Why Western Digital Stock Jumped Again as AI Storage Demand Meets a Sandisk Cleanup

9 May 2026

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 8, 2026, 16:04 (PDT)

Western Digital Corporation NASDAQ:WDC climbed roughly 3.5% to $480 late Friday, pushing higher as the market stuck with data-storage stocks connected to artificial intelligence spending. Investors also weighed the firm’s recent decision to divest its last Sandisk holding. WDC shares touched $483.65 at their peak, according to market data.

This shift is significant because Western Digital isn’t the combined hard-drive and flash-memory operator it used to be. After spinning off its flash unit as Sandisk in 2025, WD’s role narrowed: it’s now largely seen as an HDD supplier, catering to cloud and enterprise customers looking for cost-effective, large-scale storage to support AI workloads.

There’s also a balance-sheet angle in play. Western Digital disclosed this week it struck a deal with institutional investors: they’re handing over 1,865,801 Western Digital shares in return for 653,203 Sandisk shares. The swap is slated to settle on May 7, assuming the usual conditions are met.

Following the exchange, WD reported it will retain 1,038,681 Sandisk shares, with plans to offload them later—either through more swaps for WD debt, exchanges for WD stock, or by distributing them as dividends to its shareholders. Based on Sandisk’s last quoted price Friday, that stake would carry an approximate market value of $1.6 billion, though that figure doesn’t reflect an actual sale.

The shares jumped after Western Digital posted a hefty earnings beat. For its fiscal third quarter, revenue hit $3.34 billion, climbing 45% from the same period last year. Non-GAAP diluted earnings landed at $2.72 per share, a figure that strips out items management doesn’t see as part of the company’s ongoing business.

Chief Executive Irving Tan isn’t wavering—he sees “the demand drivers are clear,” citing AI workloads piling up data on HDDs. Chief Financial Officer Kris Sennesael, for his part, said WD’s business now has “visibility extending” as he put out a fiscal fourth-quarter revenue midpoint of $3.65 billion and non-GAAP earnings guidance at $3.25 a share. Western Digital Corporation

Western Digital came in ahead of Wall Street on both quarterly revenue and adjusted profit, Reuters said last week. The company’s outlook for the fourth quarter also surpassed the average analyst forecast from LSEG. Earlier in the week, upbeat guidance from peer Seagate had already given storage stocks a boost, according to the report.

Peer trade momentum didn’t let up Friday. Sandisk surged roughly 16.5% to close at $1,562.34, pushing its market cap to almost $245.3 billion. Seagate edged higher as well, adding about 2.1% to hit $782.64, according to market data.

Still, the rally depends on a handful of assumptions holding up. WD flagged several risks: swings in demand, tariffs or new trade rules, supplier concentration, price competition, and supply-chain hiccups. Any of those could push actual results away from what it’s expecting.

Next up, investors are watching for Western Digital to shed light on customer deals, pricing, and available capacity as it heads into a slate of industry events this month and early June. The company is set to present at J.P. Morgan’s technology conference on May 18, followed by Bank of America’s tech conference on June 2.

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Khadija Saeed is a financial markets reporter at TS2.tech. Her coverage ranges from stocks and technology to emerging industries and developments across global markets. She studied economics and finance at the London School of Economics and worked in market research before becoming a financial journalist. Follow Khadija Saeed on Google News.

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