Memory chipmaker Western Digital (WDC.O) rises 3.4% to $279.60 premarket after Bernstein upgrades to “outperform”
Peers also gain: Seagate Technology (STX.O) up 2.5%, Sandisk (SNDK.O) gains 3.4% and Micron Technology (MU.O) advances 3.3%
Memory stocks sold off last week after Google Research in a blog post announced TurboQuant, a compression algorithm that it says helps AI systems use much less memory without hurting performance
WDC, STX, SNDK and MU have fallen between 8% and 15% since then, as of Tuesday’s close
Bernstein says “this however, should have zero impact on HDD demand and negligible impact on NAND demand. Given the stock sell-off we see this as an attractive entry point for STX, WDC and SNDK”
Adds that demand and pricing continue to be better than expected on the back of AI for storage devices
Up to last close, YTD gains are 57% for WDC, 42.3% for STX, 18.4% for MU and 167.6% for SNDK

Google’s latest TurboQuant reduces large model KV cache to around 3-bit, enabling about 6× memory savings along with performance gains, directly weakening AI inference’s reliance on high-capacity storage. For leading companies in the storage sector (such as HDD, flash memory, and cloud storage providers), this could bring pricing pressure or margin compression.Do you think Google’s new technology will truly impact the investment value of the storage sector? Is it a short-term fluctuation or a long-term structural shift? Feel free to share your thoughts!

Google’s latest TurboQuant reduces large model KV cache to around 3-bit, enabling about 6× memory savings along with performance gains, directly weakening AI inference’s reliance on high-capacity storage. For leading companies in the storage sector (such as HDD, flash memory, and cloud storage providers), this could bring pricing pressure or margin compression.Do you think Google’s new technology will truly impact the investment value of the storage sector? Is it a short-term fluctuation or a long-term structural shift? Feel free to share your thoughts!

Google’s new technology is coming—will the storage sector cool down?

SOXQ

- Memory chipmaker Western Digital (WDC.O) saw a premarket rise of 3.4% to $279.60 following an upgrade to "outperform" by Bernstein.  
- Other memory stocks also gained, with Seagate Technology (STX.O) up 2.5%, Sandisk (SNDK.O) rising 3.4%, and Micron Technology (MU.O) increasing by 3.3%.  
- Bernstein noted that recent stock declines due to a new Google algorithm would negligible affect NAND demand, viewing the sell-off as an attractive entry point for several companies in the sector.

Reuters

Invesco Semiconductors ETF

Spdr Select Tech

Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF

Sandisk

Seagate Tech

Western Digital

First Trust Nasdaq Food & Semicon

Micron Tech

VanEck Semiconductor ETF

SPDR S&P Semicon

iShares Semiconductor ETF

Direxion Semicon Bull 3X

BUZZ-Memory stocks gain as Bernstein upgrades Western Digital, says TurboQuant fears overdone