⚡What does Sandisk do, in 30 seconds?
Sandisk makes flash storage: solid-state drives (SSDs), flash built into devices, memory cards and USB drives 1. It sold $20.2bn ✓ in FY2026, up 175.3% ✓ on the year before. Edge storage for PCs, phones and cars made up 60% ✓ of that 1.
📱What does Sandisk sell?
Sandisk reports its sales in three end markets: Edge, Datacenter and Consumer 1. Edge is the biggest, at 60% ✓ of FY2026 sales. Here is what each one sells and who buys it.
Edge
Storage for devices: SSDs for desktop and laptop PCs, game consoles and set-top boxes, plus flash built into phones, tablets, cars and smart-home gadgets 1. In FY2026, Edge sold only a high single-digit percent more storage, but earned almost 180% more per gigabyte 2. Edge brought in $12.2bn ✓ that year, up from $4.1bn ✓ in FY2025.
👥 Makers of PCs, phones, consoles and cars, plus channel customers that resell 1.
Datacenter
Fast SSDs for servers, used for AI, online transactions and data analysis 1. In FY2026, Datacenter sold almost 120% more storage and earned almost 150% more per gigabyte 2. Its sales reached $5.2bn ✓, up from $1.0bn ✓ in FY2025.
👥 Public and private cloud operators and large companies 1.
Consumer
Portable SSDs, memory cards and USB flash drives, sold in shops and through other sellers 1. In FY2026, the amount of storage sold fell by a mid-teens percent, but money earned per gigabyte rose by a low-fifties percent 2. Consumer sales were $2.9bn ✓ that year.
👥 Shoppers who put cards in phones, cameras and game devices, reached through retailers and channel partners 1.
How the mix has shifted
Where the customers are
Most of Sandisk's sales come from Asia. In FY2026, Hong Kong made up 25% ✓, the rest of Asia 23% ✓ and China 22% ✓. The United States added 18% ✓, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa 9% ✓. Most of its staff work in Asia too, with 74% in Asia Pacific 17.
💸How does Sandisk make money?
Follow the money from left to rightfrom top to bottom: what customers pay for, what it costs to make, and what is left as profit.
FY2024, FY2025: Sandisk made a loss, so there was no profit left to follow and no money map is drawn for those years.
Sandisk sold $20.2bn ✓ of flash storage in FY2026. Making it cost $5.8bn ✓. What is left is gross profit, the money kept after paying for what was sold. That came to $14.5bn ✓.
Next come the costs of running the company. Research and development took $1.3bn ✓, and sales, marketing and admin took $0.7bn ✓. Operating profit, the profit from the main business, was $12.4bn ✓. Other income added $0.6bn ✓, and tax took $1.6bn ✓. Net income was $11.4bn ✓. Out of every hundred dollars of sales, Sandisk kept about $56 ✓ as profit.
That was not a normal year. Compare FY2025, when Sandisk lost money, with net income of -$1.6bn ✓. Making its products ate $70 ✓ of every hundred dollars that year, against $29 ✓ in FY2026. FY2025 also carried $1.9bn ✓ of other operating costs.
Out of every $100 customers paid in FY2026…
Interest, investment gains and other income added +$3 for every $100 of sales, so the slices above add up to a little more than $100.
⏱️ Sandisk by the clock
Spread the FY2026 totals evenly over its 371 days and you get this. Source: Sandisk Corp 10-K [4].
📈How is Sandisk doing?
Sandisk is in a boom: it went from losses to large profits in a single year. Sales jumped 175.3% ✓ in FY2026 to $20.2bn ✓. Operating margin, the share of sales left as operating profit, hit 61.2% ✓. A year earlier it was -18.7% ✓, a loss.
Sandisk earned far more for each gigabyte it sold. In Datacenter, storage sold rose almost 120% and money earned per gigabyte rose almost 150% 2. In Edge, storage sold rose only by a high single-digit percent, but money per gigabyte rose almost 180% 2. FY2026 was also a long year, with 53 weeks 2.
The history is short. Sandisk has been its own company only since February 2025 2. Its figures here start in FY2023 ✓, when sales were $6.1bn ✓. Sales grew in 3 ✓ of the 3 ✓ years after that. But Sandisk lost money in each of FY2023, FY2024 and FY2025, with net income of -$2.1bn ✓, -$0.7bn ✓ and -$1.6bn ✓. Gross margin climbed from 7.1% ✓ in FY2023 to 71.5% ✓ in FY2026.
Cash has followed profit. Free cash flow was -$0.1bn ✓ in FY2025. In FY2026 it reached $11.5bn ✓, or 56.8% ✓ of sales. Managers expect AI-driven demand for Sandisk's storage to last through 2027 and beyond 2. That is a forecast, not a result.
📝 The report card
Sandisk earns top marks for growth, profit, cash and its balance sheet, mostly thanks to its boom year. But it gets an F ✓ for steadiness, because its sales swing so much. Every company is graded on the same fixed scale, so an A means the same thing on every page. The strip shows where Sandisk (orange) and its 1 peers land; further right is better.
Growth
Sandisk's sales grew 49.3% ✓ a year over its last three fiscal years, which earns an A ✓. That count starts in FY2023, when sales were just $6.1bn ✓. Micron grew even faster, at 104.6% ✓ a year, also an A ✓.
Why this measure? (higher is better)
Growing sales is the engine of a business. Mature giants rarely grow fast, so 5% a year already earns a C.
Profitability
Over the last three years combined, Sandisk kept 30.8% ✓ of sales as operating profit, just enough for an A ✓. FY2026 sets most of that grade, because its sales of $20.2bn ✓ were far bigger than in the two years before. Its operating margin was 61.2% ✓ that year, after -7.0% ✓ in FY2024 and -18.7% ✓ in FY2025. Micron came to 56.4% ✓, also an A ✓.
Why this measure? (higher is better)
Operating margin is the share of each sales dollar left after running the business. Software and platforms often clear 30%; hardware makers usually sit below 10%.
Cash generation
Over the last three years combined, Sandisk turned 31.8% ✓ of sales into free cash flow, an A ✓. That puts it just ahead of Micron's 31.0% ✓. Almost all of it came in FY2026, at $11.5bn ✓, after -$0.5bn ✓ in FY2024 and -$0.1bn ✓ in FY2025.
Why this measure? (higher is better)
Free cash flow is the cash left after paying for factories, data centres and equipment. It funds dividends, buybacks and new bets.
Balance sheet
Sandisk's cash and investments minus its borrowings equalled 23.5% ✓ of a year's sales, an A ✓. At the end of FY2026 it held $4.8bn ✓ of cash and investments, and its debt rounded to $0.0bn ✓. A year earlier it owed more than it held, with net cash of -$0.4bn ✓. Micron's figure is 51.3% ✓.
Why this measure? (higher is better)
More cash than debt gives a company room to ride out bad years. Some debt is normal; a lot of it makes a company fragile.
Steadiness
Sandisk's yearly growth swings hugely, with a standard deviation of 95.5% ✓, which earns an F ✓. Only 3 ✓ years of growth count so far: 9.5% ✓ in FY2024, 10.4% ✓ in FY2025 and 175.3% ✓ in FY2026. Micron swings a little less, at 83.7% ✓, also an F ✓.
Why this measure? (lower is better)
Steady growers are easier to plan around. Big swings mean sales depend on product cycles, the economy or one-off events.
🧑🏫 How the grades work
- Same scale for everyone. Each measure has fixed cut-offs (shown under each strip). Clear the A line and you get an A, whatever your peers do.
- Three years together. Profitability and cash generation add up the last three fiscal years before dividing, so one unusual year counts for less than it would on its own (a year much bigger than the others still weighs most).
- Peers for context. The rank shows how Sandisk compares with the group. Companies within 0.1 percentage point share a rank.
- Same source. Every company's figures come from its own latest annual report (10-K), so fiscal years end in different months.
- Judgement, openly stated. The cut-offs are QuantVantage.ai's view of what good looks like for a large, established company. They are not a forecast or a recommendation.
4 years at a glance
Where the cash goes
Sandisk has started handing cash back to its owners. From FY2023 to FY2026 it made $10.0bn ✓ of free cash flow and handed back $4.5bn ✓, all of it through buybacks. Buybacks alone were $4.5bn ✓ in FY2026, or 39% ✓ of that year's free cash flow. The board approved a $6bn buyback plan in April 2026 19. In August 2026 it added $14bn more, leaving $15.5bn to use 11.
🧮Ratios 101: what are Sandisk's key financial ratios?
Ratios shrink Sandisk's numbers into easy comparisons. FY2026 was a boom year, so most of them look far better than in the years before. The peer median here is Micron alone. A ratio divides one number by another so companies of any size can be compared. Each card shows the formula with Sandisk's real FY2026 numbers, the peer median and the trend.
💰 Profitability: how much of each sale is kept?
Gross margin
What is left from each sale after paying to make the product or deliver the service.
👉 At 71.5% ✓, up from 7.1% ✓ in FY2023, Sandisk trails the 80.7% ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 40% usually signals pricing power or a big software or services mix.
Operating margin
What is left after also paying for research, marketing and running the company.
👉 Sandisk's 61.2% ✓ compares with -33.4% ✓ in FY2023 and a 74.6% ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 20% is strong for a large company.
Net margin
The bottom line: profit after interest and taxes, per dollar of sales.
👉 Sandisk kept 56.5% ✓ of sales as final profit in FY2026, against -35.2% ✓ in FY2023 and a 63.8% ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 15% is strong; one-off tax items can move it in a single year.
Return on equity (ROE)
Profit earned for each dollar that shareholders have left in the company.
👉 ROE of 72.7% ✓ beats the 61.4% ✓ peer median, with profit of $11.4bn ✓ on equity of $15.7bn ✓. In FY2023 it was -18.7% ✓.
📏 Rule of thumb: Around 15% or more is good, but buybacks shrink equity and can make ROE look huge.
⚙️ Efficiency: how hard do the assets work?
Return on assets (ROA)
Profit earned from everything the company owns, however it was paid for.
👉 ROA of 50.8% ✓, against -5.0% ✓ in FY2024, is above the 43.4% ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 10% is strong; banks and factories usually earn less.
Asset turnover
Dollars of sales squeezed out of each dollar of assets.
👉 Sandisk's sales were 0.9x ✓ the value of what it owns, up from 0.5x ✓ in FY2024 and above the 0.7x ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: Retailers often top 2x; asset-heavy businesses can sit below 0.5x.
Inventory days
How many days of products sit in warehouses before they are sold.
👉 Sandisk holds 170 ✓ days of stock, more than the 147 ✓ peer median and the 128 ✓ days of FY2024. Days are counted against cost of sales, just $5.8bn ✓ next to $20.2bn ✓ of sales.
📏 Rule of thumb: Fewer days means less cash tied up and less risk of products going stale.
🛟 Safety: could it survive a bad year?
Current ratio
Can short-term assets (cash, money owed by customers, stock) pay the bills due within a year?
👉 Sandisk's 2.3x ✓ means short-term assets are more than double the bills due within a year. That is up from 1.7x ✓ in FY2024 but below the 3.3x ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 1.0x is the classic comfort line, but cash-rich giants can run below it on purpose.
Debt to equity
How much the company has borrowed for each dollar shareholders have in it.
👉 Sandisk's debt rounds to $0.0bn ✓, so the ratio is 0.0x ✓, level with the 0.0x ✓ peer median. It paid off the rest of its term loan in March 2026 2.
📏 Rule of thumb: Below 1.0x is conservative. Like ROE, it can rise when buybacks shrink equity, even if debt has not changed.
Interest cover
How many times over operating profit could pay the year's interest bill.
👉 Operating profit covered interest costs 169.7x ✓ in FY2026, against -65.6x ✓ in FY2023, a loss year. Micron came to 937.2x ✓.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 5x is comfortable; below 2x is a warning sign.
💵 Cash and owners: where does the money end up?
Cash conversion
Does reported profit turn into real cash? Free cash flow is operating cash minus capital spending.
👉 Sandisk turned profit into free cash at 1.0x ✓, so about a dollar of cash came in for each dollar of profit. That beats the 0.7x ✓ peer median.
📏 Rule of thumb: Near or above 1.0x means profits are backed by cash.
R&D intensity
How much of each sales dollar goes into inventing future products.
👉 R&D was 6.6% ✓ of sales, down from 19.2% ✓ in FY2023 but above the 4.2% ✓ peer median. Sales soared while R&D rose only to $1.3bn ✓, from $1.1bn ✓ in FY2025.
📏 Rule of thumb: Tech companies often spend 10% to 20%; more is not always better if it does not pay off.
Stock pay
Pay given to staff in shares instead of cash. It is a real cost to owners because it adds shares.
👉 Stock pay was 1.1% ✓ of sales, close to the 1.0% ✓ peer median and down from 2.7% ✓ in FY2023.
📏 Rule of thumb: Under 5% of sales is modest for a tech company.
Shareholder payout
How much of the year's profit was handed back to owners.
👉 Sandisk returned 39.6% ✓ of FY2026 profit, far above Micron's 1.5% ✓. Buybacks made up $4.5bn ✓ of it.
📏 Rule of thumb: Above 100% means it returned more than it earned, using cash savings or debt.
Ratios use fiscal-year-end balance sheet values. Inputs are shown rounded, so dividing them can differ from the result in the last digit. A peer median leaves out peers that do not report the inputs, or where the ratio means nothing (for example, negative shareholders' equity). Rules of thumb are general guides from QuantVantage.ai, not hard limits. No share-price ratios (like price-to-earnings) are shown on this page.
🥊Who are Sandisk's competitors?
Micron, which also makes NAND flash and SSDs, is the rival in the chart; each names the other as a competitor 789. Its other big flash rivals, Kioxia, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Yangtze Memory Technologies, are not in the chart 7.
| Company | Where they compete | Revenue | Growth/yr (3y) | Op. margin | FCF margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandisk (SNDK, FY2026) | NAND flash: data-center SSDs, PC and phone storage, memory cards and USB drives 1 | $20.2bn | 49.3% | 61.2% | 56.8% |
| Micron (MU, FY2026) | NAND flash and SSDs; it also makes DRAM, which Sandisk buys from suppliers such as Nanya 789 | $133.2bn | 104.6% | 74.6% | 44.3% |
Kioxia is both a rival 7 and Sandisk's factory partner, sharing eight flash factories in Japan 12. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Yangtze Memory Technologies also make their own flash, and many smaller firms build flash into products 7. Micron said in December 2025 that it would leave its Crucial consumer business, which sold SSDs in shops 8.
🧭Sandisk SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
💪 Strengths
- Sandisk's 10-K claims industry-leading consumer brand awareness and a global retail presence 1.
- No single customer made up more than 10% of revenue in fiscal 2024, 2025 or 2026 1.
- Over the last three years combined, Sandisk turned 31.8% ✓ of sales into free cash flow, an A ✓.
- Net cash reached $4.8bn ✓ at the end of FY2026, after Sandisk paid off its term loan 2.
🩹 Weaknesses
- All of its flash wafers come from joint ventures with Kioxia, so its supply depends on one partner 12 12.
- Sandisk must pay half of the ventures' fixed costs, however much it buys 12.
- Its record of profit is short: it lost money in FY2025, with net income of -$1.6bn ✓.
- Steadiness earns an F ✓, because yearly growth swings so much.
🚀 Opportunities
- Datacenter SSDs go into servers for AI work 1, and Datacenter sales reached $5.2bn ✓ in FY2026.
- Managers expect AI-driven demand for its storage to last through 2027 and beyond 2.
- Sandisk signed five long-term customer deals by April 2026 and five more by August 2026 11.
- Micron said in December 2025 that it would leave its Crucial consumer business, which sold SSDs in shops 8.
⚠️ Threats
- Sandisk's industry faces falling average prices, swings in demand and fast changes in technology 10.
- Big rivals such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron make both the flash chips and the products built from them 7.
- Pending US trade probes could change tariffs on its products, though most it sells in the US are exempt for now 2.
- Sandisk expects to become subject to the 15% corporate minimum tax in fiscal 2027 2.
- Its 10-K warns that the long-term customer deals carry execution, financial and market risks 10.
🏰Does Sandisk have a moat?
Why 3?
Its 10-K lists lengthy product approvals as a feature of the industry, so a new supplier takes time to approve 10. Since fiscal 2026, Sandisk has signed multi-year deals that commit buyers to set volumes, backed by financial guarantees 2. It had signed ten such deals by August 2026, counting two that expanded earlier ones 11.
Why 3?
All of Sandisk's wafers come from eight factories in Japan run with Kioxia, and it owns 49.9% of each venture 12. It buys wafers at cost plus a small markup 12, and the ventures hold about 80% of capacity in those factories 12. But rivals such as Kioxia, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron also make their own flash 7.
A moat is what keeps rivals from taking a company's customers and profits. Scores are QuantVantage.ai's judgement (5 = strongest), set with the same rubric on every explainer (orange is Sandisk; grey dots are peers).
🔭What should you watch next?
Corporate minimum tax
Sandisk expects to become subject to the 15% corporate alternative minimum tax in fiscal 2027 2.
📚Learn the words
❓Frequently asked questions about Sandisk
What does Sandisk make?
Sandisk makes flash storage: SSDs, flash built into devices, memory cards and USB drives 1. In FY2026, Edge brought in $12.2bn ✓, Datacenter $5.2bn ✓ and Consumer $2.9bn ✓.
Is Sandisk part of Western Digital?
No. Sandisk split from Western Digital on 21 February 2025 and kept the flash business, while Western Digital kept hard drives 2 113. Western Digital had owned SanDisk since 2016 14, and it held no Sandisk shares by July 2026 213.
Why did Sandisk's sales jump in FY2026?
Sandisk earned much more for each gigabyte it sold, and sold more storage to data centers. Sales rose 175.3% ✓ to $20.2bn ✓. In Edge, storage sold rose by a high single-digit percent, but money per gigabyte rose almost 180% 2. In Datacenter, storage sold rose almost 120% and money per gigabyte almost 150% 2.
Who are Sandisk's competitors?
Sandisk's main flash rivals are Kioxia, Micron, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Yangtze Memory Technologies 7. Kioxia is also its factory partner 12.
Where are Sandisk's flash wafers made?
In Japan. All of its flash wafers come from eight factories in Yokkaichi and Kitakami, run in joint ventures with Kioxia 12. The ventures now run to the end of 2034 12.
Who runs Sandisk?
David Goeckeler has been Sandisk's CEO and Chair since February 2025 15. Before that, he ran Western Digital from 2020 15.
Why does this page only go back to FY2023?
Sandisk has been its own company only since February 2025 2. Its financial history on this page starts in FY2023 ✓.
Does Sandisk buy back its shares?
Yes. It spent $4.5bn ✓ on buybacks in FY2026. In August 2026 the board approved another $14bn, leaving $15.5bn to use 11.
🎮Play: higher or lower, then test yourself
Figures come from each company's latest annual report (10-K); fiscal years end in different months. Sources: [4] [5].
🧠 Test yourself
5 quick questions. Score: 0 / 5
1. Which end market brought Sandisk the most money in FY2026?
2. What was SanDisk first called?
3. Which rival's CEO helped found SanDisk?
4. Where are all of Sandisk's flash wafers made?
5. Which part of Sandisk grew from a small slice to a quarter of sales?
🔎Sources and method
Every figure comes from a source listed here or is calculated from those sources (marked ✓). Company financials are taken from SEC filings (10-K and 10-Q) as tagged in XBRL. Peer grades rank the same measures across the company and its peers. This page contains no share-price data and no valuation.
- Sandisk 10-K for fiscal 2026 (Item 1, Business) — Separation from Western Digital; products and end markets (Datacenter, Edge, Consumer); brands (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Sandisk 10-K for fiscal 2026 (Item 7, MD&A) — Fiscal year; spin-off details; term loan repayment; long-term agreements (NBMs); end-market drivers; tax and tariff outlook (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Sandisk (SNDK) Form 10-K for fiscal year 2026, filed 2026-08-17 — revenue by product, segment and geography (accessed 2026-10-28)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: Sandisk (SNDK) — annual 10-K facts (accessed 2026-10-28)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC (MU) — annual 10-K facts (accessed 2026-10-28)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: Sandisk (SNDK) — balance sheet at 2026-07-03 (accessed 2026-10-28)
- Sandisk 10-K for fiscal 2026 (Item 1, Competition and Patents) — Named competitors; about 8,000 granted patents and 3,000 pending applications (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Micron Technology 10-K for fiscal 2026 — Micron's named competitors (includes Sandisk); DRAM, NAND and SSD products; Crucial exit; CEO biography (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Sandisk 8-K, March 25, 2026 (Nanya investment and DRAM supply) — About $1.0 billion equity investment in Nanya Technology; multi-year DRAM supply arrangement (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Sandisk 10-K for fiscal 2026 (Item 1A, Risk Factors summary) — Key risks: strategic relationships, competitive conditions incl. lengthy product qualifications, key customers, long-term agreements (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Sandisk 8-K and press release, August 5, 2026 (fiscal fourth quarter 2026 results) — Long-term (NBM) agreements signed; $14 billion repurchase program; total remaining authorization (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Sandisk 10-K for fiscal 2026 (Item 1, Operations: Flash Ventures) — Flash Ventures with Kioxia: ownership, fabs, wafer supply and pricing, 2034 extension, $1.2 billion payments (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Western Digital 10-K for fiscal 2026 — Western Digital kept the hard drive business; it held no Sandisk shares as of July 3, 2026 (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Western Digital 8-K, May 12, 2016 (completion of SanDisk acquisition) — Western Digital completed its acquisition of SanDisk; SanDisk became a subsidiary (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Sandisk 2026 proxy statement (DEF 14A) — CEO and Chair biography; 2026 annual meeting date and director nominees (accessed 2026-10-29)
- SanDisk Corporation 10-K for fiscal 2010 (original SanDisk, CIK 1000180) — Incorporated in Delaware in June 1988 as SunDisk; renamed SanDisk in August 1995 (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Sandisk 10-K for fiscal 2026 (Item 1 Human Capital; Item 2 Properties) — Employees as of July 2026; principal executive offices in Milpitas (accessed 2026-10-29)
- SEC EDGAR companyfacts: Sandisk (SNDK) — quarterly 10-Q/10-K facts (accessed 2026-10-28)
- Sandisk 8-K, April 30, 2026 (fiscal third quarter 2026 results) — $6 billion share repurchase program approved (accessed 2026-10-29)