Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) stock traded lower Tuesday by almost 4% as investors continued to weigh rising competition from China, softer flash-memory pricing and broader weakness across AI-linked semiconductor stocks.

The pressure follows Monday's sharp selloff, when Sandisk erased about $15 billion in market value. Despite the pullback, the stock remains up almost 530% in 2026.

China Competition Rattles Memory Stocks

China's ChangXin Memory Technologies said it made progress on a chip design that can pack more memory into a smaller space.

The development raised concerns that Chinese suppliers could eventually add capacity and ease the tight memory market that has supported prices.

The weakness spread across the sector. Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) lost about $52 billion in market value Monday, while SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY) shed about $41.5 billion.

Together, Micron, SK Hynix and Sandisk lost roughly $108 billion in market value Monday morning.

Micron and SK Hynix stocks are down by 3-5% on Tuesday.

Experts Say Near-Term Threat May Be Limited

UBP Senior Equity Advisor Vey-Sern Ling told CNBC that investors were "jittery and looking for excuses to take profit on AI-related stocks that have outperformed this year, especially memory stocks."

He said Chinese producers could pressure global supply over time, though they still face technology hurdles in advanced memory such as HBM.

Rayliant Global Advisors Chief Market Strategist Phillip Wool also said CXMT's progress represented an important step but argued that the immediate competitive threat remains limited because the company has yet to prove large-scale production.

Analysts Remain Constructive on NAND

Analysts continue to point to AI-driven storage demand, tighter NAND supply and longer-term customer commitments.

BMO analyst Harsh Kumar expects the memory market to remain undersupplied through 2027 and potentially into 2028. He sees NAND emerging as the next major bottleneck and potentially delivering the strongest price increases next year.

Cantor Fitzgerald analysts C.J. Muse, Matthew Prisco, Jamison Phillips-Crone and Galahad Caer previously called concerns around Toshiba's planned hard-drive expansion a case "where the headline is worse than reality," while saying demand continues to exceed supply.

Institutional researcher Nicholas Mugalli also described the pullback as a potential buying opportunity.

Earnings Remain the Next Catalyst

Sandisk is scheduled to report earnings on Oct. 29, 2026.

Analysts expect EPS of $46.22 versus $1.22 a year earlier and revenue of $10.64 billion versus $2.31 billion.

The stock carries a Buy consensus with an average price forecast of $2,303.57. Mizuho recently raised its forecast to $2,050 with an Outperform rating, while Rosenblatt initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $2,400 forecast.

SNDK Price Action: Sandisk shares were down 3.59% at $1434.00 during premarket trading on Tuesday, according to market data.