New York, January 6, 2026, 16:58 (EST) — After-hours
- Western Digital shares jumped about 17% and traded above $219 after the bell
- Nvidia’s CES remarks on “context memory storage” helped lift storage and memory names
- Traders are watching U.S. labor data due Wednesday and Friday for the next macro cue
Western Digital Corp shares were up 16.8% at $219.38 in after-hours trading on Tuesday, after touching $221.16 earlier in the day. The move tracked a broader jump in data-storage stocks as investors leaned into demand tied to artificial-intelligence data centers. 1
The buying followed comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the CES tech show in Las Vegas, where he detailed a next-generation “Vera Rubin” chip platform and described a new layer of storage technology called “context memory storage.” Huang said the feature is designed to help chatbots respond faster to long questions and conversations. 2
Western Digital makes hard disk drives, selling into cloud, client and consumer markets, and has been one of the data-storage names investors have used as a proxy for AI infrastructure spending. Its cloud business serves public and private cloud environments and end customers, Reuters company data showed. 3
Storage and memory names broadly rallied on Tuesday. SanDisk jumped more than 27%, Seagate Technology gained 14% and Micron rose 10%, with all four stocks hitting record highs, Reuters reported. “I think we’re going to have a very strong earnings season for Big Tech,” said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital, who expects capital spending (capex) estimates to move higher again. 4
SanDisk, which was separated from Western Digital’s flash business, used CES to roll out a rebrand of its internal NVMe solid-state drives — a fast SSD interface used in PCs — under the “SanDisk Optimus” name. The company said the top “GX PRO” tier is aimed at developers, professionals and gamers building AI PCs and workstations, with the updated branding expected to reach select retailers in the first half of 2026. 5
Western Digital’s latest company guidance is older, but it has leaned into the same data-center narrative. In October, CEO Irving Tan said the firm was executing well in a “strong demand environment driven by growth of data storage in the cloud,” while CFO Kris Sennesael guided for fiscal second-quarter revenue of about $2.9 billion at the midpoint and non-GAAP EPS of about $1.88. The company said it completed the separation of its flash unit into SanDisk on Feb. 21, 2025. 6
But the rally also leaves less room for disappointment if pricing momentum cools or demand proves less durable than the market is betting. Morningstar analyst William Kerwin said Nvidia’s storage platform “would add more SSD storage to AI infrastructure to improve model speed,” while warning that today’s high prices may not be sustainable over the longer term. 7
Next, traders will focus on U.S. labor-market reports that can sway rate expectations and, by extension, high-multiple tech trades. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calendar shows the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey due on Wednesday, January 7, and the Employment Situation report for December due on Friday, January 9. 8
