Key Points
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Sandisk would already have turned a $25,000 investment at IPO into $1 million.
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Its memory products are in high demand for data centers, and the company has been growing at a rapid pace.
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Sandisk stock is no longer the bargain it was when it became profitable.
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Sandisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) stock has been explosive this year. The relatively new stock, which was spun off from Western Digital at the beginning of 2025, is up nearly 5,000% in the little time it’s been its own public company. Even if you’d waited and invested $25,000 at the beginning of this year, when it was already rising, you’d have $190,000 today.
Can a $25,000 investment today make you a millionaire?
Why the market is wild about Sandisk
Sandisk has always been known for its memory cards, and it makes a number of different memory products. It’s one of a small number of producers of a technology called NAND flash memory, which can hold on to memory in an off state, making it a vital piece of almost any device used today, from laptops to smartphones and more.
It’s also a critical component for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, which need high-speed, large-capacity, non-volatile memory to process vast amounts of data continuously, and that’s what’s driving massive growth right now.
In the 2026 fiscal third quarter (ended April 3), revenue increased 97% sequentially, driven by a 233% increase in the data center segment, and 251% year over year. Operating income was up 272% sequentially to $4.2 billion.
As the AI opportunity develops, and with memory in high demand, Sandisk has been changing its model to long-term commitments. It’s also upgrading its products to run even faster and be more cost-effective, feeding into the long-term opportunity. It released its latest technology last week, which is up to 33% faster and 34% cheaper.
Can it still turn $25,000 into $1 million?
The kind of performance Sandisk stock has been delivering is exceedingly rare, and it was unexpected — its spinoff last year didn’t make a lot of waves in the market; at the time, the company was reporting net losses, and the stock was trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of under 20 when it became profitable. Today, the P/E ratio is 63, so it’s no longer a bargain.
Recent gains have been more muted, since some of its future growth is already priced into the stock, and there’s always the concern that memory is cyclical. So any predictions one can make about the future need to be built with that potential in mind.
Turning $25,000 into $1 million requires it to increase fortyfold, or gain 3,900%. If you’d invested it at the IPO, you’d actually have more than $1 million. But at the current price, it looks unlikely. It would have to continue reporting triple-digit growth, and as the base gets larger, that’s a challenging feat. Another way to look at it is in its market cap, which is $265 billion. It’s not reasonable to expect the stock’s total value to increase fortyfold from where it is today.
However, Wall Street does expect Sandisk stock to keep gaining, and if you have a high tolerance for risk, it could be part of a growth-oriented portfolio.
Should you buy stock in Sandisk right now?
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Jennifer Saibil has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Western Digital. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
