Micron, Sandisk Soar as CoreWeave CEO Says AI Demand Outpaces World's Capacity

Memory and storage stocks surged Wednesday after CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) reported blockbuster earnings, with CEO Michael Intrator dismissing fears that the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom was slowing.

Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) jumped nearly 17%, while Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) gained almost 14%. Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) climbed more than 12%, and Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) rose nearly 10% in early afternoon trading.

“The demand for this infrastructure … outpaces the world’s capacity to deliver infrastructure,” Intrator told CNBC Wednesday.

He said CoreWeave had 10 times as much demand as its remaining computing capacity for 2027, with available capacity for 2028 already oversubscribed several times over.

“The demand for the infrastructure is and remains overwhelming,” he added.

Memory Stocks Recover From Brutal Selloff

The rally follows a sharp memory selloff last week, when the midterm results fueled fears that a Democratic-controlled Congress could slow data-center construction.

Intrator pushed back against those concerns, telling CNBC that CoreWeave expected no impact on its ability to complete the U.S. facilities needed to fulfill its existing backlog.

During Tuesday’s earnings call, he explained that the overwhelming majority of CoreWeave’s Texas power capacity was already operational or fully permitted and under construction.

CoreWeave’s third-quarter earnings report showed revenue jumping 168% to $3.66 billion and a backlog of $132.5 billion.

The company also raised the lower end of its annual capital spending forecast to $37 billion, signaling continued investment in AI infrastructure.

That’s encouraging for memory manufacturers. AI data centers need enormous quantities of high-bandwidth memory to feed their processors, along with conventional server memory and storage.

Memory Shortages Extend Into 2028

Despite the recent stock declines, memory manufacturers continue to report strong demand for future production.

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said during the company’s September earnings call that more than 75% of its 2027 output was already committed to customers, and that he expects demand to exceed supply in both 2027 and 2028.

Research firm TrendForce forecasts conventional DRAM contract prices rising 10% to 15% in the fourth quarter, while NAND flash prices could climb 15% to 20%. Enterprise SSDs are the only category where it expects price increases to accelerate.

CoreWeave has experienced the storage squeeze firsthand. In August, it signed a multiyear agreement with SK Hynix-owned Solidigm to secure priority access to enterprise solid-state drives.

The rebound offers relief after the sector’s recent losses. But sustaining it will depend on whether data-center operators can finance and complete the infrastructure their customers are demanding.

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