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Will Data Center Growth Remain Sandisk's Biggest Opportunity?

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Key Takeaways

  • SNDK's fiscal 2026 data center revenues surged 437% to $5.15 billion, reaching 38% of its bit portfolio.
  • SNDK began shipping its QLC Stargate platform and is developing High Bandwidth Flash for AI workloads.
  • SNDK's agreements with eight customers are expected to cover over 50% of bits in fiscal 2027.

Sandisk Corporation (SNDK - Free Report) is seeing strong growth in its data center business as rising artificial intelligence (AI) demand increases the need for high-capacity storage. The company is benefiting from higher demand for enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs), which support AI infrastructure and data-intensive workloads. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, data center revenues reached $2.98 billion, up 103% sequentially. For fiscal 2026, data center revenues rose 437% year over year to $5.15 billion. Data center also became Sandisk's fastest-growing end market, accounting for 38% of its bit portfolio at the end of fiscal 2026 compared with around 12% a year earlier.

Sandisk is expanding its product portfolio to address the rising demand for high-capacity storage. The company began shipping its QLC Stargate platform during the fourth quarter. This platform complements its compute-focused TLC enterprise SSDs by supporting high-capacity AI data lakes. Sandisk is also developing High Bandwidth Flash, which could help address the growing storage and memory requirements of AI inference. Management expects the NAND market to exceed $300 billion in 2026 and approach $500 billion in 2027. It also expects data center demand to grow faster than the overall market in 2027.

To support future demand, Sandisk is building longer-term relationships with major customers through its New Business Models. The company has signed agreements with eight data center and edge customers, with a weighted average duration of more than four years. These agreements are expected to cover more than 50% of Sandisk's bits in fiscal 2027 and approximately two-thirds in fiscal 2028. Such commitments provide better visibility into future demand and help the company plan production and investments. Management also expects customer demand to remain strong through the end of 2027 and into 2028.

Data center growth is therefore becoming an important driver of Sandisk's business. Strong demand for enterprise SSDs, new storage technologies and long-term customer agreements could support further growth. If AI infrastructure spending continues to increase, the data center business could remain a major growth opportunity for Sandisk.

SNDK Faces Tough Competition

SNDK faces stiff competition from Micron Technology (MU - Free Report) and SK hynix (SKHY - Free Report) , which are also benefiting from rising demand for memory and storage products used in AI data centers.

Micron expects strong demand for memory to continue through 2028, supported by growing server shipments and the adoption of agentic AI. The company noted that more than 75% of its fiscal 2027 shipments are committed, reflecting strong customer demand. Micron also expects tight market conditions to support pricing and margins through 2028. In NAND, the company expects the market to remain tight as demand grows, while its continued transition to ninth-generation NAND is expected to support cost-effective supply.

SK hynix is also expanding its enterprise SSD business to meet growing AI storage needs. In the third quarter of 2026, the company reported that NAND average selling prices rose by the mid-20% range sequentially, supported by higher prices and a greater share of SSD sales. SK hynix is increasing production of its 321-layer NAND technology and plans to expand high-performance enterprise SSD supply for AI workloads. It is also developing technologies to use SSDs for storing and reusing AI inference data, including KV cache. In addition, long-term agreements with 14 key customers cover more than 50% of its total capacity for 2027 and 2028, providing better demand visibility.

SNDK’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Sandisk shares have appreciated 491.8% year to date, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s 16.5% growth.

SNDK Stock’s Price Performance

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SNDK stock is trading at a forward 12-month price/sales of 3.88X compared with the Computer- Storage Devices industry’s 2.51X. Sandisk has a Value Score of C.

SNDK’s Valuation

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For fiscal 2027, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Sandisk’s earnings is currently pegged at $215.04 per share, up 0.8% over the past seven days, suggesting 203.4% growth from the year-ago quarter.

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

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