SanDisk surges as Meta memo confirms multi-year flash storage deal

Investing.com -- SanDisk is trading up +6.82% at $1,844.96 in early trading Thursday after Reuters, citing an internal Meta Platforms memo, revealed that Meta has locked in long-term, multi-year supply agreements covering flash storage from SanDisk, memory chips from Samsung Electronics, and fiber-optic equipment from Sumitomo Electric as part of a sweeping expansion of AI computing infrastructure.

SanDisk is the most direct publicly traded beneficiary of the disclosed arrangement, given that the memo specifically names the company as Meta's flash storage supplier; the stock's move reverses a bruising stretch that had weighed on the NAND-flash sector coming into this week.

The Reuters memo lays out an ambitious infrastructure blueprint: Meta plans to deploy seven gigawatts of computing capacity in 2026 and double that figure to 14 gigawatts by 2027. Central to that build-out is "Iris," Meta's next-generation in-house AI chip, which is scheduled to enter production in September 2026 after completing bug testing in six weeks with no major issues reported. The chip is the latest iteration of Meta's four-generation MTIA project, a long-term effort to reduce the company's dependence on Nvidia and AMD hardware.

Neither Meta nor SanDisk has officially confirmed the terms or financial value of the flash storage agreement. SanDisk declined to comment to Reuters, and Meta did not respond.

What is on the public record, however, is substantial: SanDisk disclosed in its most recent earnings that it had secured multi-year supply agreements representing roughly $42 billion in minimum contracted revenue. Revenue in its fiscal third quarter nearly doubled to $5.95 billion, and non-GAAP gross margin surged to 78.4%, reflecting the acute shortage of NAND flash storage that has made the company the S&P 500's top-performing stock in the first half of 2026. SanDisk was spun out of Western Digital in February 2025 at roughly $38.50 per share and has since risen more than 800% year-to-date.

Thursday's bounce is part of a broader recovery across the memory and storage complex. Micron is up 8%, Western Digital and Seagate are each up approximately 7%, while SanDisk's gain of nearly 7% extends the sector rebound that began reversing a sharp early-week selloff. Sumitomo Electric's U.S.-listed ADR (OTC: SMTOY) is also gaining, up +4.71% to $7.67, after the Reuters report named the Japanese company as Meta's fiber-optic equipment supplier for the infrastructure push.

Meta itself is moving in the opposite direction. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is trading down -2.18% at $589.97, as investors weigh the strategic logic of the infrastructure build against its staggering cost. Meta has indicated it expects to spend as much as $145 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, a figure that represents a significant slice of Big Tech's projected $700 billion-plus collective outlay. Morgan Stanley analysts have noted that memory and chip prices have risen rapidly enough that "chipflation" has become a macroeconomic concern, a dynamic that benefits suppliers like SanDisk even as it pressures buyers like Meta.

Several catalysts could sharpen the picture in the weeks ahead. SK Hynix is set to price its U.S. Nasdaq IPO on July 10, which will serve as a real-time gauge of institutional appetite for AI-memory exposure and could shift capital flows across the sector.

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