The real star of the Nasdaq lately is not Nvidia but SanDisk. Spun off from Western Digital in Feb. last year to go it alone, SanDisk closed at $1,409.98 as of the 6th (local time), soaring nearly 430% from the start of the year. Once an "ugly duckling" undervalued for being tied to the hard disk drive (HDD) unit, it has been revalued as a "core blue chip" dominating the market for high-capacity solid-state drives (SSD) for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, ushering in a $200 billion (about 290 trillion won) market capitalization era.
Among Korean investors, some still dismiss SanDisk as a maker of small storage devices. But after the spin-off, SanDisk evolved into a "vertically integrated solutions company" with both in-house fab manufacturing capacity and controller/firmware design capabilities. In particular, its flagship enterprise SSDs (eSSD) hinge on "software optimization" to read and write data in step with AI compute speeds. Based on its unparalleled technology in this area, SanDisk supplies big tech companies not with simple parts but with the "AI storage system" itself.
The decisive trigger for the stock surge is multi-year supply contracts known as the "new business model (NBM)." SanDisk recently signed five mega deals of up to five years with major clients, securing about $42 billion (about 57 trillion won) in guaranteed revenue. While some still question the annual sales scale, experts note the structural change this model brings. In the past, memory chipmakers were trapped in the "limits of the cycle," forced to slash prices when inventories piled up during downturns with no outlets. SanDisk, however, has created a "safety valve" to push volume even in slumps through long-term contracts and prepayments. This is the substance of the "predictable revenue structure" emphasized by SanDisk Chief Executive Officer David Goeckeler.
This model spreads price fluctuation risk to customers and secures minimum guaranteed sales. Already, more than one-third of the 2027 fiscal year production volume is sold out under firm contracts, signaling a shift to a "subscription-like infrastructure" model whose results do not dip even in a semiconductor downturn. The reason SanDisk commands a higher multiple (PER about 23 times) than rivals is that it is a "pure beneficiary with 100% NAND/SSD exposure." Unlike DRAM, which is highly cyclical, eSSD is the most acute "bottleneck" in building AI data centers, so SanDisk's business structure is viewed as a key conduit to enjoy the substantive fruits of AI growth.
In fact, SanDisk's gross margin of 78.4% in the third quarter of the 2026 fiscal year (January–March) is a figure unimaginable for a typical manufacturer. Revenue also jumped 251% on-year to $5.95 billion (about 8.6 trillion won. SanDisk now dominates a thoroughly supplier-favorable market where buyers "line up even after making prepayments and still cannot secure volume." On Wall Street, forecasts put SanDisk's next-year earnings per share (EPS) at around $168, with a maximum share price of $4,000 seen within reach.
However, some say it remains to be seen whether this trend will continue in the long term. The NAND flash industry is by nature highly cyclical, repeating oversupply and price declines. Analysts also do not rule out the possibility that profitability could be adjusted depending on future supply expansion or changes in the pace of AI investment.
An industry official said, "In the past, memory semiconductors had results that swung widely with price fluctuations, but recently there have been attempts, centered on some corporations, to stabilize the revenue structure through long-term contracts and a solutions-focused strategy," adding, "SanDisk can be seen as a case that shows this potential for change."