How One Small Metals Firm Landed a Global Giant

It’s rare to see a small company move this fast.

In just two years, this North American explorer secured a partnership with $116B Rio Tinto, acquired four major properties, and began drilling for the metals that fuel both energy independence and defense readiness.

Learn why this fast-moving company is gaining serious momentum >

---

Just For You

3 Data Memory Stocks Beating NVDA This Year

Written by Dan Schmidt. Published 11/11/2025. 

Key Points

• Data centers are hitting storage roadblocks, which has sent the shares of data memory companies soaring.
• Western Digital, SanDisk, and Pure Storage are three of the biggest winners in this area; can their stocks continue this record run?
• These “picks and shovels” plays have outperformed even NVIDIA in 2025, with long-term order backlogs and bullish momentum heading into 2026.

The artificial intelligence revolution has created a three-pronged bull market in the tech sector. First are the hyperscalers like Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), which are driving the massive data center buildout. Then come the semiconductor giants like NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), which supply the chips that enable AI systems to be trained. Finally, there are the “picks and shovels” companies that build the equipment and infrastructure that keep data centers running.

That third prong has been drawing attention lately: many of the picks-and-shovels plays are outperforming hyperscaler and semiconductor stocks as investors pile into the critical infrastructure needed to scale AI.

Why Memory Storage Has Become the Hottest Trade on Wall Street

[Revealed] The $100 Starlink Pre-IPO Blueprint! (Ad)

Wall Street Journal best-selling author James Altucher has uncovered a way to get a pre-IPO stake BEFORE Starlink goes public.

All it takes is just a few minutes of time and as little as $100 to get started. Plus, you can take action right inside your regular brokerage account.Click here now to see how to take action.

Data centers are massive and hungry. They not only consume huge amounts of electricity and water, they also have rapidly growing storage requirements. Training large language models (LLMs) is an intensive process that requires terabytes — often petabytes — of data. Physical limits and storage architecture matter: LLMs can only learn from written knowledge if that information can be stored and accessed efficiently. That dynamic has made memory and storage stocks one of the most popular trades in the tech sector.

3 Catalysts Driving the Data Storage Surge

The recent rallies aren’t only about AI. Three additional factors are helping drive the surge:

• Cyclical Resurgence: Memory devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs) and NAND flash, suffered a supply glut after the pandemic that pushed prices down and squeezed margins. Memory is a notoriously cyclical market, and prices are now recovering as supply tightens and demand picks up.
• Sector Rotation: With large-cap tech valuations stretched, investors are rotating into more attractive pockets of the tech sector. That’s boosting interest in infrastructure plays such as data storage.
• Industry Alignment: Several storage companies have taken strategic steps — restructurings, spinoffs and pricing actions — that are already producing results. With order backlogs building (many customers can’t get deliveries until 2026), the whole sector stands to benefit as major suppliers streamline operations.

These 3 Data Storage Stocks Are Crushing the Market in 2025

NVDA shares are up more than 40% year-to-date (YTD), which is impressive. But these three data-storage names have all outpaced that return, some by a wide margin. The question for investors is whether the tailwinds are sustainable into 2026.

Western Digital: SanDisk Spinoff Unlocked Efficiency

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) acquired SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) in 2016 and then spun it off in February of this year, separating the hard-drive and flash-memory businesses in one of the market’s more successful breakups.

Western Digital’s HDDs don’t match the access speed of solid-state drives (SSDs), but they offer the cost efficiency AI hyperscalers need. The price per gigabyte for HDDs remains significantly lower than speedier systems, and when scaling operations, every gigabyte and dollar matters.

WDC shares are up more than 170% YTD, including a 115% rally over the past three months. Management highlighted the backlog during the fiscal Q1 2026 conference call on Oct. 30: several large customers provided detailed purchase schedules into 2026, with some orders already booked for 2027. Technically, the stock is trading well above both the 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs), suggesting continued bullish momentum.

SanDisk: Earnings Bump Sends Stock Into New Stratosphere

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) has been publicly traded for only a few months, but its return to the market has been one of 2025’s biggest success stories.

SNDK shares have surged roughly 480% over the past three months as demand for NAND flash continues to accelerate.

The company crushed its fiscal Q1 2026 earnings report, posting earnings per share (EPS) nearly double analyst expectations. Revenue also exceeded estimates ($2.31 billion vs. $2.12 billion projected), representing year-over-year growth of more than 22%. SanDisk’s order book is already filled through 2026, and management is forecasting improved marginsnext year as it implements price increases.

The strong earnings print triggered broad buying, and the chart contains multiple bullish signals. That said, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has been above 70 for much of the last month, which suggests an increased risk of a short-term pullback.

Pure Storage: Subscription Model Drives Recurring Revenue

Pure Storage Inc. (NYSE: PSTG) may not have the same gross margins as Western Digital or SanDisk, but its business generates recurring revenue at a time when demand is surging.

The company builds flash-based storage systems that are integral to AI infrastructure, and its subscription-based model has driven roughly 18% annual recurring revenue growth.

Pure Storage counts Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) and NVIDIA among its largest recurring customers.

PSTG doesn’t report earnings until Dec. 2, but the stock shows solid bullish momentum. Compared with WDC and SNDK, PSTG shares are “only” up about 46% YTD, yet the chart has been constructive: a Golden Cross formed before the last earnings release and the stock jumped 32% after Pure posted strong results and raised guidance. Shares are currently retesting the 50-day SMA, which some investors may view as a buying opportunity ahead of the next report.

Bottom line: these storage names have outpaced many headline AI plays in 2025, but investors should weigh valuation, the sector’s cyclicality and upcoming earnings events before adding exposure. Order backlogs and improving pricing are powerful tailwinds, but technical indicators and stretched short-term sentiment — particularly for names that have run very hard — suggest the potential for volatility.

This message is a paid sponsorship from i2i Marketing Group, LLC, a third-party advertiser of MarketBeat. Why was I sent this message?. 


We are not securities dealers or brokers, investment advisers or financial advisers, and you should not rely on the information herein as investment advice. Any investment should be made only after consulting a professional investment advisor and only after reviewing the financial statements and other pertinent corporate information. Further, readers are advised to read and carefully consider the Risk Factors identified and discussed in the profiled company’s SEC and/or other government filings. Investing in securities, particularly microcap securities, is speculative and carries a high degree of risk.


If you need assistance with your subscription, please feel free to contact our U.S. based support team at contact@marketbeat.com.

If you would no longer like to receive promotional emails from MarketBeat advertisers, you can unsubscribe or manage your mailing preferences here.

Copyright 2006-2025 MarketBeat Media, LLC. All rights protected.
345 N Reid Pl. #620, Sioux Falls, SD 57103-7078. U.S.A..