Weekly Update: The $3 Stock Riding the SpaceX Momentum
Good evening, and welcome to this week’s edition of Stealth Trades!
SpaceX is about to go public. Everybody knows it. Everybody wants in. And everybody is asking the same question — how do I get a piece of this before the IPO?
I’ve covered backdoor SpaceX plays before on my YouTube channel.
But today I want to show you something different…
You see, when an investment theme is red hot like this, investors want anything attached to it. And there is small stock – one directly linked to SpaceX – that most people have never heard of. And this company is deeply embedded in SpaceX’s infrastructure. So much so that Starlink literally doesn’t work without it.
And you can buy it right now. Today. For about $4 a share.
The company is Filtronic. It trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol, FTC. And I want you to understand what makes this stock so valuable.
THE BOTTLENECK NOBODY TALKS ABOUT
Starlink has over 7,000 satellites in orbit right now. There are more going up every week. Millions of subscribers around the world are getting high-speed internet beamed down from space.
But all that data in space is worthless if you can’t get it down to Earth fast enough.
That’s the bottleneck – the ground gateway – a massive dish on the ground that talks to the satellites. And the way you punch massive amounts of data through the atmosphere, through clouds, through weather is by using a very specific radio frequency called E-band.
E-band is the only frequency with enough spectrum (bandwidth) to handle the sheer volume of data a mega-constellation like Starlink generates. There’s no substitute.
But there’s a problem with E-band…
The signals are incredibly susceptible to weather and atmospheric interference. To punch the signal through, you need extreme power.
Old semiconductor technology — Gallium Arsenide — can’t generate enough.
You need the newer, more powerful material: Gallium Nitride, or GaN.
And here’s where physics turns into a nightmare. When you push that much power through GaN microchips at E-band frequencies — they generate enough heat to literally melt themselves.
This is one of the hardest engineering problems in the entire satellite industry. You have to take multiple high-power GaN chips, combine their output into one massive beam, and package it in a way that manages extreme heat without degrading the signal at commercial scale and at competitive prices.
For years, nobody could solve it.
And then a small British company figured it out.
You’ve probably never heard of it. Most American investors haven’t.
Filtronic is based in Sedgefield, England. They design and manufacture ultra-high-frequency radio components — specifically in the millimeter-wave frequency range that satellite constellations, defense systems, and 5G infrastructure all depend on.
Their flagship product is called the Cerus 32 — currently the most powerful E-band Solid-State Power Amplifier commercially available anywhere in the world.
It solves the melting problem. They hold the proprietary IP. They have the manufacturing skills. And right now, SpaceX occupies every production line they have.
Yes, SpaceX has filled Filtronic’s entire factory.
THE MONOPOLY
Filtronic currently holds what is effectively a commercial monopoly on the specific intersection of three things: high-power, E-band frequency, and Gallium Nitride solid-state power amplifiers. Nobody else is doing all three at commercial scale.
What does that mean for SpaceX’s competitors?
Take Amazon. Amazon is building its own LEO satellite constellation called Kuiper — a direct Starlink competitor. Amazon needs the same E-band ground gateway technology to make Kuiper competitive.
Their options? They can use older, weaker Gallium Arsenide amplifiers — but that puts them at a severe disadvantage against Starlink’s signal strength. Or they can stay in Ka-band, which is congested and limited. Neither option is good.
The most likely outcome: Amazon pays whatever Filtronic charges to get access to a production line. And analysts have noted that Filtronic’s recently announced $8 million contract with an undisclosed US company could be exactly that — a development deal with Amazon, AST SpaceMobile, or another Kuiper-tier player.
But that $8 million is just the qualifying round. It will be the productions contracts that really move the needle.
THE SPACEX PARTNERSHIP
Here’s something else you might find interesting…
SpaceX didn’t just become Filtronic’s biggest customer. Elon is being strategic. There is a formal equity warrant agreement built into the deal.
SpaceX has been granted warrants — essentially options to buy shares in Filtronic — tied to commercial milestones.
As SpaceX places orders and Filtronic delivers product, SpaceX can acquire up to 15% of Filtronic’s total shares.
So, SpaceX has a financial incentive for Filtronic to succeed and increase in value, making them structurally aligned.
And it gets better…
The original deal was for E-band. But SpaceX then came back and effectively said: we want you to take this same GaN technology and engineer it for the other frequencies we plan to use in our next-generation networks.
SpaceX is funding Filtronic’s R&D. SpaceX already has FCC approval to launch thousands of next-generation satellites using V-band technology — which is the frequency that will eventually power true multi-gigabit speeds directly to consumer dishes on houses, RVs, and airplanes.
The total addressable market for E-band amplifiers is in the hundreds of millions of dollars — a few thousand ground station gateways globally. The total addressable market for V-band technology — which goes into tens of millions of consumer terminals — is a completely different order of magnitude.
Filtronic is positioned to ride both waves.
THE NUMBERS
I haven’t gone too deep into the finances, but the key metrics look phenomenal.
In fiscal 2025, Filtronic’s revenue grew 121% — from £25 million to £56 million. Adjusted EBITDA grew 247%. Operating profit surged 272%.
And the company is debt-free. They have debt on the balance sheet and £14.5 million in cash.
Plus 90% of the revenue Filtronic expects to earn this year is already locked in through signed contracts and confirmed orders sitting in their order book.
In August 2025, they announced their largest single order ever: a £47.3 million contract — roughly $62 million — for next-generation GaN E-band technology. That contract delivers material revenues through 2027 and 2028.
This is not a startup burning cash and hoping for revenue. This is a profitable, cash-generative business with a defensible monopoly position growing triple digits year over year.
And outside of the company’s financials, the stock is riding SpaceX momentum that is likely to carry into the IPO.
THE RISKS
So, what about the risks?
The big thing is obviously customer concentration. SpaceX makes up the dominant portion of Filtronic’s forward revenue. If SpaceX changes its constellation architecture, decides to bring manufacturing in-house, or reduces order volume — this stock gets murdered.
The stock is also extended – up 50% in the last month.
I picked up a few shares today (I tried to buy Wednesday but had to get approval to buy LSE stocks.) Depending on how it acts next week, I may add some more.
This is definitely a speculative play. And I really wish I had spotted it a month ago. But as the saying goes, ‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time… is now.’
Best wishes for your trading,
