The separation of Sandisk and Western Digital is more than ever a reality.
At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Sandisk announced the definitive end of Western Digital's presence in the world of SSDs. The hard disk giant had completely missed the turn to SSDs in the early 2010s. To catch up, the American company decided to break its piggy bank and buy one of the hottest companies on the NAND market, Sandisk. In October 2015, $19 billion was put on the table to buy Sandisk, which never completely disappeared. The brand was retained by Western Digital, for example, for all USB flash drives. SSDs, on the other hand, were evolving rapidly, and names such as WD_Black or WD_Blue replaced Sandisk product names.
The Sandisk Optimus range breakdown © Sandisk
Now, at CES 2026, Sandisk has come full circle. Without the exact reason being known - the financial results of both Sandisk and Western Digital are good - in October 2023, it was decided to separate the two companies. Sandisk regained its freedom, and in February 2025, the brand was once again listed on NASDAQ. However, so as not to confuse its customers, Sandisk decided not to wipe the slate clean: WD_Black and WD_Blue SSDs continued to be sold as such, even though Western Digital was no longer doing anything behind them: production, distribution and after-sales service were now handled by Sandisk. Western Digital refocused on its core business, the traditional hard disk drive.
The year 2026 will mark a new turning point with the definitive end of the WD_Black and WD_Blue brands, which Sandisk has just replaced with the Optimus brand. The Optimus brand will be available in three variants, however, in order to better segment the market and avoid ending up, like Western Digital, mixing SSDs with DRAM cache and SSDs without DRAM cache in the same category. To clarify matters, Sandisk has published an illustration at the same time as its press release: WD_Blue SSDs become Optimus, the most basic WD_Black becomes Optimus GX, and finally, the most advanced WD_Black becomes Optimus GX PRO. It's safe to assume that Sandisk will be keen to maintain the excellent quality of Western Digital SSDs.
