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In todayβs post:
One Report. Eight Stocks Explode. π
Free Cash For Your Newborn? πΆ
OpenAI Just Got Dethroned π
Follow the $50 Billion Buy-In
Wall Street just bet billions on a small collection of stocks.
And after a volatile first half of 2026, it looks like theyβre about to shift even more.
MarketBeatβs updated 10 Best Stocks to Own in 2026 report reveals the 10 names attracting fresh capital right now.
One Report. Eight Stocks Explode. π
The Pentagon might be about to write some very large checks to drone companies, and Wall Street lost its mind in the best way possible.
The WSJ reported Thursday that the Trump administration is eyeing funding deals with several domestic drone makers as part of a push to scale up production and cut costs on what's quickly becoming one of the most important technologies in modern warfare.
Three names are in the frame:
Performance Drone Works β already has an Army recon drone contract
Unusual Machines (UMAC) β a drone-parts supplier with Donald Trump Jr. on the advisory board (totally normal)
Neros Technologies β Sequoia-backed startup building small first-person-view drones
The talks have been running for months, involving the Pentagon and a lending office originally set up under Biden to back companies critical to national security supply chains. Yes, a Biden-era program is now supercharging a Trump spending push. Washington is weird.
Markets reacted the way markets do when defense money starts flying:
$UMAC ( βΌ 4.81% ) +54.4%
$ONDS ( βΌ 4.83% ) +22.5%
$AIRO ( β² 3.04% ) +22.4%
$RCAT ( βΌ 5.65% ) +32%
$AVAV ( βΌ 6.19% ) +18.4%
$UAVS ( βΌ 5.46% ) +16.5%
$KTOS ( βΌ 2.13% ) +14.8%
$ZENA ( βΌ 1.23% ) +12.9%
This is what happens when the government waves a blank cheque near a sector. Doesn't matter if deals are signed yet β the possibility alone is enough to send retail traders full throttle.
TL;DR
The Trump administration is weighing funding agreements with domestic drone companies to boost production
Performance Drone Works, Unusual Machines, and Neros Technologies are the named candidates
Talks have been ongoing for months, with Pentagon and a Biden-era strategic lending office both involved
The WSJ report triggered a massive sector-wide rally on Thursday
UMAC led the charge with a +54% single-day surge; multiple names posted double-digit gains
No deals are confirmed yet β this is still a potential funding story, not a done deal
1. Ride the Momentum Window
The Pentagon funding news is still fresh and deals aren't confirmed yet β meaning the hype cycle has room to run if more names get announced or deals get signed.
π Action: Take a short-term position in $UMAC ( βΌ 4.81% ) or $RCAT ( βΌ 5.65% ) while momentum holds. Set a tight stop-loss and exit on the next major news spike. Don't marry the trade.
2. Buy the Pullback on the Boring Name
$AVAV ( βΌ 6.19% ) (AeroVironment) is the most established, profitable drone company in the list. It only moved +18% β modest compared to the rest. That's your signal it's the safer long-term play.
π Action: Wait for the post-hype pullback, then accumulate $AVAV ( βΌ 6.19% ) as a core defense holding. It has real revenue, real contracts, and won't evaporate if the funding deals fall through.
3. Play the Sector, Not the Stock
Picking individual drone winners is hard. The smarter move is spreading exposure across the whole theme.
π Action: Look at drone/defense ETFs like $DRΠΠ or $ITA ( 0.0% ) to get broad exposure without betting everything on one name surviving Pentagon budget cuts.
The AI infrastructure trade everyone keeps sleeping on just posted the kind of numbers that make you put the phone down.
684% revenue growth. A signed power deal worth up to $2.6 billion. And a path to $7β9 billion ARR by end of 2026 from a standing start of $1.92 billion.
The stock is up 470% in the last 12 months and the market still hasn't fully priced what happens when the biggest bottleneck in AI data centre buildouts gets removed.
That bottleneck is power. And it just got solved.
But here's the part most people are getting wrong: the headline Q1 number that looks like the business is printing cash? It isn't what it looks like. There's a $4.1 billion figure buried in the balance sheet that changes the whole read, and if you don't know what it means, you're flying blind on this one.
In today's Premium deep dive, we break down:
The Bloom Energy deal and exactly how much revenue it could pull forward
Why the $2.26 billion operating cash flow figure is the most misread number in the report
The real risk hiding inside a $20β25 billion buildout funded by money the company technically owes back
The quarter-by-quarter roadmap management handed investors, and what missing it would actually mean for the thesis
The setup is live. The roadmap is public. The question is whether you understand it well enough to hold through the noise.
That's what Premium is for.
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Free Cash For Your Newborn? πΆ
$HOOD ( β² 9.29% ) stock jumped 5.4% Thursday after the company launched the app for Trump Accounts. Basically a 401(k) for kids, backed by the U.S. government.
The first wave of invite emails hit inboxes Thursday. More are rolling out over the coming weeks to everyone who signed up by submitting IRS Form 4547.
Here's how it works:
Kids born between 2025 and 2028 get a $1,000 starter deposit from the U.S. Treasury β free money, no strings
Family, friends, and employers can chip in up to $5,000/year combined
Contributions are auto-invested into a low-cost index fund built for long-term growth
Think of it as a head start on building wealth before the kid can even spell "compound interest."
On the infrastructure side, the U.S. Treasury tapped BNY (yes, Bank of New York Mellon, rebranded) as the financial agent running the program. BNY then partnered with Robinhood to handle the brokerage and trustee side.
BNY's stock dipped 0.5% on the day. Apparently not everyone gets a party.
TL;DR
$HOOD ( β² 9.29% ) surged 5.4% after launching the Trump Accounts app Thursday
The product is effectively a government-backed retirement account for children
Kids born 2025β2028 qualify for a $1,000 Treasury contribution at account opening
Family and friends can add up to $5,000/year β all auto-invested in index funds
BNY is the Treasury's chosen financial agent; Robinhood handles the brokerage layer
BNY stock slipped 0.5% β the quiet partner rarely gets the headlines
OpenAI Just Got Dethroned π
Anthropic closed a $65B funding round on Thursday, pushing its valuation to $965 billion.
That's not a typo. Almost a trillion dollars for a company that makes a chatbot.
And yes, that officially leapfrogs OpenAI as the most valuable private AI startup on the planet.
Who's writing the cheques?
The round was led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia. Co-led by Capital Group, Coatue, GIC, ICONIQ, and others.
The "significant investor" list reads like a who's who of global finance:
Blackstone, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price
Baillie Gifford, Temasek, Jane Street
General Catalyst, Lightspeed, DST Global
Basically, if you manage serious money, you're in.
Big Tech is all over this too
$15B of the round came from hyperscalers. Amazon dropped $5B, and Google (Alphabet) recently added $10B of its own.
Microsoft and Nvidia have also backed Anthropic in previous rounds.
Every major tech player is hedging their bets. Nobody wants to be the one who missed the next Google.
Chip makers are joining the party
Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix signed on as strategic infrastructure partners.
That's not just money. That's the companies that build AI's physical backbone planting a flag.
What's the money for?
Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao said the funding will help meet "historic demand," stay at the research frontier, and expand Claude into more workplaces.
Build faster, hire smarter, and don't let OpenAI breathe.
One more thing
Anthropic also dropped its latest model, Claude Opus 4.8, the same day.
Raising $65B and launching a new model in one day. Not bad for a Thursday.
(Note: SpaceX, currently preparing for an IPO, still holds the title of world's most valuable startup overall.)
TL;DR
Anthropic raised $65B, valuing it at nearly $1 trillion
It's now the most valuable private AI company, ahead of OpenAI
Backers include Amazon, Google, Blackstone, Fidelity, and dozens more
Chip giants Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix joined as infrastructure partners
The CFO flagged "historic demand" as the reason for the raise
Anthropic also launched Claude Opus 4.8 on the same day
1. Ride the AI Infrastructure Wave
The chip makers didn't just invest money β they committed their supply chains. Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix joining as infrastructure partners signals surging demand for AI memory and hardware.
π Action: Add or increase exposure to $MU ( β² 4.17% ) (Micron). It's a direct beneficiary of Anthropic's growth and still trades at a fraction of the valuation of pure-play AI names.
2. Buy the AI Enablers, Not Just the AI
You can't buy Anthropic stock. But you can buy the companies funding it. Amazon and Alphabet have both written billion-dollar cheques and stand to profit directly if Anthropic wins the AI race.
π Action: Use any dip in $AMZN ( βΌ 0.46% ) or $GOOGL ( βΌ 1.66% ) as a buying opportunity. You're effectively getting Anthropic exposure bundled into two of the strongest balance sheets on earth.
3. Bet on the Picks and Shovels Play
Every AI model needs compute. Anthropic's $965B valuation and "historic demand" signal that AI infrastructure spending is nowhere near its peak.
π Action: Consider broad exposure via $NVDA ( β² 0.96% ) or an AI infrastructure ETF like $AIPI ( β² 1.03% ) or $BOTZ ( β² 0.17% ). When the AI arms race accelerates, the chip and compute layer wins regardless of who tops the leaderboard.