Can AI Inference Workloads Accelerate NAND Demand for Sandisk?

Zacks Zacks
Ouvrir sur Zacks
Can AI Inference Workloads Accelerate NAND Demand for Sandisk?

Sandisk Corporation SNDK is positioned at the center of a structural shift in AI infrastructure, as the rapid expansion of inference workloads drives accelerating demand for high-capacity, cost-efficient storage solutions and reinforces NAND flash's growing importance within the AI stack. While AI training has driven infrastructure spending over the past several years, the next phase of AI adoption is increasingly centered on inference, where models are deployed at scale to support real-time user interactions.

The inference opportunity remains in its early stages. Workloads such as key-value caching, retrieval-augmented generation and agentic AI applications require rapid access to growing volumes of contextual data, external knowledge repositories and intermediate outputs. As model sizes, token generation volumes and context windows continue to expand, NAND flash is becoming an attractive storage medium due to its density, scalability and cost advantages. 

Sandisk's BiCS8-based enterprise solid-state drive portfolio, spanning both triple-level cell and quad-level cell architectures, is well positioned to address demand across performance-intensive and capacity-oriented AI deployments. The upcoming commercialization of its quad-level cell-based Stargate platform further strengthens its opportunity within AI datacenter environments.

Customer demand trends reinforce this outlook. Sandisk has secured multiple multi-year supply agreements backed by financial guarantees exceeding $11 billion, highlighting confidence in long-term NAND demand. The company’s third-quarter fiscal 2026 performance reflected improving market fundamentals, with non-GAAP gross margin expanding to 78.4% from 22.7% a year ago. Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue guidance of $7.75-$8.25 billion also points to continued momentum. As AI inference deployments scale globally, rising storage intensity is expected to drive greater NAND consumption, creating a favorable long-term demand environment for Sandisk.

SNDK Faces Stiff Competition

Sandisk competes closely with Micron Technology MU and Western Digital WDC in the NAND flash market. Micron has strengthened its position through continued investments in advanced NAND technologies and enterprise SSDs targeting AI datacenter workloads. Meanwhile, Western Digital remains a key NAND competitor with a broad flash storage portfolio and established relationships across cloud and enterprise customers.

While Micron and Western Digital possess significant scale, Sandisk's BiCS8 NAND technology and expanding TLC and QLC enterprise SSD portfolio position it well to capitalize on the growing storage requirements of AI inference workloads.

SNDK’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Sandisk shares have skyrocketed 788% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s return of 16.5%.

SNDK Stock Outperforms Sector

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

SNDK stock is trading at a forward 12-month price/sales of 6.98X compared with the Zacks Computer-Storage Devices’ 4.52X. Sandisk has a Value Score of F.

SNDK’s Valuation

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $65.68 per share, up by 1.33% over the past 30 days. Sandisk reported earnings of $2.99 per share in fiscal 2025.

Sandisk Corporation Price and Consensus

Sandisk Corporation Price and Consensus

Sandisk Corporation price-consensus-chart | Sandisk Corporation Quote

Sandisk currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Zacks' Research Chief Names "Stock Most Likely to Double"

Our team of experts has just released the 5 stocks with the greatest probability of gaining +100% or more in the coming months. Of those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian highlights the one stock set to climb highest.

This top pick is a little-known satellite-based communications firm. Space is projected to become a trillion dollar industry, and this company's customer base is growing fast. Analysts have forecasted a major revenue breakout in 2025. Of course, all our elite picks aren't winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks' Stocks Set to Double like Hims & Hers Health, which shot up +209%.

Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners Up

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report


 
Western Digital Corporation (WDC): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Sandisk Corporation (SNDK): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research