Memory and storage names are rallying Thursday afternoon on blowout earnings across the sector. Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK | SNDK Price Prediction) shares are up 16% to $1,565, Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock is up 7% to $971, Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) shares are climbing 8% to $492, and SK Hynix (NASDAQ:SKHY) shares are up 8% to $167.
Dedicated memory ETFs are riding the wave. Roundhill Memory ETF (CBOE:DRAM) shares are up 6% to $58, and Tema Memory ETF (NYSEARCA:DISK) shares are advancing 7% to $39. The leveraged Defiance Daily Target 2X Long DRAM ETF (CBOE:DRAL) is jumping 11% to $11.40, while the Roundhill T-REX 2X Long DRAM Daily Target ETF (CBOE:DRAL) is also up 11% to $13.50. Meanwhile, broad semiconductor funds lag the specialists; for example, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) is up 3% to $561.
Earnings Blowouts Drive the Rally
Sandisk reported Q4 FY2026 non-GAAP EPS of $39.25 vs. $33.28 consensus on revenue of $8.96 billion, up 371.6% year over year (YoY). Datacenter revenue jumped 437% YoY for the full fiscal year, and CEO David Goeckeler stated Sandisk “closed fiscal 2026 with a leading technology portfolio, established datacenter as a key growth pillar.”
Micron’s Q3 FY2026 revenue hit $41.46 billion, beating consensus by 17.6%, with non-GAAP EPS of $25.11. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra pointed to “the strategic value of memory in the AI era” and multi-year Strategic Customer Agreements backing HBM4 volume shipments.
Western Digital delivered Q4 FY2026 adjusted EPS of $3.56 on revenue of $3.75 billion, up 43.8% YoY. Also encouragingly, Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) posted Q4 FY2026 non-GAAP EPS of $5.71 on revenue of $3.63 billion, up 48.5% YoY, while SK Hynix’s Q2 FY2026 revenue climbed 256.8% YoY with operating profit up 557.2%.
Same Theme, Opposite Bets
The two dedicated ETFs hold nearly inverted portfolios, so today’s return depends heavily on which fund you own. Per the Roundhill fund’s May 11 fact sheet, its DRAM-heavy roster runs Samsung Electronics at 25%, SK Hynix at 24.2%, Micron at 23.8%, Kioxia at 4.9%, Sandisk at 4.7%, Western Digital at 4.6%, and Seagate at 4.5%. This fund carries a 0.65% expense ratio, and it’s heavily tilted toward the top three holdings and to Asia.
The Tema Memory ETF, launched June 30 and actively managed, tilts toward NAND and storage. Its Aug. 12 weights: Kioxia 15.3%, Sandisk 15.2%, SK Hynix 12.6%, ChangXin Memory Technologies via swap 8.5%, Nanya Technology 5.4%, Samsung 5.4%, Seagate 5.1%, Micron 5%, SK Square 4.7%, and Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR) at 4.5%. This fund has an expense ratio of 0.75%, roughly $76.3 million in assets, and is run by Yuri Khodjamirian and Hong Yi Chen in partnership with SemiAnalysis.
Micron sits at 23.8% of the Roundhill fund’s holdings but only 5% of the Tema fund, while Sandisk flips it, at 4.7% of Roundhill and 15.2% of the Tema Memory ETF. That’s why Sandisk stock’s 16% pop punches harder inside the DISK ETF, while Micron carries the DRAM ETF. The Tema Memory ETF closed at a 2.6% premium to net asset value as of August 12 with a 30-day median bid/ask spread of 0.6%, so buyers paid above the underlying value into today’s rally.
Where Memory Hides in Broad Funds
“Semiconductor exposure” and “memory exposure” aren’t the same. In the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH), Micron is the third-largest holding at 9.4% per the May 27 fact sheet, with a 0.35% expense ratio. The SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA:XSD), equal-weighted with a 0.35% expense ratio, held no memory name in its top ten as of April 15; the iShares Semiconductor ETF carries a 0.33% expense ratio as of July 31.
The Leveraged Trade Cuts Both Ways
Two 2x funds launched the same day, June 24, both tracking the Roundhill Memory ETF. The Roundhill T-REX 2X Long DRAM Daily Target ETF trades on Cboe BZX, rebalances daily, and uses total return swaps to target 200% of DRAM’s daily move; its gross expense ratio is 1.5% and net is 1.25% under a waiver running to Sept. 30, 2027. The Defiance fund (DRAL) carries a 1.3% expense ratio and roughly $18.76 million in net assets, with five total return swaps on DRAM at 41.3%, 40.4%, 39.9%, 39.8% and 38.6%.
The Defiance Daily Target 2X Long DRAM ETF reported a one-month total return of -59.6% on NAV and -59.7% on market price as of July 31, and since-inception returns of -55.7% and -55.8% from its June 24 launch. These are short-term trading vehicles for sophisticated traders who monitor positions daily, not buy-and-hold investments.
What to Watch
Investors can watch for whether the gap between the DRAM-weighted and NAND-weighted funds widens as this rally extends and whether the Tema Memory ETF’s premium to net asset value persists. They can also watch for whether holders of the 2x products understand the daily compounding math before carrying them past a single session.
The next anticipated catalysts are Micron’s fiscal Q4 2026 report and the HBM4E ramp into calendar 2027. Memory is the loudest trade on the tape, and the fund an investor picks matters as much as the theme itself.
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