimate. Operating profit soared 878% QoQ to $176 million ($245 million non-GAAP, up 145%), while net income hit $112 million (vs. a $23 million loss in Q4). Gross margin improved to 29.8% from 26.2%.

Data center revenue surged 26% QoQ, supported by supply agreements with two hyperscale operators. SanDisk plans to add a third hyperscaler and a major storage OEM in 2026 and is in advanced talks with five others. For Q2, management guided revenue of $2.55–$2.65 billion (vs. $2.36 billion consensus) and non-GAAP EPS of $3.00–$3.40 (vs. $1.82 estimate), signaling strong demand for high-capacity enterprise SSDs.

Wall Street's bullish sentiment on storage stocks continues to grow, with analysts viewing the AI boom as still in its early stages. Morgan Stanley reiterated its "Overweight" rating on SanDisk, raising its price target from $95 to $230, while Bank of America lifted its target from $125 to $230. SanDisk closed at $207.69 on Thursday.

**Enterprise SSDs: A Prime AI Beneficiary** SanDisk is aggressively expanding its AI/data center eSSD (enterprise SSD) portfolio, with orders already boosting growth. The company highlighted progress in certifying its UltraQLC high-capacity SSDs with hyperscalers and storage OEMs, including NVIDIA’s flagship GB300 GPU. Its 256TB UltraQLC NVMe SSD, launched in August 2025, targets AI workloads like data ingestion and AI data lakes, optimizing total cost of ownership (TCO).

Enterprise SSDs strike an optimal balance between throughput, latency, capacity, power efficiency, and cost, making them ideal for AI GPU/ASIC clusters. Positioned between high-speed HBM/DRAM and slower HDD/object storage, they excel in inference and multi-model services by reducing cold starts and model-switching overhead. McKinsey projects a 35%+ CAGR for enterprise SSD demand from 2024–2030, with AI inference/RAG scenarios potentially exceeding 100%.

**The Storage Super Cycle Is Here** From OpenAI’s nearly $1 trillion in AI infrastructure commitments to the $500 billion "Stargate" project, these initiatives rely heavily on NVIDIA GPUs and high-performance storage (HBM, enterprise SSDs/HDDs, DDR5). While NVIDIA leads the AI hardware race, storage providers like SK Hynix, Samsung, Micron, Seagate, and Western Digital are key beneficiaries. Morgan Stanley notes that enterprise storage demand has driven triple-digit stock gains this year, outpacing broader markets.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s recent projection of $500 billion in data center revenue from Blackwell and Rubin GPUs over the next five quarters has further excited Wall Street. With governments and tech giants pouring funds into AI infrastructure, the "AI faith" fueling rallies in NVIDIA, TSMC, Micron, SK Hynix, and others shows no signs of fading.