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It's 'Round To It' Time ~
Thursday, October 29, 2026
🐤 Heavy Metal: Why Nucor Could Be an Overlooked AI Infrastructure Winner
What I’m seeing in NYC spread…
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Dear Reader,
Last year I ran for Mayor of New York City.
And lost to a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist.
Now I'm convinced what's starting in New York will spread across America.
Just for starters:
- The new mayor wants to spend $70 million of taxpayer money just to study whether government-run grocery stores are a good idea.
- He's threatening a 9.5% property tax hike on every homeowner in the city.
- And he wants to raise taxes on every corporation and high earner.
This isn't just a New York story. Nearly 40% of Americans now have a "positive" view of socialism.
But what nobody's talking about is WHY this is happening... and where it's all headed.
I have my MBA from Harvard and spend my time in correspondence with billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill Ackman. I've spent 30 years on Wall Street. And there's a specific term for what's unfolding in America right now... one that points to an economic event unlike anything we've seen in over 100 years.
I'm not running for office again. But if you care about your wealth, your family, and your future, you need to understand what's really coming.
I've put together a free analysis explaining exactly what I see, and the specific steps I recommend you take with your money today.
I strongly encourage you to check it out here.
Regards,
Whitney Tilson
Editor, Stansberry Investment Advisory
Former Hedge Fund Manager
Co-Founder, Teach for America
Harvard MBA
P.S. What's happening today will reset the financial system in a way most of us can't imagine. If I'm even half right, it's going to have a huge impact on your money and your future. Get the details here...
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SpaceX's Spectrum Deal Hits Telecom Stocks but Gives Tower REITs a New Opportunity
Authored by Leo Miller. Posted: 10/18/2026.
Key Points
- SpaceX's agreement to acquire low-band spectrum from Grain Management triggered steep declines in AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile shares.
- Analysts say SpaceX faces substantial costs and infrastructure challenges before it can compete directly with established wireless carriers.
- Tower REITs, including Crown Castle, rallied on speculation that SpaceX could become a new customer for their infrastructure.
- Special Report: Trump goes "all-in" on Grand Canyon energy breakthrought.
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) just sent shockwaves through shares of legacy telecom giants, with some stocks experiencing historically large declines after the firm’s latest announcement. SpaceX has agreed to acquire low-band wireless spectrum licenses from Grain Management, with reports indicating a purchase price of nearly $8 billion.
This move signals SpaceX’s ambition to compete with the top names in telecom by offering cell phone coverage. The spectrum SpaceX acquired can effectively penetrate buildings, contrasting with its Starlink satellite service, which requires an unobstructed view of the sky to provide a stable connection.
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AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile Get Clobbered After SpaceX’s Spectrum Purchase
After the news broke, AT&T (NYSE: T) dropped approximately 10.8% in one day, Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) fell 10.1%, and T-Mobile US (NASDAQ: TMUS) fell 13.3%. This marked T-Mobile’s worst single-day decline since becoming a public company. Overall, these were very large declines for stocks that tend to have relatively low volatility. Clearly, investors viewed the move as a substantial threat to the competitive positions of these legacy wireless carriers, or at least reacted as if it were. However, these names recovered meaningfully over the following days, suggesting that markets initially overreacted to the news.
This aligns with the perspective of some Wall Street analysts, who have framed SpaceX’s move as just one step in a protracted and expensive effort to compete with telecom incumbents. For example, MoffettNathanson notes that although SpaceX has secured the spectrum assets needed to penetrate buildings, the firm would still need to invest in terrestrial network infrastructure to use that spectrum. The firm estimates that this would cost tens of billions of dollars and take many years to build, aligning with comments from T-Mobile CTO John Saw, who emphasized the time, investment, and infrastructure required to establish a competitive wireless network.
Analysts at UBS have also noted that legacy carriers still have far more spectrum assets than SpaceX. At 77 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum, SpaceX’s holdings are roughly one-fourth or less than the 300–350 MHz controlled by other carriers.
Analysts have also remained relatively restrained when adjusting their price targets on legacy carriers. This includes Scotiabank, which lowered its T-Mobile target by just 2.3% to $212, lowered its Verizon price target by 2.9% to $50, and lowered its AT&T price target by 3.6% to $26.50. Conversely, Raymond James upgraded T-Mobile from Market Perform to Outperform, despite placing a relatively low $170 target on the stock. Raymond James noted, “We believe the recent fears over competition from SpaceX are overblown, as they are 3+ years away from becoming a reality.”
Tower REITs Soar on New Customer Potential
On the other side of the equation, tower infrastructure players like Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) received a huge boost after SpaceX’s announcement. Crown Castle rose 15.6%, marking its largest single-day gain in more than 10 years. The thought process is that leasing space on existing towers owned by these operators would be an efficient and cost-effective way for SpaceX to build out its terrestrial network.
Some analysts believe SpaceX will shift from a femtocell-based approach to a traditional tower approach, increasing the likelihood that these operators will gain a new customer. The company’s proposed femtocell approach has faced significant skepticism from telecom analysts, who question whether femtocells can provide broad coverage.
Each femtocell would provide coverage over a much smaller area than a traditional tower, with T-Mobile estimating that more than one billion femtocells would be needed to offer strong, broad-based coverage. This approach could make it difficult for SpaceX to deliver adequate customer satisfaction and compete with traditional carriers. However, SpaceX could pursue a combination of femtocell- and tower-based connections.
Watch Items: Tower Negotiations and Telecom Commentary
Looking ahead, it will be worth monitoring the upcoming earnings calls of carriers and tower REITs. Notably, many of these companies report over the next one to two weeks. Any commentary from tower operators about SpaceX beginning to negotiate lease agreements would be significant. This would indicate that the firm is serious about this approach and that tower operators have a legitimate chance to gain another large customer.
For carriers, SpaceX’s move may not pose a significant competitive threat in the near term. However, management teams are likely to face questions about the development on their upcoming calls. Their comments on SpaceX’s potential to compete in wireless coverage could be telling. These teams have an opportunity to dispel investor fears by explaining the hurdles SpaceX faces in truly competing with them. Strong rebuttals could help further restore investor confidence.
Charging Ahead: Solid Power’s Pilot Line Leaves the Lab
Authored by Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Posted: 10/27/2026.
Key Points
- Solid Power has begun commissioning its MOBIUS continuous manufacturing pilot line, moving closer to commercial electrolyte production.
- The new line is designed to increase annual production capacity by 150%, reaching approximately 75 metric tons at its Colorado facility.
- Solid Power's strong liquidity position supports continued development, while a potential joint venture in South Korea remains an important milestone.
- Special Report: Trump goes "all-in" on Grand Canyon energy breakthrought.
Solid-state batteries represent the next evolutionary leap for the electric vehicle sector, promising longer ranges, faster charging and a substantially lower fire risk than traditional lithium-ion batteries. Yet the sector is notoriously crowded with promotional timelines that rarely result in physical products. Investors evaluating the electric vehicle infrastructure space often struggle to distinguish genuine engineering progress from speculative concepts.
Recent operational shifts suggest Solid Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLDP) is crossing the critical threshold from laboratory research to commercial manufacturing. Solid Power recently began commissioning its MOBIUS continuous manufacturing pilot line in Colorado, introducing materials into a system designed for high-volume sulfide-based solid-electrolyte production. This capacity ramp alters Solid Power's risk profile, shifting the narrative from pure conceptual research toward verifiable supply-chain integration.
Bridging the Gap: Solid Power Scales Up Operations
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Automotive safety standards are unforgiving. A battery defect can cause a catastrophic thermal event, so automakers cannot tolerate significant variations in electrolyte composition. Continuous manufacturing minimizes the batch-to-batch discrepancies that can affect early-stage materials producers, helping establish a uniform product profile. Transitioning to continuous manufacturing is one of the main engineering hurdles separating viable commercial suppliers from academic science projects.
Commissioning the MOBIUS line addresses this bottleneck. The electric vehicle industry is entering a secondary adoption wave in which mass-market consumers demand price and range parity with internal combustion engine vehicles. Sulfide-based solid electrolytes are widely considered a promising path toward achieving these metrics, but manufacturing complexity has historically sidelined the technology.
Designed specifically for sulfide-based solid electrolytes, the continuous manufacturing pilot line is projected to increase annual output at Solid Power's SP2 facility in Thornton, Colorado, by approximately 150%. Once fully operational, total facility capacity is expected to reach roughly 75 metric tons per year.
This level of production provides the company with meaningful strategic value. Evaluation partners need substantial volumes of uniform electrolyte to conduct their own heavy-duty cell testing. Supplying approximately 75 metric tons annually would allow Solid Power to provide automotive and cell-manufacturing partners with material representative of what they could receive at full commercial scale.
The project's technical foundation also carries external validation through an assistance agreement of up to $50 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. A federal award of this magnitude involves extensive reviews of the technology and project timeline. It provides an additional layer of institutional validation, indicating that the continuous manufacturing process is viewed as technically sound and potentially viable at scale.
Fortress Financials: A Valuation Disconnect
Despite these operational advances, the broader equity market has severely punished Solid Power shares. Over the trailing 12 months, Solid Power's stock price has fallen nearly 66%, bringing its market capitalization down to roughly $464 million. This extreme multiple compression largely reflects macroeconomic headwinds. Prolonged periods of elevated yields tend to push institutional capital away from pre-revenue industrial technology stocks and toward established, cash-flowing assets.
The resulting valuation presents a distinct fundamental disconnect. Solid Power currently trades at a price-to-book ratio of approximately 0.98, meaning the market is valuing the entire enterprise at a slight discount to its accounting book value. For a cash-burning technology developer, trading below book value can signal that investors expect imminent bankruptcy or highly dilutive equity offerings to fund ongoing operations.
A closer look reveals a much more resilient financial structure. Solid Power has a current ratio of roughly 14.61, indicating a strong balance sheet with substantial current assets relative to near-term liabilities. When an industrial business holds this level of liquidity, it can reduce near-term insolvency risk and shift the investment thesis primarily toward execution and timing.
While trailing 12-month earnings per share reflects a loss of roughly 45 cents, the company's sizable cash position helps de-risk its immediate commercialization runway. The market appears to be pricing in worst-case capitalization scenarios while overlooking the liquidity that could allow Solid Power to scale continuous production without immediately tapping unfavorable debt or equity markets.
Forging Alliances: The South Korea Catalyst
Physical production capacity is a prerequisite for binding commercial agreements. With site acceptance testing for primary powder processing targeted for completion by the end of October 2026, Solid Power is aligning its operational milestones with major strategic catalysts.
Most notably, management is targeting the announcement of a South Korean electrolyte joint venture by the end of 2026. The Asian battery market, dominated by companies such as Samsung SDI, LG Energy Solution and SK On, plays a significant role in the global electric vehicle supply chain. Finalizing a joint venture in this region requires the continuous-production data that the MOBIUS line is currently generating.
Solid Power operates under joint evaluation agreements with BMW (OTCMKTS: BMWYY), Ford (NYSE: F), SK On and Samsung SDI. These partners are testing the sulfide-based electrolyte for potential integration into their next-generation vehicle fleets. To move from evaluation agreements to binding, high-tonnage commercial supply contracts, these partners need proof that the material can be manufactured continuously and consistently. They require quality parity across thousands of cell iterations.
A successful ramp at the Colorado facility would help satisfy this requirement, positioning Solid Power to negotiate from a position of demonstrated industrial capability rather than theoretical projections. If the continuous line proves capable of delivering consistent quality at scale, the transition from evaluation agreements to revenue-generating contracts could become the next significant operational milestone.
As Solid Power approaches its next earnings release, management is likely to use commissioning data to provide context for expected pre-revenue cash burn and shift investor focus toward potential commercial supply agreements.
Plugged in: What Investors Should Watch Next
The transition from batch processing to continuous manufacturing marks a definitive inflection point for an industrial technology developer. By commissioning the MOBIUS line, Solid Power has established a verifiable infrastructure footprint capable of supplying automotive and battery-industry partners.
While the broader market continues to discount pre-revenue growth equities, the company's balance sheet provides capital that could help bridge the gap between pilot production and commercial revenue generation.
Solid-state technology remains a high-risk, high-reward arena. For Solid Power, the ultimate hurdle is translating pilot-line success into finalized Tier 1 supply contracts. Investors may want to add Solid Power to their watchlist as the business advances toward its targeted year-end South Korean joint venture.
Cautious investors might prefer to wait for official confirmation of commercial offtake agreements before taking a position, while those with a higher risk tolerance might view the current valuation as an asymmetric entry point ahead of potential supply-chain milestones.
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