Late at night, the major US stock storage companies experienced a significant surge in their stock prices.

On January 30th Beijing time, the US stock market opened with the storage sector performing strongly. SanDisk surged over 22% during trading, and as of the time of writing, the gains have narrowed. Micron Technology rose over 3% during the session.

On January 29th, local time, after the US stock market closed, SanDisk announced its fiscal second quarter 2026 earnings report. The financial report shows that in the second quarter, the company’s revenue was $3.025 billion, a year-over-year increase of 61%; GAAP net profit was $803 million, up 672% year-over-year; GAAP diluted earnings per share were $5.15, up 615% year-over-year; GAAP gross margin was 50.9%, an increase of 18.6 percentage points compared to the same period last year, surpassing market expectations. Regarding guidance, the company expects that revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 will be between $4.4 billion and $4.8 billion, with GAAP gross margin expected to be between 64.9% and 66.9%.

The global storage price hike has impacted the downstream consumer electronics industry. Apple opened down over 2%, but as of the time of writing, the decline has narrowed.

On January 29th, local time, after the US stock market closed, Apple released its fiscal first quarter 2026 earnings report. The financial report shows that in the first quarter, the company achieved revenue of $143.756 billion, a year-over-year increase of 16%; net profit was $42.1 billion, up 16%; gross margin was 48.2%, exceeding previous guidance. Regarding guidance, Apple expects that next quarter’s overall revenue will grow by 13% to 16% year-over-year, with a gross margin of 48% to 49%.

Senior Vice President and CFO Kewan Parekh stated that Apple product revenue was $113.7 billion, up 16% year-over-year, mainly driven by double-digit growth in iPhone sales, setting new records. Thanks to strong customer loyalty and satisfaction, Apple’s active device install base has surpassed 2.5 billion units, reaching record highs across all product categories and regions.

iPhone revenue was $85.3 billion, up 23% year-over-year, mainly driven by the iPhone 17 series. The iPhone performed strongly worldwide, setting revenue records in multiple markets, including the US, Greater China, Latin America, Western Europe, the Middle East, Australia, and South Asia, while also setting a December quarter record in India.

“This is our strongest iPhone lineup ever and the most popular to date. Throughout the quarter, customer enthusiasm for the iPhone was extraordinary,” Cook said. The iPhone 17 series is a perfect combination of performance, battery life, camera system, and design.

Mac revenue was $8.4 billion, down 7% year-over-year; iPad revenue was $8.6 billion, up 6%; Wearables, Home, and Accessories revenue was $11.5 billion, down 2%; Services revenue reached a record high of $30 billion, up 14%.

Strong demand has caused supply chain tightness. Cook stated that due to the outstanding performance in December quarter, which far exceeded expectations, the company’s channel inventory is currently very lean. “We are in a supply catch-up mode to meet extremely high customer demand. It is currently difficult to predict when supply and demand will balance.”

Kewan Parekh also pointed out that due to demand far exceeding expectations, the iPhone is currently in a severe supply-constrained state and is expected to continue into the next quarter. Cook explained that the bottleneck mainly stems from insufficient capacity at the 3nm advanced process node used to produce the latest SoC chips.

Regarding AI, Cook revealed during the conference call that Apple is collaborating with Google to develop the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, which will help drive future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri launched this year.

Apple believes that Google’s AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models. Through this collaboration, Apple can unlock a wealth of experiences and innovate in significant ways. In the future, Apple will continue to run on devices and in private cloud computing, while maintaining its industry-leading privacy standards.

Additionally, management also discussed the impact of storage price hikes. Apple expects that while this will have limited impact on gross margin in the first quarter, it is expected to have some effect in the second quarter. However, thanks to the increased proportion of high-end models and scale effects, Apple still provided a strong gross margin guidance for the next quarter.

In terms of cash flow and capital returns, Kewan Parekh disclosed that at the end of this quarter, Apple held $145 billion in cash and marketable securities, repaid $2.2 billion of maturing debt, and reduced $6 billion in commercial paper, bringing total debt to $91 billion, with net cash of $5.4 billion at the end of the quarter. During this quarter, Apple returned nearly $32 billion to shareholders, including $3.9 billion in dividends and equivalents, and repurchased 93 million Apple shares on the open market for $25 billion.