Micron Gets the Headlines, But Sandisk Could Offer More Upside - Yahoo Finance

Amid the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, Micron Technology has delivered exceptional returns, surpassing industry giants like NVIDIA, driven by strong demand for its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and... Read original →

The AI infrastructure boom is redrawing memory industry dynamics. While Micron leverages HBM to anchor itself in NVIDIA’s ecosystem, SanDisk’s vertical integration in NAND and multi-year cloud contracts grant it superior pricing power amid tight supply. Technically, surging demand for QLC NAND and ZNS SSDs from AI clusters is accelerating co-optimization of controllers and firmware, reshaping storage hierarchies. Geopolitically, escalating U.S. export controls compel SanDisk to shift capacity away from Taiwan, China toward Malaysia and India—raising near-term capex but strengthening non-Taiwan supply resilience. Facing price probes from Samsung and Kioxia, SanDisk will likely counter with cloud-customized solutions rather than engage in pure price wars. Over the next 18 months, as CXL-based memory pooling matures, NAND vendors excluded from AI server reference designs risk marginalization—making SanDisk’s deep customer entrenchment its decisive moat.