Velo3D is one of the best ways to invest in SpaceX's production ramp, since spending from SpaceX's IPO capital will flow down to whoever prints its engines. Its Sapphire printers make complex propulsion parts without support structures, and it is qualified on five current Raptor parts and the next-generation Raptor 4. Customers also include Anduril, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Aerojet Rocketdyne and the US Navy, Army and Air Force. x.com  x.com 

Velo3D is the SpaceX-ecosystem supplier worth owning, since SpaceX uses multiple Velo3D Sapphire machines in-house for metal additive manufacturing of engine and rocket components. On the chart, the stock held support, forming a tweezer bottom off $16, and has moved more than 30% since. x.com  x.com 

Velo3D's $500M shelf for ATM and warrant dilution is predatory relative to its $311M market cap, creating a material overhang for the stock. The company says the money will fund scaling 400 production systems over the next decade plus M&A, and its recent contracts, $32.6M from the Department of War, $11.5M from defense primes and $9.8M from the DLA, are largely positive. Velo3D can be strategically sound but financially much less so. x.com 

Voyager Technologies looks particularly interesting as a picks-and-shovels supplier to the space economy. At a $1.5B market cap, it builds propulsion, missile defense, spacecraft electronics, space intelligence and agentic AI, stations, lunar infrastructure and orbital computing; it partners with Palantir and Anduril. Rocket Lab, AST SpaceMobile and Voyager could be like Apple, Microsoft and Intel in the 1980s: their value in two decades matters more than in two years. x.com 

Velo3D's $9.8 million, five-year IDIQ contract with the Defense Logistics Agency locks it in as a qualified supplier of additively manufactured parts across all five US service branches, a meaningful moat expansion. It will make metal parts facing long lead times or scarce domestic suppliers, though revenue depends on task orders over the five years. Velo is also moving toward a service model, paid to produce parts rather than only selling printers. x.com  x.com 

Velo3D is tripling its metal-printing production capacity to meet strong aerospace and defense demand, yet the stock is still 55% below its June highs, making it worth a starter position. An analyst's surveys show strong demand for metal printing in those sectors, and nLight's management confirmed it on its Q2 call. x.com 

Applied Aerospace & Defense's record $1.13B backlog and sole-supplier role on 87% of its business make it much stronger than its chart looks. Q2 adjusted EBITDA rose 38.5%, and customers include SpaceX and Anduril. Jefferies named it one of its top small/mid-cap cyclical ideas with a Buy rating and $20 target, more than 80% above Wednesday's close. The falling-wedge trigger is $11.54. x.com 

SpaceX's projected growth is challenging the earlier overvaluation case, though the reassessment is still in progress. A VJN.ai chart projects revenue 273.3% higher by Q4 2027, even as the company is valued at $2 trillion. x.com  x.com 

Velo3D is effectively becoming a regulated monopoly for complex metal geometries in the Starship and Anduril supply chains, because re-qualifying another supplier carries heavy cost and friction. That lock-in, more than the technology itself, is the real bull case. Per @moninvestor, the US defense industrial base still relies on slow casting and forging with long lead times, and the Department of Defense has acknowledged its supply chains are not responsive enough. x.com 

Space stocks are turning bullish as oversold names that never stopped executing regain momentum, led by AST SpaceMobile, Rocket Lab and flyExclusive. AST launched BlueBird and began direct-to-cell service in Japan, and Rocket Lab landed a roughly $400M award. AmpliTech's multi-sector exposure is overlooked, and CPS Technologies is a bottleneck play for 2027; Satellogic, Velo3D and Voyager also fit. The SpaceX unlock overhang is only partly gone, so re-entry should wait. x.com