SAN FRANCISCO, June 25 — A surge in shares of Sandisk and Western Digital followed a quarterly report from Micron Technology that, according to market analysts, served to justify the elevated valuations currently assigned to the memory-chip sector. The record shows Micron’s results landed after the closing bell on Wednesday, and the reaction was swift. Investors moved on the news before the start of Thursday’s trading session, bidding up shares of the two storage-focused firms alongside other names in the semiconductor supply chain.
Micron’s own stock also climbed in after-hours trading. The company, based in Boise, Idaho, reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations on both revenue and profit, a fact that sources familiar with the matter described as a catalyst for the broader rally.
The rally was not confined to a single name. Shares of Sandisk, which was recently spun off from Western Digital, saw some of the sharpest gains. Western Digital itself also rose.
The movement reflected a view among traders that demand for memory and storage components remains robust, a thesis that Micron’s numbers appeared to confirm. On the timeline, the market had been watching for signs that the artificial-intelligence boom, which has driven enormous demand for high-bandwidth memory, was still accelerating.
Micron’s report provided that evidence. The company cited strong sales of its HBM3E chips, used in AI data centers, as a key driver of its performance. The rally extended to other chipmakers and equipment suppliers.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, a benchmark for the sector, also rose on the session. Analysts covering the space had warned in recent weeks that stock prices in the memory segment had run ahead of fundamentals. The valuations, they argued, left little room for error.
Micron’s results, according to several published notes, effectively erased that concern, at least for the current quarter. What comes next is a question of sustainability.
The market will now watch for guidance from other major players in the memory supply chain, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which are scheduled to report in the coming weeks. Those reports will determine whether the rally has further room to run, or whether the elevated valuations have, in fact, been fully justified.
