SanDisk, the memory chip company now valued at about $230 billion after a massive stock rally, has laid off dozens of employees at its development centres in Israel. The exact number of job losses has not been confirmed, but the cuts reportedly affect staff across several departments.
The layoffs come as a surprise because the company is enjoying record demand for flash memory, driven by artificial intelligence and cloud data centres. SanDisk’s revenue for the last quarter reached nearly $9 billion, almost five times higher than a year earlier, with profits of $6.9 billion. It also reported a huge order backlog worth $91 billion, most of it tied to long term contracts with major AI and cloud companies.
Despite this strong performance, management reportedly decided to move a key development project from Israel to India, leading to job cuts at its three Israeli centres in Kfar Saba, Tefen, and Omer. These centres employ around 700 people and focus on core flash memory technologies such as chip design and storage systems.
The timing of the layoffs has drawn attention because SanDisk is preparing to launch an employee stock purchase plan that would allow staff to buy shares at a discount. With the company’s stock price rising from $37 in August 2025 to nearly $1,600 today, the plan could have offered significant benefits to employees.
SanDisk was originally founded in 1988 by Eli Harari and later acquired M Systems, founded by Dov Moran. It became part of Western Digital before returning to the public markets in 2025. The recent job cuts highlight the tension between global expansion decisions and local employment, even at companies experiencing rapid financial success.