SanDisk heals WD Black and Blues, rebrands client SSDs

"WD Black and Blue SSDs are some of the most widely recognized client drives on the market, but their branding is about to disappear. Following Western Digital's flash-business spinoff, SanDisk announced it was retiring the beloved names and rebranding its NVMe lineup under the SANDISK Optimus banner. Going forward, WD Blue drives, like the SN5100, will be sold as SanDisk Optimus drives. Meanwhile, the company's higher-end WD Black drives, like the SN7100 and SN8100, will bear the Optimus GX and GX Pro names."

"Despite WD being among the oldest and most recognized names in PC storage, the rebrand was inevitable. In late 2023, Western Digital announced the spinoff of its flash memory business. WD took custody of the hard drive biz while SanDisk walked away with its NAND Flash division. The divorce was finalized in early 2025, and this week, SanDisk's lineup of WD Black and Blue SSDs took its name once again."

SanDisk is rebranding WD Black and Blue NVMe SSDs under the SANDISK Optimus family, with WD Blue models like the SN5100 becoming SanDisk Optimus and higher-end WD Black models like the SN7100 and SN8100 becoming Optimus GX and GX Pro. The rebrand follows Western Digital's late-2023 flash-business spinoff that left SanDisk with the NAND flash division while Western Digital retained hard drives; the split finalized in early 2025. Western Digital will continue to sell HDDs under WD brand names. SSD hardware and tooling remain unchanged, but global NAND and DRAM shortages, partly driven by AI demand, could push client SSD prices higher per TrendForce.

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