Don’t Forget About Western Digital Amid Sandisk Euphoria
sandisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) has been the most popular inventory within the S&P 500with an 820% year-to-date achieve. That return, plus Micron Technology‘s (NASDAQ: MU) lately achieved $1 trillion market capmakes it straightforward for buyers to neglect about Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC), one other reminiscence inventory that’s benefiting from the AI build-out.
If you have already got Sandisk and Micron shares, Western Digital could also be a very good addition to think about.
Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a “Double Down” sign flashed for a little-known chipmaker referred to as Nvidia. For the primary time in years, that very same “Total Conviction” sign is flashing for an organization 1/a centesimal the scale of Nvidia. Continue »
Western Digital is deeply built-in into the AI increase
Western Digital makes a speciality of arduous disk drives that assist AI chips carry out at their greatest. These units let AI chips retailer huge quantities of knowledge, which is extra essential given the excessive quantity of knowledge from AI coaching and inference.
The firm’s enterprise arduous disk drives had been sufficient to yield 45% year-over-year income development in its fiscal 2026 third quarter. Western Digital additionally delivered 11% sequential income development. High sequential development is a standard indicator of AI shares which have extra room to run. Sandisk and Micron each posted elevated sequential development whereas guiding for added sequential development in future quarters. Western Digital did the identical.
Fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter income is projected to be $3.65 billion, which represents 9.4% sequential development. Western Digital’s arduous disk drives are a important layer of AI infrastructure. Semiconductor chips want them, and as hyperscalers load up on extra AI chips, they should purchase extra of Western Digital’s arduous disk drives.
The bullish thesis primarily boils all the way down to how a lot you imagine in AI
Western Digital has the proper product on the proper time. Its 333% year-to-date achieve could really feel pedestrian should you put it subsequent to Sandisk, however that return has outperformed nearly each inventory in your complete market. Western Digital CEO Irving Tan provided a easy thesis for buyers within the Q3 fiscal yr 2026 press launch.
“Virtually every AI workload, from training, inference, agentic AI to physical AI, creates data that is stored persistently and cost-efficiently on HDDs,” Tan mentioned.
Most forecasts recommend that the AI increase nonetheless has a number of years left. Grand View Research pegs a 30.6% compound annual development fee (CAGR) via 2033, and there are nonetheless 809 deliberate knowledge facilities. Each of these knowledge facilities will want arduous disk drives, and plenty of knowledge middle builders will flip to Western Digital on account of its reliability.
