SanDisk Corp (NASDAQ: SNDK) was added to the Nasdaq-100 index on Tuesday April 21, replacing Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ: TEAM), in a move that is expected to trigger automatic passive fund inflows from ETFs and index trackers replicating the index.
The inclusion reflects SanDisk’s extraordinary year-to-date run of approximately 285 percent, driven by AI-related demand for NAND memory storage as hyperscalers and enterprise customers scale up data infrastructure at a pace that has outstripped supply for high-density storage.
SanDisk’s Nasdaq-100 inclusion lands during the most violent semiconductor rally in more than two decades. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has surged 30 percent in the past thirteen trading days, the largest comparable rally since 2002, driven by a combination of the Iran ceasefire-driven macro recovery, aggressive AI infrastructure capex commitments from Amazon, Microsoft and Google, and strong earnings momentum across the sector.
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) is up 242 percent in April alone — a figure that reflects a combination of short covering, passive rebalancing flows and genuine fundamental re-rating as AMD’s server GPU share gains against Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) become increasingly visible in real deployment data. Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) has added 22 percent in April, Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) is up 38 percent and NVIDIA itself has added 22 percent in the same period.
The Nasdaq Composite closed Tuesday’s session at 24,259.96, down 0.59 percent, as Iran ceasefire uncertainty in the second half of the day erased early gains — a pattern that has characterised every session since the thirteen-day winning streak ended on Monday.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index’s relative strength versus the broader Nasdaq reflects how concentrated the current AI infrastructure investment thesis has become around hardware names, with BTIG chief market technician Jonathan Krinsky flagging an elevated reading in the SOX relative to recent trend levels as a potential near-term caution signal for traders positioned in the momentum trade.
Atlassian’s exit from the Nasdaq-100 following its index removal closes a difficult chapter for the project management software company, which had fallen approximately 65 percent over the prior year as enterprise software spending on productivity tools faced pressure from AI-native alternatives.
The stock gained around 6 percent on Monday, suggesting some investors viewed the de-indexing as an opportunistic entry point after the prolonged sell-off.