One of 2026’s wildest AI trades is not Nvidia. It is SanDisk.
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) was up more than 650% for the year after an 11% surge on September 18. The rally has turned a familiar memory manufacturer into one of the S&P 500’s best-performing stocks. Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) has enjoyed the same AI-memory shortage, but SanDisk’s move has been in another universe.
There was no single Friday announcement big enough to explain the latest jump. That makes the investor question more interesting: is SanDisk still repricing around structurally tighter storage demand, or has momentum outrun the underlying improvement?
AI is creating more than an HBM shortage
Training and inference get most of the attention because they consume GPUs and high-bandwidth memory. The output has to live somewhere. AI systems generate enormous quantities of data, model checkpoints and inference content, supporting demand for NAND flash and enterprise storage.
That is the direct channel for SanDisk Corporation. That leverage is already showing up in the numbers, with fiscal fourth-quarter revenue rising 51% sequentially to $8.97 billion, while datacenter revenue more than doubled sequentially. SanDisk also joined the S&P 100 on September 21, creating additional index-related demand.
The valuation risk is visible in the stock chart. A 655% year-to-date gain means investors are no longer paying for mere recovery. SanDisk now has to deliver sustained pricing, volume and margins into expectations that have changed radically.
Micron Technology, Inc. has a broader AI-memory position. It sells DRAM, HBM and NAND, so it can participate in both accelerator memory and storage demand. That diversification is attractive while memory remains tight, although it also exposes Micron to the same cyclical danger if new capacity eventually catches up.
Hedge funds were already moving before the latest surge
Insider Monkey’s database showed 128 hedge funds holding SanDisk in Q2, up from 114 in Q1. Arrowstreet Capital held roughly 2.17 million shares after trimming its position 24%. Micron’s holder count jumped much more sharply, to 184 funds from 154. Coatue Management increased its MU position by roughly 1,794% during the quarter.
SanDisk’s August 31 short interest stood near six million shares, approximately 4.1% of float, with about half a day to cover.
The AI-memory trade still has fundamental support. The harder question after a 655% gain is how much support the price already assumes. SanDisk now needs results worthy of one of the market’s most extraordinary rerating’s, while Micron offers a less explosive but broader way to own the same scarcity cycle.
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