Sandisk

SanDisk was founded in 1988 by Eli Harari, Sanjay Mehrotra, and Jack Yuan. Originally headquartered in Milpitas, California, the company focused on flash memory storage technologies. In 2016, SanDisk was acquired by Western Digital for approximately $19 billion. Following the acquisition, SanDisk operates as a brand and subsidiary under Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC).

The company designs and manufactures flash memory products, including SD cards, microSD cards, USB flash drives, and solid-state drives (SSDs). These storage products serve consumer electronics, enterprise data centers, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). A core technical moat historically stemmed from early patents in NAND and NOR flash memory architectures.

SanDisk operates in the NAND flash memory and solid-state storage market. Direct competitors include Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology, and Kioxia. Historically, SanDisk maintained a multi-decade joint venture with Toshiba (now Kioxia) for flash memory manufacturing in Yokkaichi, Japan.

SanDisk established a massive presence in Israel following its 2006 acquisition of M-Systems—the Israeli company founded by Dov Moran that invented the USB flash drive (DiskOnKey)—for approximately $1.55 billion. This transformed SanDisk's footprint, leading to major R&D centers in Kfar Saba, Tefen, and Omer. Today, under Western Digital ownership, the Israeli sites continue to function as central engineering hubs for flash memory and enterprise storage, employing over 1,000 people locally.