Energy storage concept stocks collectively rose to new peaks on Friday, with SanDisk Corp. and Western Digital erasing early session losses. At the time of writing, SanDisk climbed over 4%, hitting a historic high of $1153, while Western Digital advanced more than 1.4%, reaching a record $446.62. Micron Technology surged over 5%, touching a new high of $545.07, and Seagate Technology PLC jumped more than 6%, reaching an all-time peak of $716.53. The rally followed the release of the latest earnings reports from SanDisk and Western Digital a day earlier. During its earnings call, SanDisk disclosed it had signed five multi-year supply agreements with minimum contracted revenue of approximately $42 billion, backed by financial guarantees exceeding $11 billion, covering over one-third of its projected shipments for fiscal year 2027. The CEO of Western Digital highlighted a structural shift in AI computing toward inference and agent-based AI, noting that "every token and prompt" is generating non-recyclable, persistent data. This creates a compounding cycle where "inference creates data, and agents generate even more data," driving long-term storage demand growth at a compound annual rate exceeding 25%. The company's order visibility now extends to 2029, with mass production of 40TB EPMR drives scheduled for the second half of 2026 and HAMR technology certification progressing ahead of expectations.
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