Why Sandisk Stock Popped Today

Sandisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) stock jumped 6.5% through 10:15 a.m. ET Friday -- and investors can thank Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) for the bump. The once (and future?) king of semiconductors blew past analyst forecasts for $0.01 in pro forma earnings last night, reporting $0.29 per share instead. Sales of $13.6 billion likewise trounced expectations for $12.4 billion.

Investors are overjoyed. Now they're buying everything semiconductor-related.

What Intel's good news means for Sandisk

Sandisk makes computer memory, whcih must work in tandem with fast artificial intelligence chips from companies like Intel and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), especially when these chips are being used to retrieve information for "inference" -- answering questions posed to AI. Thus, the theory is that Sandisk's prospects will be closely tied to Intel's performance.

And Intel is performing pretty nicely.

In last night's report, Intel reported 7% year-over-year sales growth and another positive pro forma profit. (It's important to note that, while non-GAAP profitable, Intel is still reporting losses as calculated under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) -- $0.73 for the quarter.)

Even better, in giving guidance last night, Intel predicted sales will grow another 5% sequentially in Q2 and that the company will return to honest-to-goodness GAAP profitability, earning about $0.08 per share (and $0.20 non-GAAP).

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan says the AI market is shifting from training (which powered Nvidia's profits) "to inference to agentic" tasks, giving Intel a chance to catch up to its archrival -- and playing even more directly to Sandisk's strengths in memory.

What's next for Sandisk stock?

All this sounds propitious for SanDisk's upcoming fiscal Q3 2026 report, due out April 30. No wonder Wall Street analysts recently raised forecasts for the company from to $14.23 per share to $14.55.

Fingers crossed they hit that mark.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intel and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.