SanDisk Stock Surges on SpaceX's IPO and AI Chip Demand

SNDK shares surged approximately 6.6% on June 15, 2026 after Canadian investment firm Lynx Equity published a note arguing that SpaceX's landmark IPO was a catalyst for memory chip suppliers . SpaceX raised $75 billion in its IPO, with shares closing up 19% from the $135 offering price on its first trading day, at $161.11. Lynx Equity's thesis is straightforward: SpaceX will need to deploy substantial capital into semiconductors and AI infrastructure to sustain its growth rate, and that spend flows to NAND flash and DRAM suppliers, with SNDK and Nvidia named as the primary beneficiaries .

SNDK trades at approximately 23 times sales, a premium multiple that reflects its near-4,000% return since spinning out of Western Digital in February 2025 at roughly $38.50 per share. Shares closed at approximately $1,980 as of June 12, 2026. Even at that valuation, Lynx noted that SNDK is priced at roughly one-fifth of SpaceX's valuation, framing it as a relatively accessible exposure to the same AI and space-tech infrastructure spending theme . The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose over 5% on the day as SpaceX's IPO boosted sentiment broadly across the semiconductor sector.

The underlying structural case for SNDK extends beyond the SpaceX event. NAND flash storage sits at a critical chokepoint in AI infrastructure: training large models and running inference at scale requires massive, fast, persistent storage, and NVIDIA's Vera Rubin accelerator ramp is expected to deepen DRAM and NAND shortages into the second half of 2026. Analysts cited by multiple reports project storage prices to remain elevated for two to three years, driven by AI as the primary demand vector. The SpaceX IPO serves as a near-term catalyst layered on top of that structural setup.