Anduril’s Secret Partners

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

A while back, I shared a stage at my FreedomFest conference with a soft-spoken investor named Peter Thiel, and I’ve followed his moves ever since. Not for stock tips, but because when Thiel commits his money, history has a habit of rewarding the people who paid attention.

He backed SpaceX, Facebook, and Airbnb when they weren’t on most investors’ radars. And just recently, he made the biggest bet of his career and wrote a single check for about $1 billion. The company on the other end of the check was Anduril Industries, the AI defense firm run by a college dropout named Palmer Luckey.

The company makes AI-powered weapons for every domain of modern war – the air, the sea, the land, and space – all run by a single software brain it calls Lattice.

Clearly the timing of Thiel’s bet couldn’t be better…

After all, America is rearming, and the numbers are staggering.

Global military spending hit $2.7 trillion in 2024, the steepest rise since the Cold War. This spring, President Trump asked Congress for a defense budget approaching $1.5 trillion. That would be the largest in U.S. history, bigger even than the Reagan buildup.

America burned through munitions in combat this year, and the Pentagon’s own budget calls for rebuilding depleted stockpiles. The question is who can build fast enough.

Anduril has answered the call, and it’s been paying off…

The company holds more than $40 billion in signed contracts. Revenue more than doubled last year, from about $1 billion to $2.2 billion. And management projects roughly $4.3 billion this year. And it has climbed from an $8.5 billion valuation in 2022 to $61 billion in May 2026.

Meaning it’s been essentially doubling in size almost every year. And when it goes public, I expect it to be the biggest defense initial public offering (IPO) in history.

Here’s the problem. Because Anduril is still private, you can’t directly buy it yet. One way to get in is the ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF (Nasdaq: XOVR), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that owns a sliver of it.

But there’s another way too…

You see, Anduril can’t build everything itself. It leans on outside suppliers to help build its aircraft, missiles, and submarines.

I’ve found three of them. One for the air. One for the missiles. One for the deep sea.

They’re all small, publicly traded companies you can buy today, in any account, at any size.

Let me introduce you to them now – and show you exactly why I’m confident that each stock has the potential to soar 1,500% or more.

Secret Partner No. 1: The Air – Archer Aviation

In December 2024, Anduril went looking for a partner to build a new kind of military aircraft – one that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane. It could have called Boeing or Lockheed. Instead, it signed an exclusive deal with a scrappy California company called Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR).

The day the news broke, $430 million in fresh capital poured into Archer.

For a while, that partnership was just a promise on paper. Then, on July 20 of this year, the two companies pulled back the curtain. At the Farnborough International Airshow in England, Anduril and Archer unveiled the actual aircraft: Thunder.

It’s a fully autonomous attack rotorcraft that flies alongside crewed helicopters like the Army’s Apache. It’s basically like a robotic wingman. They also revealed a commercial version called Halo.

Archer’s stock jumped about 20% on the news.

Archer has a second business too – putting electric air taxis in American skies. And it’s the frontrunner in the space.

Its Midnight aircraft became the first of its kind to clear Phase 3 of the FAA’s four-phase certification process. Archer was named the official air taxi provider of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. And it’s building an AI flight system with three heavyweight partners: Nvidia, Palantir, and Starlink.

Now, Archer is not yet a profitable company. It booked just $1.6 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2026, and it posted a net loss of about $218 million as it pours cash into testing and production.

But its balance sheet looks good. Archer ended the quarter with roughly $1.8 billion in cash and short-term investments and very little debt. It has the runway to reach the finish line.

Better yet, Archer expects to begin winning government contracts this year. When a defense “program of record” lands – that’s a formal, funded, multiyear Pentagon commitment – the revenue picture can change in a hurry.

There’s plenty on the near-term calendar to move the stock too.

For one, Archer reports second quarter earnings in August. From there, I’m watching for a potential government contract on the Thunder program. Plus, Archer is formally teamed with Anduril and GKN Aerospace for the U.K.’s Project NYX competition to build an autonomous wingman for the British Army’s Apache helicopters. Then there’s new certification milestones on the Midnight air taxi – along with fresh announcements from those Nvidia, Palantir, and Starlink partnerships.

As with any investment, there is risk, but this stock carries explosive potential upside if Thunder wins big.

Recommendation: Buy Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) at market.

Secret Partner No. 2: The Missiles – Karman Holdings

Hypersonic weapons – missiles that fly so fast that today’s defenses can barely track them – have become one of the Pentagon’s priorities. Anduril’s entry is a hypersonic booster called Denali. And to build the case that holds its rocket motor, which is the structural backbone of the missile, Anduril turned to one company: Karman Holdings (NYSE: KRMN).

Karman is the quiet workhorse of the missile business. Its parts have been integrated into programs across the entire U.S. arsenal – from the SM-3, PAC-3, and THAAD interceptors that shoot down enemy missiles to the guided rockets and long-range missiles the Army is buying by the thousands. More than 80 prime contractors across 130-plus programs depend on Karman.

And with 50-plus years in the industry, Karman is a real, profitable, fast-growing business.

In the first quarter of 2026, it posted record revenue of $151.2 million, up 51% from a year earlier. It swung to a $7.8 million profit from a loss the year before. And its backlog – the value of orders already signed but not yet delivered – hit a record $1 billion, up 61%. Management raised its full-year outlook to as much as $735 million in revenue.

And the growth isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

President Trump’s Golden Dome missile shield – a project reported at up to $185 billion – runs on precisely the interceptors Karman helps build. The company also opened a new maritime defense line this year, supplying submarine and landing-craft programs.

So Karman quietly touches three of Anduril’s four domains at once: missiles, space, and now the sea.

Karman reports second quarter earnings in August, which could trigger a short-term surge in the stock. Beyond that, keep an eye on Golden Dome contract awards, potential 2027 budget appropriations that fund Karman’s core missile programs, and new milestones on Anduril’s Denali booster.

Management also expects fresh bookings later this year to convert that record backlog into revenue. Plus, it just expanded its credit line to $150 million, so another acquisition wouldn’t surprise me.

Now, Karman carries meaningful debt from the acquisitions that fueled its growth, and much of its revenue depends on defense budgets that Congress has to keep funding. But with a record backlog in hand and a defense budget that’s likely headed higher, the demand side looks about as sturdy as it gets.

Recommendation: Buy Karman Holdings (NYSE: KRMN) at market.

Secret Partner No. 3: The Deep Sea – Kraken Robotics

Now let’s dive underwater to the smallest (and boldest) company in this report…

China’s navy already floats more warships than ours, and it can build them far faster. America cannot win that race hull for hull. So Anduril is building a different kind of navy – robot submarines that patrol the ocean with no crew aboard.

Its flagship is the Ghost Shark, and Australia has already committed more than $1 billion to a fleet of them.

The thing is, every Ghost Shark runs on batteries. And those batteries come from a tiny Canadian company called Kraken Robotics (OTC: KRKNF).

Kraken’s SeaPower packs are, as far as I know, the only commercially proven batteries of their kind rated to survive 6,000 meters down – nearly 4 miles deep. A single Ghost Shark can carry dozens of them, up to roughly $8 million worth per submarine.

The company’s dominance in the industry is paying off. First quarter revenue climbed to about CA$21.7 million, with product sales – batteries and sonar – up 50%. Its gross profit margin for the first quarter was 56%. And the company holds more than CA$100 million in cash as of the first quarter.

It also just signed a transformative acquisition of a defense group called Covelya for CA$615 million – about CA$480 million in cash and CA$135 million in stock.

Covelya adds subsea navigation, underwater positioning, communications, and data analytics to Kraken’s lineup. This acquisition expands Kraken’s product offering and addressable market.

Its president and CEO said this following the acquisition: “Strategically, this acquisition will provide a unique opportunity to combine two leading subsea technology providers with complementary products, operating in markets with barriers to entry and high growth potential.”

Previously, Kraken was generating roughly CA$100 million in annual revenue on its own and expected as much as $175 million in revenue for 2026. With the acquisition, it’s now on track to hit $320 million in revenue for the year.

Besides the Covelya acquisition, there are several near-term events that could move the stock. The company reports second quarter earnings in August, and its third quarter results in November will be the first to include Covelya’s contribution. I’m also watching for new Ghost Shark orders – especially any move by the U.S. Navy, which Anduril is actively courting. And then there’s the ramp-up at Kraken’s new Nova Scotia battery plant, which the company says will eventually triple its production capacity. The company will also benefit from rising output from Anduril’s Rhode Island factory, built to scale toward more than 200 subsea drones a year.

To be clear, Kraken is small, and its U.S. shares trade over the counter under the symbol KRKNF, which can mean wider price swings and thinner trading. (It also trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PNG and intends to apply to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange following the Covelya acquisition.)

If Anduril’s underwater fleet grows the way I expect, and allied navies keep lining up, this little battery-maker is sitting in exactly the right spot.

Recommendation: Buy Kraken Robotics (OTC: KRKNF) at market.

Follow the Money

Benjamin Franklin built his fortune through industry, thrift, and prudence – by backing productive enterprise and letting it compound over time. That’s the spirit of what I’m handing you today.

Anduril may well become the biggest defense IPO in history, and that day could light a fire under all three of these stocks. But none of these companies needs the IPO to win.

Archer is landing its own defense work. Karman is already profitable and posting records. Kraken is powering a robot navy that’s being ordered right now.

Each of these stocks is currently trading near its 52-week low, which could make it a good time to buy. Plus, each has the potential to rise 1,500% in the coming months and years. Now, not every company makes it, and past performance never guarantees future results. But the coattail pattern is real. I’ve watched it mint fortunes for 45 years.

And rarely have I seen the setup this clear.