Two traditional hardware giants, Western Digital (WDC) and SanDisk (SNDK), are emerging as standout winners of the artificial intelligence buildout, with their stocks surging on massive demand for data storage prompted by AI workloads.
Western Digital has soared 333% year-to-date, trading around $746.93, with JPMorgan raising its price target to $650 from $530 and Wells Fargo lifting its target to $575 from $500, both maintaining Overweight ratings. The bullish moves reflect improving pricing for hard disk drives (HDDs) and a 45% year-over-year revenue jump in fiscal Q3 2026, with guidance pointing to $3.65 billion in Q4 revenue—9.4% sequential growth. CEO Irving Tan emphasized, “Virtually every AI workload creates data that is stored persistently and cost-efficiently on HDDs,” tying the company’s fate directly to the AI ecosystem.
SanDisk has been even more explosive, climbing more than 4,500% over the past year and hitting a new 52-week high of $2,284.98. A global NAND flash and SSD supply crunch, driven by manufacturers redirecting production toward AI infrastructure, has sent chip prices sharply higher. Bank of America raised its target to $2,100, Mizuho to $2,200, Cantor Fitzgerald to $2,900, and Susquehanna holds a Street-high $3,250. Apple CEO Tim Cook added fuel by calling the memory shortage a “100-year flood” and warning of unavoidable product price hikes. SanDisk’s last quarter delivered $23.41 EPS versus a $14.17 estimate, with 251% revenue growth to $5.95 billion.
Institutional investors are piling in—State Street, Norges Bank, and Arrowstreet Capital have built multi-hundred-million-dollar stakes. While these events are unfolding in traditional tech, they underscore the voracious infrastructure demands of AI, a trend that continues to influence sentiment across all asset classes, including crypto.
