SanDisk shares are up roughly 70% over the past 13 trading sessions, part of a rally that market-commentary account Bull Theory traces to July 30, when Microsoft's reassurances on AI infrastructure spending combined with Samsung's warning that chip shortages could persist through 2028. The stock jumped nearly 26% on that day alone, and the run has continued as AI-driven demand for memory chips has kept tightening supply.
The rally is part of a far larger move: SanDisk, spun off from Western Digital in February 2025, has returned as much as 857.8% over the first half of 2026 as AI infrastructure builders compete for scarce NAND and DRAM capacity. In its most recent fiscal quarter the company reported revenue of $5.9 billion, up 251% year-over-year, with gross margin surging to 78% from 51% a year earlier as earnings swung from a per-share loss to a $23.41 per-share profit.
Leveraged ETF Flows Are Following the Stock
The move has spilled directly into leveraged-ETF markets. Data cited by The Kobeissi Letter shows the 2x leveraged long SanDisk ETF, ticker $SNXX, has grown assets under management by more than $1.5 billion since its January 27 launch — the largest AUM increase of any US-listed leveraged ETF launched so far this year. That inflow signals retail and institutional traders are using leveraged products specifically to amplify exposure to the memory trade, rather than simply buying the underlying stock.
A Structural Shortage, Not Just a Trading Story
Analysts covering the sector expect the NAND shortage to persist for years rather than ease quickly: Morgan Stanley has forecast that both Micron and SanDisk stand to benefit from a prolonged global memory upcycle as DRAM and NAND supply stays constrained against AI-driven demand. At its most recent investor day, SanDisk guided to mid-to-high-teens percentage revenue growth annually, with adjusted gross margin expected to hold near 80% and operating margin near 75%, suggesting management itself views the current pricing environment as durable rather than a short-term spike.
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The scale of the leveraged-ETF inflow is a reminder that AI-driven hardware trades have become a crossover story spanning equities, options and structured products alike — a dynamic that mirrors, in a different asset class, the same appetite for amplified exposure that has driven flows into crypto derivatives and perpetual futures over the same period.
