Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) stock sank 5.4% through 1:05 p.m. ET Tuesday on some discouraging news about the computer memory market — and this time it has nothing to do with waning artificial intelligence demand, increased data center regulation — or worries about Jensen Huang’s personal life, either.
Instead, this new worry is about Sandisk specifically.
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China rising
More precisely, the worry is about Sandisk losing market share in the NAND flash memory market — and another company gaining share.
One year ago, according to data from Counterpoint Research, Sandisk was neck-and-neck with Chinese NAND producer Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. Both companies boasted an 11% share in this market, tying them for fifth place behind Samsung, SK Hynix, Kioxia, and Micron. Both Sandisk and Yangtze Memory gained share steadily over the past year, most recently putting them at 13% and 14%, respectively, at the end of Q1 2026.
In Q2, however, CounterPoint reports Sandisk’s NAND market share slid back to 11% — reversing a year’s worth of gains. Yangtze Memory, in contrast, held steady at 14%. (Micron gained two points, and SK Hynix one point.)
What this means for Sandisk
Should Sandisk investors panic? I don’t think so.
All six of these NAND companies’ market shares have fluctuated by one to three percentage points from quarter to quarter over the past year. There’s no clear trend of Sandisk losing share, and for the time being at least, I’d reserve judgment on whether such a trend has even begun.
What is clear is that Sandisk stock, trading below 7x trailing earnings and costing less than 4x the profit it’s expected to earn next year, remains a very cheap stock. I’d view today’s sell-off less as a cue to panic and more as a chance to buy Sandisk stock even cheaper.
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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Micron Technology. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
