SanDisk Sees AI-Driven Shift in NAND Market, Emphasizes Long-Term Contracts

SanDisk, a leading provider of NAND flash memory, emphasized at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference 2026 that artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the NAND market. The company's management team, led by CEO David Goeckeler and CFO Luis Visoso, highlighted the significant shift towards data center demand, which now accounts for more than half of the total addressable market for NAND.

According to SanDisk, this change has created a new business model that requires suppliers to offer long-term contracts with predictable supply and price floors. The company has already signed eight strategic partnerships with major data center customers, covering about two-thirds of its fiscal 2028 bit supply. These agreements include detailed product-type planning, price floors at around 80% gross margins, and price ceilings for capturing market upside.

SanDisk's joint venture with Kioxia produces approximately one-third of global NAND supply and supports stronger research and development spending. The company is also developing High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), a new product aimed at AI inference workloads and the memory wall problem. HBF combines NAND's density with more bandwidth and better endurance, addressing the growing need for faster and more efficient storage solutions.