New York, Jan 7, 2026, 05:00 EST — Premarket
Shares of Western Digital Corp (WDC) fell 1.2% to $216.84 in premarket trading on Wednesday, after jumping 16.8% in the previous session to close at $219.38. Premarket trading happens before the U.S. market opens at 9:30 a.m. ET.
The moves track a rush into data-storage names after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told analysts at CES 2026 that the memory-storage market is “completely unserved,” as AI systems chew through ever larger pools of data. SanDisk, the flash-memory company spun out of Western Digital last year, jumped about 28% on Tuesday, while Seagate Technology gained about 14%, Business Insider reported. markets.businessinsider.com
Pricing signals added fuel. Reports in Korean business media said Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are raising quoted prices for server DRAM — a type of memory chip used in data centers — by 60% to 70% for the first quarter versus the fourth.
Data-storage firms led the S&P 500’s gainers list on Tuesday, with Sandisk up 28%, Western Digital up 17% and Seagate up 14%, Investopedia said. The surge came as major U.S. indexes notched fresh record closes, keeping risk appetite intact.
Western Digital traded between $188.36 and $221.23 in the prior session and hit a fresh 52-week high, MarketWatch data showed. Technicians will watch whether the stock can hold recent gains after the sharp run.
Western Digital sells hard-disk drives used in PCs and cloud data centers. Demand from big cloud operators has become a key swing factor as companies add capacity for AI workloads.
The rally has also raised the bar for the next earnings update. Investors want proof that pricing is firming and that customers are locking in supply rather than waiting for discounts.
Still, the trade can unwind quickly. Analysts have warned that elevated expectations can leave the broader market vulnerable to disappointments, including weaker earnings or signs that AI growth is cooling — risks that could spill into high-flying storage names.
