Memory Stocks Stay Strong With Sandisk, SK Hynix, and Western Digital Leading the Storage Stack

David Moadel

Thu, August 13, 2026 at 10:11 PM GMT+3 4 min read

Quick Read

SanDisk surged 15% and SK Hynix climbed 9% after Korea's Kospi jumped 4% overnight on AI infrastructure optimism before U.S. markets opened.
Micron gained 6% Thursday as its Q4 FY2026 report looms, while Seagate's 5% advance signals that the rally spans the full storage sector.
A new SanDisk-SK Hynix High Bandwidth Flash partnership targets AI inference workloads that demand far greater memory capacity than current architectures provide.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Western Digital didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Memory and storage stocks are extending a sharp rebound into Thursday afternoon trading, with SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) shares up 15% to $1,550 and SK Hynix (NASDAQ:SKHY) shares climbing 9% to $168. Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) shares are rising 7% to $487, leading a broad bid across the storage stack.

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Meanwhile, Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock is gaining 6% to $964, and Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) shares are advancing 5% to $922. For fund followers, the Roundhill Memory ETF (NASDAQ:DRAM) is up 5% to $57 and change.

The Rally Started in Seoul

The move began well before SanDisk's investor day. Korea's Kospi surged 4% overnight on AI infrastructure optimism, with SK Hynix stock up 6% and Samsung Electronics stock up 5% in Seoul.

The Kospi now sits 23% above its July 30 low, and that Korea-led rotation into memory was already lifting the group before U.S. markets opened. SanDisk's multi-year financial model unveiled at its investor day landed on top of an already-rising cohort rather than creating the move by itself.

The fundamentals of these memory/storage large-caps support the bid. For example, SanDisk reported Q4 FY2026 revenue of $8.96 billion, up 371.6% year over year, while SK Hynix's Q2 revenue jumped 256.8% on HBM demand.

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A Bounce Inside a Drawdown

Even with these immediate-term price bounces, it's important to consider the bigger picture. Through Wednesday's close, SanDisk stock was down 20% over the prior month. Also, Western Digital stock had fallen 18% over the prior month.

Micron stock sits up 237% year to date, but the memory/storage group as a whole has been working its way out of a rough few weeks. Today's gains represent a bounce off of recent volatility, and that framing matters for how investors size their positions.

Seagate stock joining the move is notable. It broadens the story from a NAND flash bid into the full storage stack, hard drives included, with Seagate CEO Dave Mosley recently citing "durable long-term demand for mass capacity storage" as AI accelerates data generation.

The SanDisk-SK Hynix Link

The day's two strongest names are also linked commercially. On August 3, SanDisk and SK Hynix announced a collaboration on High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), a technology aimed at AI inference workloads that require far more memory capacity than current architectures deliver.

The Roundhill Memory ETF captures this basket in one line. Per its fact sheet dated May 11, the DRAM ETF's top positions were Samsung Electronics at 25%, SK Hynix at 24.2%, and Micron at 23.8%, with SanDisk at 4.7% and Seagate at 4.5%. The fund's expense ratio is 0.65%.

What to Watch Now

A single-day rally doesn't necessarily mean the bulls will continue to charge ahead. Investors can watch for whether the Korea-led bid carries into Friday's Seoul session, whether Seagate and the hard-drive side keep pace with the flash names, and whether this group can close the month-long gap it's still climbing out of.

A cohort that just fell 20% in a month can move violently in both directions. Position sizing should reflect that volatility, even as the AI-driven demand narrative continues to firm. The next anticipated indicator arrives with Friday's Asia session and, further out, Micron's Q4 FY2026 report.