New York, January 8, 2026, 17:51 (EST) — After-hours
Sandisk (SNDK.O) shares were down 5.3% at $334.54 in late trading on Thursday, after closing the regular session sharply lower and erasing part of this week’s CES-fueled jump. The stock swung between $311.07 and $363.74 on the day after finishing Wednesday at $353.40.
The pullback hit other AI-linked memory and storage names too, with Western Digital down 6.1% and Seagate Technology off 7.7% in Thursday’s session. “It’s become a ‘show me’ sector,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, said, as investors grew pickier about richly valued AI beneficiaries. 1
That matters because Sandisk has turned into a fast-moving proxy for AI infrastructure spending — not just more servers, but more storage to feed them. When that trade stalls, the stock can gap and whip around, and it does not take much.
Sandisk ripped higher on Tuesday, rising more than 27% as chip and storage stocks rallied after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, speaking at CES in Las Vegas, detailed plans that included a new layer of storage technology. “We’re going to have a very strong earnings season for Big Tech,” said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital, pointing to expectations for higher capital spending. 2
The stock’s run since it returned to the market has been extreme. Sandisk, spun out of Western Digital in February 2025 at $36 a share, has climbed more than 800% since then, Barron’s reported. Morningstar analyst William Kerwin cautioned that today’s tight pricing could still normalize over the next few years. 3
A Form 144 filed on Jan. 7 also showed an insider’s intent to sell restricted stock — a notice that can precede sales by executives and other affiliates. 4
But the downside case is simple: memory and storage still live on cycles. If AI server buildouts pause, or if supply catches up faster than investors expect, pricing power can fade quickly and today’s valuation leaves little room for a stumble.
The next big company test is earnings. Sandisk said it will report fiscal second-quarter results on Jan. 29 and hold a conference call at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time, giving investors a fresh read on demand, pricing and guidance. 5
Before that, traders will watch Friday’s U.S. jobs report for any shift in rates and risk appetite. For Sandisk, the next hard catalyst is still Jan. 29 — and whether management can back up an AI-storage story that’s started 2026 with big moves in both directions.
