1. AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 39
AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) is frequently mentioned on Reddit by investors speculating about which stock could become the next SanDisk. Redditors believe ASTS can break out because the company is positioned at an inflection point where execution drives a paradigm shift. After the SpaceX IPO, investor attention on the entire space sector is skyrocketing, and ASTS will be the only pure-play D2D satellite service story in front of retail and institutional eyes.
AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) sells space-based 4G/5G cellular broadband connectivity delivered directly to mobile phones without any hardware upgrades. Its customers are rural Americans stuck with sub-7 MBPS internet (2.6% of the US population willing to pay premium pricing), mobile network operators who’ve already signed partnerships with the company, and increasingly, the US government.
Defense revenue is the hidden story the stock’s bulls point to. Management emphasized in their recent conference call that defense will be a major contributor to 2026 revenue, and they’ve explicitly guided that the US government alone represents a $500 million revenue stream in 2027 alone—with roughly half of the company’s total projected $1 billion 2027 opportunity coming from government contracts. AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) is already conducting tests for the Space Development Agency on radiolocation capabilities, working on 10 different use cases spanning both communications and non-communications applications for national defense.
Crossroads Capital stated the following regarding AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS): Q1 picked up exactly where Q4 left off. The company’s transition from R&D-stage startup to operational scaleup, which we described last quarter, went from “underway” to “unmistakable” over the course of the last three months. There was one setback, as BB7 was placed in the wrong orbit by the New Glenn 3 rocket, sparking a downturn that had everything to do with Blue Origin’s vehicle misplacement, not any failure of AST’s technology. Nonetheless, the setback served as a healthy reminder that navigating the space frontier is never without challenges, particularly for a mission of this scale.
The company’s early March earnings update showed full-year 2025 revenue came in at $70.9M, at the top end of the guided range, driven by 15 commercial gateway deliveries across nine MNO customers on five continents and milestones against ten active government contracts. 2026 revenue guidance is $150–200M, at least a doubling, and management gave clarity and context to the $1.2B of contracted backlog and government-related scaling we should see into next year. Q1 2026 revenue of $14.7M was light relative to consensus, but guidance was reaffirmed and management noted revenue will be heavily weighted toward the second half of the year as launches begin and commercial service activates…” (Click here to read the full text)
While we acknowledge the potential of ASTS to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ASTS and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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