SanDisk Data Center Revenue Surges 437% as Stargate Platform Shipments Begin
Key Facts
SanDisk began shipping its QLC Stargate platform for revenue during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, expanding its business in high-capacity AI data storage. The company said in its investor presentation that its portfolio includes high-performance computing workloads and AI data lakes. The move comes as data center revenue reached $5.153 billion in fiscal 2026, compared with $960 million in fiscal 2025. That represented year-over-year growth of 437%, according to SanDisk's financial results. The growth places the new product within a business that is becoming an increasingly significant part of the company.
The company said in August that it had NBM agreements with 8 customers, covering about 50% of bits in fiscal 2027 and about two-thirds in fiscal 2028. SanDisk said the agreements are based on committed volumes, enforceable contractual frameworks, minimum financial guarantees and structured pricing mechanisms. It added that they support "more predictable revenue, better cash flow visibility and sustainable earnings growth." These arrangements do not mean revenue is fixed, as the pricing mechanisms include fixed and variable components. Bit coverage gives the company visibility into part of future demand, while revenue remains tied to the terms and components of the agreements.
SanDisk said in its financial results that it signed 5 additional NBM agreements between its April call and the results announcement on August 5. The additions included 3 agreements with new customers and 2 expansions of existing agreements. That brought the number of customers with NBM agreements with the company to 8, according to the August announcement. SanDisk said in April that it had signed 5 agreements before announcing the subsequent additions. The disclosure does not establish that all 8 agreements were signed on October 29; the company had announced reaching that number in August.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, data center revenue was $2.977 billion, up 103% from the previous quarter. Total revenue in the same period rose to $8.965 billion, a quarterly increase of 51%. The company said about one-third of the quarter-over-quarter revenue growth came from higher volumes, while higher prices contributed about two-thirds. For the fiscal year, revenue reached $20.25 billion, up 175% year over year. The figures show the expansion of the company's business during a period in which revenue increased through both volume and pricing.
On technology, SanDisk said its BiCS10 QLC node delivers a 60% increase in bit density compared with BiCS8. The improvement provides the technological backdrop for the high-capacity storage platform targeting AI data lakes. The company had forecast first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of between $10.30 billion and $10.80 billion. It also forecast non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of between $44.00 and $46.00. The first-quarter earnings call was scheduled for October 29, 2026, at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time.
Ahead of the first-quarter financial results announcement, SanDisk shares fell 2.8% in morning trading on October 29 to $1,365.15. Investing.com attributed the move to caution ahead of the results and a decline in NAND memory stocks. The drop came on the day of the call the company had scheduled to present its first-quarter fiscal 2027 results. The company's previous guidance put quarterly revenue in a range of $10.30 billion to $10.80 billion. It also set a range of $44.00 to $46.00 for non-GAAP diluted earnings per share.