New Drones and Space Acrobatics? SpaceX, Power Metallic, Thales and Heidelberger Druck in Flight Mode

SpaceX: After the IPO comes the bull run

8 times oversubscribed, up to USD 225 – then a sell-off down to USD 109 and back up to USD 149. Following its spectacular stock market debut in June, SpaceX shares experienced an extreme roller-coaster ride and, after an initial all-time high, temporarily lost nearly half its value. Aggressive short sellers took advantage of this weakness, significantly increasing their bets and at times shorting up to 34% of the total free float. In recent days, however, many of these short sellers were forced to close out their positions in a rush, causing the short interest ratio to drop rapidly to around 11%. Additional tension was caused by the recent expiration of the first lock-up period, which made an initial tranche of 911.5 million shares freely tradable. Elon Musk countered the skepticism of the bears on Wall Street with his usual combative style and publicly warned short sellers on the X platform that their companies had little chance of survival. At the same time, the CEO surprised the markets with the announcement that he was moving up the ambitious goal of a crewed Mars mission to as early as 2030. For the first reporting quarter following the IPO, the company posted a net loss of USD 280 million despite record revenue of USD 4.2 billion, due to massive investments in the Starship program. But the Musk community continues to celebrate. Yet another typical Elon stock with a 2026 price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 150—as Mr. Spock might say: fascinating!

Defense Giant in Attack Mode: Thales Plans Mass Production of Drones with Renault

From the big US fantasy back to Europe. The French defense and technology conglomerate Thales Group is cementing its dominant position in the drone segment through spectacular large-scale projects, acquisitions, and strong financial results. A major milestone is the recently sealed strategic alliance with the Renault Group to begin industrial mass production of the innovative remote-controlled attack drone "Toutatis" starting in 2027, at a rate of 1,000 units per month. In addition, Thales is strengthening its maritime capabilities in the field of anti-submarine warfare through an agreed-upon multi-billion acquisition offer for Exail, the leading underwater drone specialist. To counter enemy unmanned systems, the company also launched the "RapidStriker" vehicle-mounted missile system as well as high-precision battlefield radars for 360-degree drone surveillance. Driven by global demand for defense equipment, Thales recently reported outstanding financial results for the first half of 2026. Consolidated revenue climbed organically by 7.8% to EUR 10.95 billion, while order intake soared by as much as 21% to a spectacular EUR 12.5 billion. On the LSEG platform, 11 out of 20 analysts are bullish; they expect a 12-month target price of just under EUR 294. With a share price around EUR 270 and a 2027 P/E ratio of 22, the French company is no longer a bargain!

Heidelberger Druck: Launching a Defense Offensive with ONBERG

And here is another small German latecomer. The struggling, long-established Heidelberger Druckmaschinen is pushing ahead with its transformation and, as part of a strategic realignment, is betting heavily on the defense boom. To this end, the company established the joint venture ONBERG with its US-Israeli technology partner, Ondas Autonomous Systems. A new center of excellence is now being established at the company's historic plant in Brandenburg an der Havel to manufacture and market AI-powered drone interception systems and autonomous security systems for airports and military bases. In addition, the portfolio was recently presented to the public at the Bundeswehr's Techshow and the ILA aviation trade fair, where the focus was, among other things, on the patented Iron Drone defense system. Just recently, the joint venture expanded its ambitions through a memorandum of understanding with a Ukrainian drone manufacturer to produce the battle-tested Raybird reconnaissance drone on an industrial scale in Germany. Together with other defense projects, CEO Jürgen Otto aims to achieve a revenue volume of around EUR 300 million in this new segment in the medium term. The new segment would be a boon for the struggling balance sheet, but time is of the essence, as the competition is moving fast. The initial 50% defense rally in April saw heavy profit-taking, so proceed with caution!

Power Metallic Mines on the Verge of a Resource Estimate: Nothing Works Without Critical Metals

Defense requires vast amounts of critical metals. After all, even copper is no longer just a traditional industrial metal; it is becoming a strategic building block for electrification, grid expansion, and digital infrastructure. Many applications, ever-dwindling supplies—that is the reality facing Western industrialized nations. Fortunately, there are promising newcomers in the supply chain, including Power Metallic Mines, with its NISK project in Québec. The Canadian company is developing a polymetallic system there containing copper, nickel, platinum, palladium, gold, and silver, with the long-term goal of turning NISK into a new source of critical raw materials for North America.

For the investment case, what matters less is the sheer size of the approximately 330 km² area than the question of whether the exceptionally high-grade discoveries to date can be translated into a robust resource and, later, into a viable mining model. This is precisely where Power Metallic stands now, as the combined resource estimate for NISK and Lion, originally announced for late July, has been postponed to late August due to delays at the contracted engineering firm. The delay does not alter the geological situation; on the contrary, while the resource estimate is being finalized, the company is continuing to drill with five rigs and plans to deliver results from the summer program on an ongoing basis starting in September. The quality of the system is remarkable, as Lion most recently reported, among other things, 36.4 m grading 2.83% copper equivalent (CuEq), including 6 m grading 12.38% CuEq, and previously even 22 m grading 11.46% CuEq. From an investor's perspective, continuity is now what matters most. The better these high-grade zones can be spatially modeled, the more likely it is that spectacular drill cores will develop into a potentially economically viable ore body. The metallurgical study published in June provides a boost, as it also showed encouraging recovery results for disseminated, low-grade mineralization, thereby broadening the focus from individual high-grade hits to the entire metallurgical system. At the same time, Power Metallic is expanding its exploration capabilities technologically and combining muon tomography with ANT, gravimetry, and SQUID surveys to identify, in particular, deeper and previously hard-to-detect Ni-Cu-PGE targets.

IIF host Lyndsay Malchuk interviewed CEO Terry Lynch about the upcoming steps toward the PEA and the outlook for 2027.

https://youtu.be/FxN8s8xFC2o

Meanwhile, a recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA) underscores the structural market argument: demand for key energy commodities is growing significantly faster than that for traditional base metals, while copper is expected to see the largest absolute increase in demand among the critical minerals examined by 2040; for 2035, the IEA's base-case scenario continues to project a potential copper supply deficit of around 25%. Thus, the NISK story aligns with a commodities market in which high-quality new projects are sought not only because of rising prices, but increasingly for reasons of supply security and geopolitical diversification.

Financially, Power Metallic created the necessary leeway to drive exploration and project development in parallel by raising approximately CAD 28 million in June, while Eric Sprott's investment sent an additional prominent signal from the commodities sector. With the planned mineral resource estimate, the PEA process, new drilling results and potential steps toward a US capital market listing, the stock has several potential catalysts lined up for an exciting fall. CEO Terry Lynch, meanwhile, remains the picture of calm!

In the critical raw materials segment, reliable resources and clear growth prospects matter more than spectacular promises. With its project, Power Metallic Mines has a solid foundation that enables long-term value growth. At the same time, investors should not overlook the possibility of a strategic acquisition. SpaceX could be poised for its next upward surge following the end of the first lock-up period, as no major selling activity has occurred. The two defense and technology stocks, Heidelberger Druck and Thales, promise additional momentum. Investors looking to build a more robust portfolio should strategically diversify risks across various themes, sectors and global regions.