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HBF standard released 24 hours before the earnings report: SanDisk is betting on the "next stop" for AI inference On August 4, SK Hynix and SanDisk jointly released the first global HBF standard. On August 5, SanDisk announced its Q4 fiscal 2026 earnings report. This is not a coincidence. SanDisk is declaring to the entire market: I’m not just selling NAND; I’m defining the next-generation standard for AI storage. What is HBF? Simply put— It aims to fill the gap between HBM and SSD. HBM is insanely fast but expensive and has small capacity—usable for AI training but unaffordable for inference. SSD has large capacity and is cheap but not fast enough—good for storing data, but too slow to feed data to GPUs. HBF sits in the middle: up to 512GB capacity, bandwidth from 0.4 to 3.0TB/s, using the UCIe open interconnect standard, able to connect freely with GPUs and CPUs. It solves the "memory wall" problem in the AI inference era—too much data, insufficient bandwidth, and high costs. Even more importantly, this standard isn’t just for SanDisk’s own use— It’s open to the entire industry through OCP. Google is already on board, Tenstorrent too. This clearly aims to build industry infrastructure, not to keep it closed and monopolize. Why does this matter to us in crypto? AI inference is the infrastructure layer for the Web3+AI track—decentralized computing power, AI agents, on-chain smart contracts all rely heavily on more efficient storage architectures. If SanDisk’s HBF succeeds, it’s like paving a wider road for the entire AI track. But the question is—does the market believe it? Look at SanDisk’s stock price in July: from a historic high of $2335, it dropped 47% in one month. Q3 revenue grew 251% year-over-year, gross margin 78.4%, products sold through the end of 2026—fundamentals are solid. What’s falling is expectations. The market is asking a painful question: how long can this AI-driven NAND boom last? Tonight’s earnings expect revenue of $8.39 billion, a 41% quarter-over-quarter increase; expected EPS $33.01, up 43% quarter-over-quarter. The company’s own guidance is $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion. But the market never wants just "meeting expectations." The market wants to know: can the gross margin hold above 80%? Can 2027 guidance continue to rise? Will AI storage shortages persist beyond 2027? The earnings report verifies current profitability. HBF verifies future potential. Tonight’s earnings are the report card—proving how much you earned last quarter. Yesterday’s HBF is the future check—proving how big your hand is for the next three to five years. SK Hynix CEO Koo Kwang-mo has already said: 2027 will be the tightest supply year in storage industry history. The three major manufacturers’ 2027 DRAM and HBM capacities are already fully sold out. For NAND, Samsung, Micron, and SanDisk’s full-year capacity is also pre-sold. The supply-demand gap is still widening, but the stock price has dropped 47%. What exactly is this market pricing? Tonight’s earnings are the report card; yesterday’s HBF is the future check—what will the market price? $BTC $SNDK $XSNDK #闪迪财报前夕，HBF与存储紧缺引发热议