SanDisk shares tumbled in after-hours trading even as the chipmaker posted a jaw-dropping fourth quarter. Revenue climbed 372% to $8.97 billion, while net income hit $6.90 billion. The earnings beat sparked no celebration on the tape a pattern we're seeing elsewhere in big tech, where Wall Street's appetite for good news seems stuck in neutral.
The real story behind the numbers sits in the datacenter business. Demand for higher-margin chips for AI workloads and cloud infrastructure drove datacenter revenue up 437% in fiscal 2026. That's the segment that matters now. Smaller memory and storage chips are commoditized. What moves needle is whether you can sell pricier silicon where the margin sits. SanDisk's pricing power expanded alongside unit volumes, both firing on the same cylinder.
Management threw $14 billion at the buyback authorization to shore up the stock, a classic move when equity holders are spooked. Q1 2027 guidance set revenue at $10.8 billion, pointing to sustained momentum. Yet the market stared at all this and blinked. Institutional investors often use earnings misses as exit ramps. When results crush and shares still slide, the culprit usually isn't the business itself, it's valuation or sector sentiment shifting underneath.
This content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
