Memory Beat and Still Sold: SanDisk −9%, Western Digital −15%
Two memory earnings landed after the bell, and both were sold hard despite beating. SanDisk and Western Digital each cleared the analyst estimates compiled by LSEG, and SanDisk's data center revenue rose more than 400% in 2026 against the prior year. SanDisk still fell 9.2% premarket and Western Digital 14.6%, with the losses narrowing to 5.40% and 5.36% during the session. The problem was not the numbers but the level of expectation they met. RBC Capital Markets flagged that margins may be peaking and price growth moderating, and said investor scepticism would persist.
The selling did not stop at those two names; it spread across the memory complex. SK Hynix fell 6.2%, Micron 3.7% and Seagate 3.6%, while Marvell lost 1.1%, Intel 1.2% and AMD 1%. The mechanism is the one that has repeated all summer: in a thesis built on AI demand, the share price has already absorbed the future margin. Even a good quarter gets marked down if it brings no fresh evidence that the margin will widen further.
