Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).
A peek at Elon Musk’s shopping list
It was an iconic moment – both technologically and culturally.
In January 2007, Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, famously stood before a crowd and unveiled a three-in-one device – the iPhone. It combined an iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator, all in the palm of your hand.
But, like many iconic moments, more was going on behind the scenes than people knew.
It turns out the iPhone Jobs triumphantly held up onstage was not the iPhone Apple would ultimately ship.
Jobs kept that first iPhone in his pocket, just the way we all do today, and found that the hard plastic surface scratched. Jobs called Apple COO Jeff Williams and said the product needed to have a glass screen.
Williams recounted that he told Jobs the technology required might take years to develop.
Jobs responded that when the first iPhones began shipping in June, just six months after the demonstration, they needed glass.
Imagine Williams’ position. This was a huge product launch … even if they had no idea how big it would become.
And he had to find a new supplier for a key part of their product, which they could not produce themselves.
The Supplier Apple Had to Have
Williams ultimately turned to a 150-year-old company: Corning.
Corning had spent decades developing expertise in chemically strengthened glass – a field so obscure that most consumers would never even think about it.
But Apple desperately needed it.
Corning eventually produced the thin, durable, scratch-resistant glass Apple needed in time for the iPhone’s June launch.
When the first iPhones finally reached customers, nobody lined up outside Apple stores because they were excited about the glass.
They wanted the revolutionary touchscreen, the music, the internet access, and all the other features Jobs had promised onstage. Generations of iPhones later, people still line up for the latest updated hardware.
Credit: travelif/iStock
But Apple couldn’t build the product it envisioned on its own.
And that’s true of virtually every great technological breakthrough.
Everyone remembers Jobs and his tremendous vision for the future. Apple gets the headlines for its work in designing the product, building the brand, and capturing the public’s imagination.
But most people won’t spend a moment thinking about the dozens – sometimes thousands – of other companies supplying the specialized materials, components, equipment, and expertise required to make that vision real.
When you’re trying to identify the biggest opportunities created by a technological revolution, such as the AI megatrend, sometimes the most interesting company isn’t the one everybody is talking about.
It’s the supplier that the company can’t do without.
Luke Lango, editor of Early Stage Investor, has been tracking these types of stocks since the AI Megatrend began.
Earlier this year, Luke was still getting his subscribers into the critical firms needed to fulfill the promise of the AI data center buildout.
When we talk about data centers, we talk about the compute needed, and we talk about AI poster child Nvidia (NVDA). But Luke got his subscribers into an overlooked bottleneck around data storage, Silicon Motion Technology (SIMO):
SIMO makes a small but critical piece of technology used inside solid-state drives – the high-speed storage systems that data centers use to hold enormous amounts of information.
Think of its technology as a kind of traffic cop for data.
As an AI system needs information, Silicon Motion’s controllers help determine where that data is stored and how quickly and reliably it can be retrieved. That’s increasingly important as AI models consume and generate staggering amounts of information.
After all, building a powerful AI system isn’t just about having the fastest Nvidia chips.
Those chips need enormous amounts of data to work with. That data needs somewhere to live. And it needs to be available almost instantaneously when the AI system calls for it.
That’s where companies like Silicon Motion come in.
Since Luke’s recommendation earlier this year, SIMO is up almost 90%.
Elon’s Shopping List
And that brings us to the innovator of our age – Elon Musk – and his own shopping list.
To understand the scope of this opportunity, think about what he’s trying to build right now.
SpaceX (SPCX) is launching rockets and satellites into orbit. His xAI venture is building some of the world’s largest AI supercomputers. And Tesla (TSLA) is working on autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots.
These are enormously ambitious projects.
And just like Jobs couldn’t manufacture the first iPhone without help from Corning, Musk can’t make all of this happen on his own.
He needs suppliers – and he needs A LOT of them.
To achieve his vision, Musk will need help from companies that make the chips, storage systems, networking equipment, precision components, manufacturing equipment, and other technologies necessary to turn his ideas into reality.
And Luke believes some of those must-have suppliers could offer investors an even more interesting opportunity than Musk’s companies themselves.
That’s why he’s spent months doing something most investors haven’t…
Mapping the shopping list.
Luke has been tracing the companies behind Musk’s growing technology empire – looking for the suppliers his companies depend on today, as well as those they could need much more from as his ambitions grow. And on , he’ll show you what he’s found.
Luke is hosting a special online event where he’ll walk you through the network of companies helping make Musk’s plans possible.
More importantly, he’ll identify some of the little-known suppliers that could potentially benefit as Musk spends billions of dollars trying to make that vision a reality.
Remember Silicon Motion.
The world was focused on Nvidia and the massive AI data centers being built across the country.
Luke went looking for a bottleneck those data centers couldn’t do without – and his subscribers had the opportunity to make nearly 90%.
Now he’s applying that same thinking to the biggest innovator of this generation.
Luke has spent months mapping out who’s on the shopping list, and he’s revealing more details in a , alongside Louis Navellier and Eric Fry. He’ll even give away one name and ticker for free.
.
Enjoy your weekend,
Luis Hernandez
Editor in Chief, InvestorPlace
