New York, Jan 6, 2026, 4:22 PM EST — After-hours
- Sandisk led U.S. storage and memory stocks higher after Nvidia sharpened focus on AI-driven data-center storage demand at CES.
- The move extended a sector-wide rally that also lifted Western Digital, Seagate and Micron.
- Investors’ next key check-in is Sandisk’s Jan. 29 earnings call and guidance on demand and pricing.
Sandisk Corp shares jumped 27.6% on Tuesday and were last up the same at $349.57 in after-hours trading, as investors piled into storage and memory names after Nvidia’s CES updates highlighted rising data-center storage needs for AI systems. Western Digital rose 16.8%, Seagate climbed 14.0% and Micron gained 10.0%. The stock traded between $281.59 and $352.36 in the session.
Nvidia on Monday introduced an “Inference Context Memory Storage Platform” powered by its BlueField-4 data processor, saying AI models generate vast amounts of context data that must move quickly around a data center. That context often sits in a key-value cache — a memory store that helps a model handle long prompts — and Nvidia said keeping it on GPUs can bottleneck real-time inference, when the model produces answers. “AI is revolutionizing the entire computing stack — and now, storage,” CEO Jensen Huang said. 1
Nvidia also used CES to roll out its Rubin platform, a six-chip system it said is now in full production. “Rubin arrives at exactly the right moment,” Huang said, as the company pitched large cuts to the cost per token — the unit of text an AI system produces — versus its Blackwell generation. 2
Sandisk said at CES it is renaming its internal NVMe solid-state drive lineup — known as SSDs, flash-based storage used in PCs and servers — as “SANDISK Optimus,” replacing the WD_BLACK and WD Blue brands. “The SANDISK Optimus brand redefines what performance means for consumer needs,” Heidi Arkinstall, Sandisk’s vice president of global consumer brand and digital marketing, said. Sandisk said its top Optimus GX PRO tier is aimed at developers and professionals building AI PCs and workstations. 3
Sandisk, a flash-memory company spun out of Western Digital in February 2025, has become one of the market’s standout AI-related trades, helped by demand for enterprise SSDs in data centers, Investopedia reported. The report said the company did not appear to issue press releases or regulatory filings on Tuesday and noted Sandisk joined the S&P 500 in late November. 4
Tuesday’s move underscores how investors are treating storage as a critical link in the AI supply chain, alongside chips and networking. For Sandisk, the next question is whether cloud customers keep buying higher-capacity drives fast enough to support pricing and margins through 2026.
The rally has also sharpened focus on technical levels after the stock pushed through $300 and briefly traded above $350. With volatility elevated, those round numbers are likely to act as near-term reference points for momentum trading.
But memory remains a cyclical business and supply can swing quickly. Any sign that AI data-center spending is slowing, or that NAND flash pricing is easing, could cool the rally.
Investors now look to Sandisk’s fiscal second-quarter results and conference call on Jan. 29 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time (4:30 p.m. ET) for updates on demand, pricing and the pace of new product rollouts. 5
