New York, April 13, 2026, 11:08 EDT
Sandisk jumped 7.3% to $913.56 by 10:53 a.m. EDT on Monday, after Nasdaq disclosed late Friday that the stock will enter the Nasdaq-100, slotting in for Atlassian ahead of the April 20 open.
This tweak hits home for more than 200 investment products tied to the Nasdaq-100, collectively managing over $600 billion. Inclusion in the index tends to pull in fresh shareholders and boost liquidity. The move comes as investors rotate capital into AI hardware, stepping back from software stocks now under pressure as questions mount about how fast AI could disrupt legacy business models.
Nasdaq says the reshuffle sticks with the existing Nasdaq-100 methodology, set to run through April 30. The index covers the 100 biggest non-financial names trading on Nasdaq.
Sandisk’s inclusion comes on the heels of a steep rally, as surging AI data center demand has fueled stronger appetite for data storage. Back in January, Sandisk projected fiscal third-quarter revenue between $4.4 billion and $4.8 billion, with adjusted earnings per share set to reach $12 to $14. Both figures topped LSEG expectations, driven by that uptick in storage demand from AI.
Price targets keep climbing. Bernstein’s Mark Newman is now at $1,250. Over at Cantor Fitzgerald, C.J. Muse bumped his up to $1,000, warning that the supply-demand gap could stick around until mid-2028. Newman still sees room to run, according to MarketWatch, with NAND flash — the memory behind SSDs — continuing to beat on price and earnings.
This isn’t just analysts talking up demand. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warned last month, “The storage system is going to get pounded.” Greg Matson, a senior vice president at Solidigm, told Reuters supply “is going to be tight” through 2030. Western Digital, Seagate Technology, and Micron Technology are also seeing benefits from the AI infrastructure surge, according to Reuters. Reuters
Atlassian is on its way out of the index as software stocks face renewed pressure. According to Reuters, the S&P 500 Software and Services Index has tumbled 25.5% in 2026. Barron’s put Atlassian’s losses at 65% this year. Steve Sosnick, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers, pointed to “software-specific concerns stemming from AI” resurfacing as a major issue. Reuters
Still, the switch doesn’t guarantee safety. Wall Street’s major indexes slipped earlier on Monday, hit by a jump in oil prices after U.S.-Iran talks over the weekend broke down. Investors now have just days before Sandisk posts its fiscal third-quarter numbers on April 30—hardly enough time to see if the AI-storage play can keep up this run.
