Storage stocks "soaring"! "Strongest US stock" SanDisk jumps over 10%, Micron, Western Digital, Seagate Technology, and others all surge across the board

The US stock storage sector surged again on Wednesday, with the share prices of major manufacturers collectively hitting historic highs. Driven by the AI boom and soaring demand for storage chips amid supply shortages, the global storage market is ushering in a new round of robust "super cycle."

On Wednesday, US stock storage chip sector showed a standout performance. Among them, SanDisk surged 10.63% in a single day, setting a new all-time high; Micron Technology rose 6.6%, also reaching a historic high; Western Digital jumped over 8.5%, and Seagate Technology gained more than 5.6%. This broad rally reflects strong market expectations for the return of pricing power and surging profitability within the storage industry.

The core driving force of this rally comes from Wall Street’s recalibration of the valuations of storage giants. Several brokers raised their price targets for SanDisk and Micron, highlighting robust enterprise SSD demand and tight NAND flash supply pushing product prices higher. Analysts generally believe that demand for high-performance storage driven by AI infrastructure construction, combined with major manufacturers' production cuts to stabilize prices, have fundamentally changed the supply and demand structure of the market.

Though there are concerns about valuations being at historical highs, against the backdrop of chip giants reducing production to maximize profits and spot prices soaring several times over, investors are betting that the industry is transitioning from traditional cyclical fluctuations to a "high profit, stable pricing" foundry-like model. The market generally expects that, amid severe supply shortages, the uptrend in storage chip prices will continue to deepen through 2026.

SanDisk surges over 10% in a single day; up 80% year to date

As the recent leader of the US stock tech sector, SanDisk has shown astonishing explosive growth. Since its spin-off listing from Western Digital in February 2025, its share price has risen by more than tenfold. Entering 2026, after just 11 trading days, SanDisk shares have already rallied over 82%, earning it the title of "the most sought-after tech stock of 2026" from Zacks Investment Research.

This jump in share price directly benefited from analysts' substantial upward revisions in price targets. Citi raised SanDisk’s price target from $280 to $490, citing robust enterprise SSD demand and favorable supply conditions; Bernstein significantly increased its target from $300 to $580, emphasizing tight NAND supply and rising storage prices, and noted that SanDisk is a major beneficiary of AI-driven demand.

SanDisk’s fundamentals also support this optimism. According to Zacks predictions, SanDisk's fiscal year 2026 revenue is expected to grow 42% to $10.45 billion, while annual EPS is expected to surge 350% from $2.99 in 2025 to $13.46. Despite the share price boom, SanDisk's current forward P/E is 30 times, roughly in line with peers Western Digital and the S&P 500 index benchmark, indicating no apparent bubble. Market opinions suggest that this rally stems more from industry-wide AI optimism and analyst revisions rather than any deterioration in company fundamentals.

Industry-wide revaluation: Micron and Western Digital hit new highs together

Apart from SanDisk, the entire storage sector is experiencing a wave of value reappraisal. Micron’s stock rose 6.6% on Wednesday, hitting an all-time high intraday. The company continues to gain market share from competitors in both DRAM and NAND, especially in high bandwidth memory (HBM), which is crucial for AI; over the past year, its market share in HBM has increased by 10 percentage points.

Micron’s financial data confirms the industry’s recovery. In its fiscal 2026 first quarter, revenue grew 20%, adjusted EPS grew 167%, and its gross margin expanded significantly, demonstrating strong pricing power. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra explicitly stated that AI data center construction is driving a sharp rise in demand, and industry total supply will be severely short in the foreseeable future.

Well-known financial commentator Jim Cramer pointed out that although Micron has surged more than 600% since 2023, the stock still has room to rise, given equipment shortages limiting capacity expansion and its relatively reasonable P/E of 32 times.

Meanwhile, Western Digital and Seagate Technology also saw significant gains, rising 8.49% and 5.6% respectively. Analysts noted that while HDDs (mechanical hard drives) lag behind SSDs in speed, AI infrastructure’s demand for high-capacity storage also benefits this sector.

AI ignites "super cycle," sending storage chip prices soaring

The macro background of this rally is the global imbalance in supply and demand—and surging prices—in the storage chip market.

As previously reported by Wallstreetcn, according to Omdia data, despite skyrocketing AI demand, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which account for over 60% of the global NAND market, still plan to cut NAND production this year to maximize profits. Capital expenditure is being prioritized for higher-profit DRAM and HBM products, resulting in severe shortages of NAND and traditional DDR4 memory.

Price data clearly reflect these shortages. Bank of America Securities reported that DDR4 spot prices have recently shown dramatic fluctuations, with some specs up more than 2000% year-on-year, and even the rare occurrence of DDR4 prices surpassing those of the more advanced DDR5. TrendForce forecasts NAND flash contract prices to rise 33%–38% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 this year.

This structural shortage is rippling through downstream industries. Wells Fargo points out that the automotive industry is facing new cost pressures and supply disruption risks, as chip makers prioritize meeting higher-profit data center and AI customers. NIO Chairman William Li and Xiaomi Group Chairman Lei Jun have both publicly stated that rising memory prices are putting enormous cost pressure on car manufacturers.

Bank of America Securities believes that the storage chip industry is undergoing profound transformation, showing "foundry-like" characteristics of diminishing cyclicality and higher profit margins. With TSMC and other upstream manufacturers providing strong guidance and Korean semiconductor export figures continuing to rise, the market widely agrees that the storage industry has entered a "super cycle" with profit margin as its core, and although high valuations present short-term risks, the long-term process of value reappraisal is still underway.

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