Got $1,000? 2 Red-Hot Tech Stocks Setting the Market on Fire in 2026
Keithen Drury, The Motley Fool
Wed, July 8, 2026 at 11:55 AM GMT+5:30
4 min read
Two stocks have defined the market so far in 2026: Sandisk(NASDAQ: SNDK) and Micron (NASDAQ: MU). These two are leading the S&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) in performance and have been the stocks to own this year
Micron is lagging a bit behind Sandisk, onlyrising 242% so far this year. Sandisk is leading the way at 635% growth, but that figure was <a href="https://todaytrendnews7.com/live-updates-us-hits-more-than-80-iran-targets-and-reimposes-sanctions/" title="Live updates: US hits more than 80 Iran targets and reimposes sanctions”>more than 800% a few days ago before the most recent round of tech stock sell-offs
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These two are about as red-hot as it gets, yet they’re each down around 20% from their all-time highs established just days ago
If you missed out on these two, now could be your chance to buy them on sale, as the same catalysts that propelled their stocks higher in the first half of 2026 will remain present through the end of 2026 and into 2027
The memory chip market remains tight
Both Micron and Sandisk are memory chip fabricators. Memory chips are useful for information recall in computing devices. They are vital, whether it’s in a GPU for data centers processing artificial intelligence (AI) workflows, a smartphone, or a laptop. Memory chips are used in everything
While there are a few types of memory that are used in different situations, there isn’t much that sets one manufacturer apart from another. As a result, the market is highly commoditized, making it highly sensitive to supply-and-demand dynamics
With unprecedented demand for memory chips coming from the data center build-out, the memory chip production industry wasn’t ready for this massive spike. With high demand and low supply, prices skyrocketed, allowing Micron and Sandisk (and its peers) to benefit from soaring prices. That’s the primary reason for its rise, but investors are likely concerned about demand dropping eventually
That’s a valid concern, but it may not be for a while. During Micron’s recent earnings call, its management team said they expect “tight conditions” to persist in the DRAM and NAND memory markets beyond 2027
The reason for that is two-fold: First, data center demand is rising because AI hyperscalers are far from done building out data centers. Second, many memory chip fabricators are scrambling to build new facilities to meet demand, and those aren’t expected to come online until 2027 or later. Even then, it will remain unknown whether the new supply will be able to meet eventual data center demand, as it could still be a bottleneck
