New York, Feb 22, 2026, 12:42 ET — The market is shut.
- Western Digital closed out Friday with shares edging up 0.3%, finishing at $285.52.
- Investors are weighing a debt-reduction strategy linked to Western Digital’s last piece of its Sandisk holding.
- Up next for the company: management will appear at Morgan Stanley’s TMT conference March 3.
Western Digital shares edged up Friday, stabilizing after a volatile week. Investors now await new signals on cloud customer demand and updates on the company’s debt reduction push.
The clock’s ticking. When markets open Monday, traders zero in—again—on the question that’s pushed storage stocks for months: how long hyperscalers will keep pumping cash into AI infrastructure, and what impact that’s having on hard drive pricing power.
Western Digital is zeroing in on its balance sheet in the short run. The company’s been cutting debt, tapping proceeds from what’s left of its Sandisk stake—its old flash business.
Western Digital finished Friday at $285.52, a gain of roughly 0.3% over Thursday’s close. Shares moved in a range from $278.04 to $297.50 during the session. (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WDC/history/)
Western Digital earlier this week said it plans to raise about $3.17 billion by selling a chunk of its Sandisk stake, as it looks to bring down its debt load, which stood at $4.69 billion in January. The deal structure swaps Sandisk shares for Western Digital debt held by affiliates of J.P. Morgan and Bank of America. It’s a debt-for-equity move, retiring outstanding borrowings through stock rather than a cash payout. (https://www.reuters.com/business/western-digital-sell-317-billion-stake-sandisk-2026-02-18/)
Sandisk set the secondary offering price at $545 per share for about 5.8 million shares, with closing anticipated on Feb. 19 if standard conditions are met. The company added it isn’t selling any stock in the transaction and won’t see any proceeds. (https://investor.sandisk.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sandisk-announces-pricing-secondary-offering-common-stock)
The setup might ease nerves for some equity holders, since Western Digital sidesteps issuing fresh shares and still pares down debt. But there’s potential for lingering pressure if investors start betting that more Sandisk stock could hit the market down the line.
The company has been pushing its hard drives as the lowest-cost option for storing massive data generated by AI training and inference. Chief executive Irving Tan told investors that demand is so robust, portions of 2026’s production are already fully allocated, based on remarks reported in industry media. (https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/western-digital-is-already-sold-out-of-hard-drives-for-all-of-2026-chief-says-some-long-term-agreements-for-2027-and-2028-already-in-place)
Competition’s still a fact of life. Seagate is the nearest public rival in hard disk drives, and when data-center orders slow down or prices start to slide, the whole group usually feels it at once.
The risk is clear: if cloud capex growth stalls and drive prices stop rising, that operating leverage flips and cuts the other way. On top of that, a rough Sandisk stock sale could hit just as things get tricky.
All eyes will be on how the Sandisk stake deal will hit net debt, with any fresh details likely scrutinized in the coming week. The next chance for management to go public comes at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on March 3. (https://www.westerndigital.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/2026/2026-02-13-western-digital-to-participate-in-upcoming-investor-conference)
