Picks & Shovels: Undervalued Infrastructure Plays

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Drones

Autonomy · Propulsion · Sensing

Joby AviationJOBY

eVTOL propulsion systems & certification-grade airframes for aerial mobility.

Market prices it as a consumer airline, not a certified air-mobility infrastructure provider with FAA momentum.

Mkt Cap ~$4B Early Infra

Ondas HoldingsONDS

Mission-critical wireless networks and autonomous drone platforms for industrial & rail.

Micro-cap trading below book; sole-source contracts with Union Pacific and FAA BVLOS waivers go largely unnoticed.

~$80M Cap Hidden Rail

Teledyne FLIRTDY

Thermal imaging sensors embedded in defense, border, and commercial drone payloads globally.

Buried inside Teledyne's conglomerate structure; drone sensor revenue rarely broken out, suppressing valuation focus.

P/E ~18x Sensor Layer

Kratos DefenseKTOS

Low-cost tactical unmanned aerial systems and satellite ground infrastructure.

Valued as a traditional defense contractor despite being the primary drone-attrition supplier in new warfare doctrine.

EV/Rev 2.5x Defense Rail

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Phones

RF · Packaging · Connectivity

CalixCALX

Cloud and software platforms enabling broadband service providers to deploy next-gen 5G connectivity.

Trades at a discount to pure-play SaaS peers despite 90%+ recurring revenue; rural broadband expansion underpriced.

P/S ~4x 5G Rails

Cohu Inc.COHU

Semiconductor test handlers and contactors for RF chips inside every flagship smartphone.

Classic picks-and-shovels: every new phone requires new test tooling; Cohu's cyclicality masks durable demand.

P/B ~1.2x Test Infra

MACOM TechnologyMTSI

High-performance analog semiconductors for 5G base stations and handset RF front-ends.

Overlooked relative to Qualcomm; supplies the RF infrastructure layer that makes 5G physically possible.

Gross Mg 57% RF Layer

Bel FuseBELFA

Power conversion and connector components inside smartphones, IoT modules, and telecom gear.

Sub-$500M cap, P/E under 12x; passive component maker embedded in virtually every OEM supply chain.

P/E ~11x Deep Supply

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Artificial Intelligence

Data Centers · Cooling · Networking

Credo TechnologyCRDO

High-speed SerDes chiplets and active electrical cables linking GPU clusters in AI hyperscale data centers.

Direct beneficiary of every Blackwell and Hopper rack deployment; still trading at a fraction of Marvell's premium.

Rev +80% YoY Interconnect

Astera LabsALAB

PCIe and CXL connectivity semiconductors that remove memory bottlenecks in AI accelerator systems.

CXL memory pooling is the next AI scaling unlock; Astera is sole-sourced in multiple hyperscaler roadmaps.

P/S ~25x Memory Rail

Vertiv HoldingsVRT

Thermal management, power distribution, and liquid cooling infrastructure for AI data centers.

AI clusters run 5–10× hotter than traditional servers; Vertiv is the dominant cooling provider with multi-year backlog.

Backlog +50% Heat Rail

CelesticaCLS

Contract manufacturer of AI servers, networking switches, and HPC storage platforms for hyperscalers.

Trades at 12x earnings despite being embedded in every major cloud AI buildout; margin expansion undermodeled.

P/E ~12x ODM Layer

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Wearable Tech

Biometrics · Batteries · Miniaturization

Energizer HoldingsENR

Miniaturized battery solutions increasingly specified in hearables, smart patches, and AR glasses.

Perceived as a legacy AA battery company; coin cell and specialty battery demand from wearables goes unpriced.

P/E ~8x Power Layer

Pixart Imaging3227.TW

Optical sensor ICs for heart-rate monitoring, blood oxygen, and motion tracking in consumer wearables.

Taiwanese micro-cap rarely covered by Western analysts; supplies the biometric sensing layer in top-5 wearable OEMs.

P/E ~14x Bio Sensing

Kopin CorporationKOPN

Wearable display microdisplays and optical systems for AR headsets, smart glasses, and military HMDs.

Sub-$200M cap despite being a foundational display IP holder; AR cycle re-rating not yet priced in.

~$150M Cap AR Display

Inphi / MarvellMRVL

Ultra-low-power custom silicon enabling always-on AI inference in next-generation wearable processors.

AI custom silicon story dominates coverage; wearable SoC platform for Apple & Samsung remains a hidden tailwind.

Gross Mg 60% Edge SoC