The Zhitong Finance App learned that the global memory chip and data storage industry ushered in an intensive financial reporting period this week. After the market on Tuesday, Seagate Technology (STX.US) and SK Hynix (SKHY.US) will release the latest financial reports; Samsung Electronics and SanDisk (SNDK.US) will announce their results on October 29 (Thursday). Among them, Samsung plans to release full results at 10 a.m. Korea time, while SanDisk is scheduled to be released after the US stock market; Japan's Kioxia Holdings is expected to announce results on October 30 (Friday). China's storage industry will also usher in an important milestone. Changxin Technology is expected to officially announce its financial report on October 31 (Saturday). This financial reporting week will cover the storage industry in the US, Japan, South Korea, and China. Investors must not only see if companies can deliver impressive results, but also determine whether AI demand can continue to be converted into orders and profits.
Against the backdrop of continued expansion in AI infrastructure investment and rising storage demand and prices, storage vendors are ushering in a window of profit growth. However, market sentiment has begun to change: US storage stocks have clearly recovered recently, and even though their performance and guidance were better than expected, some companies were unable to stop their stock prices from falling. Investors' focus is shifting from “how fast is performance growth” to “how long can high growth last” and whether tech giants' increasing AI capital expenditure can reap sufficient returns.
The performance is impressive but it is difficult to stop the sell-off, and the market is worried about the return on AI investment
From Asia to the US, the storage industry is benefiting from increased demand from AI infrastructure construction. As large technology companies continue to expand data centers, demand for DRAM, HBM high-bandwidth memory, and NAND flash memory continues to increase, the supply of memory chips is tightening, and rising prices also support manufacturers' profits.
However, rising demand has not completely allayed investors' concerns about the industry cycle. After the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, the market's optimistic expectations for the AI industry continued to heat up, but now investors are asking: Can the tech giants' increasing capital expenses actually turn into sufficient revenue and profits? If the commercial returns of AI applications fall short of expectations, how long can the current boom in infrastructure investment continue?
The trend of US storage and data storage stocks already reflects this divergence. SanDisk, Micron (MU.US), Seagate, and Western Digital (WDC.US) were stocks with outstanding performance in the first half of 2026, but after entering the second half of the year, related stocks were clearly under pressure.
The results and future guidance announced by Western Digital on October 22 were higher than market expectations and announced a dividend increase, but the stock price fell by about 3% on the following trading day. Micron's previously announced financial results were strong, but the stock price continued to fall after the earnings report was released. Performance exceeding expectations coexisted with falling stock prices, indicating that the market is no longer just trading profit for the quarter, but is re-evaluating how long the storage industry's profit high can last.
Joe Tigay, portfolio manager at Equity Armor Investments, said that what the market really cares about is how long the storage industry's profit boom will last. Even if the company's current performance is strong, if investors believe that profit growth is close to a cyclical high, the stock price may reflect the risk of a future slowdown in advance.
Stock price performance also reflects changes in market expectations. Since the third quarter, SanDisk and Western Digital shares have both fallen by more than 44%, Seagate Technology by about 33%, and Micron by about 22%. Although these stocks have recorded significant gains since this year. SanDisk's increase was close to 430% during the year, the recent pullback shows that investors are no longer simply chasing stories of increased demand for AI storage.
Similar changes have also occurred in the Asian market. The stock prices of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix declined markedly from their June highs. Phillip Wool, portfolio manager at Rayliant Global Advisors, said that the market is shifting from blind optimism about AI topics to a more strict review of fundamentals, and the stage where relevant sectors can easily profit is probably over.
Concerns about AI infrastructure financing and commercial returns are also increasing market caution. Some data center projects faced challenges in terms of construction progress, financing costs, or commercial returns, and related companies' stock prices and debt market performance fluctuated. Investors are worried that if investment in AI infrastructure slows down, the orders and price advantages currently obtained by storage vendors can continue to be maintained.
Tech giants such as Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon will also release earnings this week. Their latest statements on data center construction, capital expenditure, and AI business returns will provide another layer of verification of the storage industry's demand prospects. If AI revenue growth does not keep up with the expansion of infrastructure investment, technology companies' capital expenditure plans may face adjustments, which in turn affects the storage industry's order expectations.
Global X strategist Billy Leung believes that the storage industry is an important window for observing AI demand because changes in storage product prices and orders can reflect supply and demand conditions. Andre Bakhos, president of Ingenium Analytics, pointed out that companies not only need to hand over impressive performance figures, but also prove that they can continue to grow in the next quarter and beyond.
What are you looking at this week's earnings report? Order, price and profit guidelines are key
For companies that are about to announce results this week, market concerns vary, but the core is to verify whether AI demand can continue to be converted into actual procurement, and whether current high profits can continue.
Seagate Technology will announce the results for the first quarter of the 2027 fiscal year after the market on Tuesday US time. As a supplier of high-capacity hard drives, the company will focus on benefiting from the growing demand for near-line storage in cloud data centers. The market is focused on its high-capacity hard drive shipments, revenue per unit capacity, the advancement of HAMR heat-assisted magnetic recording technology, and growth guidance for the next few quarters. Analysts expect the company's net profit to increase dramatically this quarter, but in the context of the recent correction in stock prices, management's judgment on subsequent demand and profit may receive more attention than single-quarter results.
SK Hynix will also release earnings after the market on Tuesday. Investors will focus on HBM shipments, HBM4 mass production and customer certification progress, DRAM price trends, and 2027 capacity planning. As demand for high-bandwidth memory from AI accelerators continues to grow, SK Hynix is expected to continue to benefit from product structure upgrades; however, the market also needs to determine whether the increase in HBM demand can offset the impact of changes in the supply and price of other storage products.
Samsung Electronics is expected to announce full results on Thursday. According to preliminary performance guidelines previously announced by the company, operating profit for the third quarter is expected to increase significantly. The market's focus this time includes storage business profit margins, HBM customer certification and shipment progress, next-generation product competitiveness, and traditional DRAM and NAND price trends. Whether Samsung can further enhance its competitiveness in the HBM market will influence investors' judgment on the extent of future profit improvements.
SanDisk is expected to announce results for the first quarter of the 2027 fiscal year after the US stock market on Thursday. The market will focus on NAND flash memory prices, enterprise-grade solid-state drive demand, product structure changes, and future revenue guidance. Analysts expect that the company's earnings per share may show significant year-over-year growth due to a low base and improved demand, but investors are more concerned about whether this growth will continue.
Japan's Kioxia is in an important position in the NAND flash memory industry chain. The company's performance will help to see if demand for enterprise-grade SSDs can be further translated into price and profit growth. As the requirements for storage capacity and performance in AI data centers continue to increase, enterprise-grade SSDs have become an important growth engine for the NAND market, but changes in supply and demand and price fluctuations may still affect manufacturer profits. Investors will also pay attention to whether Kioxia can adopt a longer-term supply agreement to reduce the impact of NAND price fluctuations on performance.
The focus of China's storage industry is on Changxin Technology's financial statements, DRAM product competitiveness, and production capacity construction progress. The company has disclosed its earnings forecast for the first three quarters. After officially announcing the financial report this Saturday, the market will pay more attention to its revenue, profit, product structure and operating conditions. As demand for AI servers grows and DRAM prices rise, Chinese storage vendors are expected to benefit from improved industry sentiment; however, capacity utilization, process upgrades, customer verification, and the pace of subsequent expansion will also affect the sustainability of profits.
China's storage industry is growing, or changing the global supply, demand, and competition pattern
Changxin Technology's performance progress is not only an important observation window for the development of China's storage industry itself, but is also closely related to changes in supply and demand in the global DRAM market.
As the memory capacity and performance requirements of AI servers increase, global storage vendors are adjusting production capacity allocations to invest more resources in high value-added products such as HBM. This change may squeeze part of the supply of traditional DRAM and drive up the prices of related products. Changxin Technology continues to expand traditional DRAM production capacity and promote research and development of technologies such as 4F² storage unit architectures. The goal is to increase storage density and unit wafer output.
If technology iteration progresses smoothly and gradually passes customer verification, Chinese manufacturers are expected to improve their competitiveness in the server memory and other DRAM product markets. This not only helps the development of the domestic storage industry, but also means that the future supply structure of the global storage market may change.
However, the expansion of production capacity does not mean that the risk of competition in the industry has disappeared. If global storage vendors expand supply at the same time, and AI demand growth gradually slows down, the current tight supply and demand may shift to a new balance, or even a phased excess. Technological progress and changes in market share of Chinese manufacturers are not only important signs of the growth of the domestic storage industry, but also variables to be considered on the global storage supply side.
Looking at the industry as a whole, the tightening supply of memory chips has had an impact on many industries. From automobiles to smartphones, related companies are under pressure to increase storage costs. Investors need to confirm whether this round of price increases is due to sustainable structural demand or a short-term mismatch between supply and demand. If storage prices continue to rise and order visibility is further extended, it will help prove that large technology customers are still expanding their AI infrastructure investments; conversely, if customers begin to delay purchases or reevaluate capital expenses, the vendor's current growth momentum may be affected.
Analyst: The sell-off reaction may be excessive, and the storage supercycle is still supported
Despite cautious market sentiment, some analysts believe that the recent stock price correction may be an excessive reflection of investors' concerns about the industry cycle. Demand for high-bandwidth memory and other storage products for AI servers is still growing, and it will take time to release additional production capacity, and the tight supply and demand situation may not ease quickly.
Samsung Securities analyst Jongwook Lee predicts that related storage stocks are expected to reach new highs around the second quarter of next year. Macquarie also believes that the industry has yet to face the immediate risk of oversupply. Citibank analyst Peter Lee is optimistic about the long-term growth prospects of the storage industry, and believes that the current supply and demand pattern may support a long upward cycle of the industry.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix occupy an important position in the DRAM market. Together, the two companies account for about 60% of global DRAM revenue, while their combined share in the HBM market exceeds 80%. As demand for HBM for AI accelerators continues to grow, the two companies are expected to continue to benefit from product structure upgrades and price increases.
Some Korean storage vendors have secured future production capacity through multi-year supply agreements. If the relevant agreement covers a large percentage of planned production, it will help increase revenue visibility, but it also means that companies must ensure that the pace of subsequent production expansion matches customer needs. If AI capital expenditure cools down, or if demand in the traditional smartphone and PC markets falls short of expectations, the industry may still face the risk of mismatch between supply and demand.
Dave Mazza, CEO of Roundhill Investments, believes that the current valuation of storage stocks already reflects the downside risks that may occur in the future of the industry to a certain extent, so the market's attention to the previous quarter's results has declined, and instead placed more emphasis on future demand and profit sustainability. If Asian storage vendors can prove that orders have been locked in through contracts rather than just based on optimistic expectations, the market debate over whether the storage industry is peaking may be delayed for some time.
Judging from the valuation, the expected price-earnings ratio of some US storage stocks has fallen to a low level. Micron's forward price-earnings ratio is about 5 times, SanDisk is less than 6 times, Western Digital is about 12 times, and Seagate Technology is about 15 times; in contrast, the forward price-earnings ratios of the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq 100 index are about 19 times and 20 times, respectively.
An undervaluation may not only mean that the market has taken into account the downside risks of the industry ahead of time, but it may also reflect that investors believe that current profits are difficult to maintain in the long term. If storage prices and profit margins are close to cyclical highs, the stock price may not be continuously supported even if the company's short-term performance continues to exceed expectations.
Demand for AI storage is still strong, and profit sustainability is the ultimate test
Although multi-year supply agreements, capacity expansion, and price increases have supported the storage industry, these factors have not completely eliminated risk. If AI infrastructure financing costs continue to rise, or if customers find it difficult to provide sufficient returns on related investments, tech giants may slow down data center construction, which in turn affects storage demand. At the same time, if the industry expands production faster than actual demand, the supply and demand pattern may be reversed.
This week's global storage companies' financial reports will test the success of AI demand from different dimensions: from the performance and guidance of US companies to market judgments on profit sustainability and valuation, order, price and production capacity data from leading Japanese and South Korean companies will reflect changes in industry supply and demand, while Changxin Technology's official financial report will provide an important basis for observing the operating performance of China's storage industry.
For investors, the real key is not only whether AI demand is strong, but also whether this demand can continue to be converted into orders, revenue, and profits, and whether the current boom can continue to be maintained after more manufacturers expand production. As the global storage industry enters a period of intensive financial reporting, management's statements on orders, prices, and production capacity will be an important basis for judging how far this storage boom cycle can go.