The Watchlist

The names I'm actually watching.

None of this is a recommendation to buy, it's the universe I track and research. How I size and time positions lives in the guide.

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Risk Blue chip big + profitable Growth real business, higher beta Speculative small / pre-revenue

ETFs

15 funds

Two ways to use funds, a boring broad foundation you can hold forever, and targeted thematic bets when you have a view.

Foundation

5 funds

Broad, low-cost, own-the-market funds. Start here, you're diversified by default.

VTI
Vanguard Total Stock Market
Blue chip

The entire US market in one fund. The simplest core holding.

QQQM
Invesco Nasdaq-100
Blue chip

The top 100 Nasdaq growth and tech names. The cheaper QQQ twin.

SCHD
Schwab US Dividend Equity
Blue chip

Quality dividend payers. Adds stability and income.

VXUS
Vanguard Total International
Blue chip

Everything outside the US, developed and emerging.

BND
Vanguard Total Bond Market
Blue chip

Broad US bonds. The ballast for when stocks fall.

Thematic

10 funds

One fund for a whole trend, when you want the theme without picking the single winner. Higher conviction, bigger swings.

ARTY
iShares Future AI & Tech
Growth

A diversified basket of AI hardware and software beneficiaries.

SMH
VanEck Semiconductors
Growth

The 25 biggest chipmakers, including Nvidia and TSMC.

DRAM
Roundhill Memory
Growth

Memory chips (SK Hynix, Samsung, Micron). Korea-heavy, a clean AI tailwind.

QTUM
Defiance Quantum
Growth

Quantum computing and machine-learning names.

BOTZ
Global X Robotics & AI
Growth

Robotics, automation, and autonomy in one fund.

NASA
Tema Space Innovators
Growth

The space economy. Actively managed and holds pre-IPO SpaceX, so aggressive and new.

CIBR
First Trust Cybersecurity
Growth

The largest cybersecurity fund, software and hardware.

URA
Global X Uranium
Growth

Uranium miners and nuclear fuel. The cleanest nuclear proxy.

REMX
VanEck Rare Earth & Strategic Metals
Growth

Rare-earth and critical-materials miners worldwide.

FLKR
Franklin FTSE South Korea
Growth

Samsung and SK Hynix, memory and AI-chip exposure outside the US.

Core compounders

10 names

The deepest moats and the most reliable compounding, profitable, dominant companies in growing industries. Hold them like real estate, not like trades.

NVDA
Nvidia
Blue chip

The dominant AI chipmaker. Its GPUs power nearly all AI training and inference.

MSFT
Microsoft
Blue chip

Azure cloud, Office, and the OpenAI partnership. AI built into everything.

GOOGL
Alphabet
Blue chip

Search, YouTube, Cloud, and Gemini. A cash machine with a frontier AI lab.

AMZN
Amazon
Blue chip

E-commerce plus AWS, the largest cloud and a core AI-infrastructure winner.

AAPL
Apple
Blue chip

The iPhone ecosystem and a billion-plus loyal users. Enormous cash flow.

META
Meta Platforms
Blue chip

Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook. Ad profits funding a massive AI build-out.

TSM
Taiwan Semiconductor
Blue chip

Manufactures the most advanced chips on Earth for Nvidia, Apple, and AMD.

NOW
ServiceNow
Blue chip

Enterprise workflow automation and AI agents. Sticky, high-margin software.

BRK-B
Berkshire Hathaway
Blue chip

Buffett's diversified machine, insurance, railroads, energy, and a cash mountain.

PLTR
Palantir
Growth

AI software for governments and enterprises. High growth, premium valuation.

Sectors & themes

by theme

Quality leaders grouped by theme, the picks-and-shovels behind AI, energy, robotics, materials, and the buildout.

Energy & power

5 picks

AI data centers and electrification need enormous power. These names sell that power or the equipment that generates and delivers it.

CEG
Constellation Energy
Blue chip

Largest US nuclear operator. Signing direct AI deals, including the Three Mile Island restart with Microsoft.

VST
Vistra
Growth

Utility with major nuclear + gas exposure. The biggest single beneficiary of AI-power demand.

GEV
GE Vernova
Growth

Gas turbines, grid equipment, wind. Builds the actual generation capacity.

SMR
NuScale Power
Speculative

Small modular reactors, still pre-commercial. The leading SMR pure-play.

BE
Bloom Energy
Speculative

Solid-oxide fuel cells for on-site power. Real revenue, very volatile.

Semiconductors

5 picks

The chips themselves and the companies that make them physically possible.

ASML
ASML
Blue chip

Only company on Earth that makes EUV lithography machines. Every leading-edge fab needs them.

AVGO
Broadcom
Blue chip

Custom AI silicon for hyperscalers plus networking chips. The "AI ASIC" winner.

VECO
Veeco Instruments
Growth

Chip-making equipment (deposition, ion-beam, lithography).

NVTS
Navitas Semiconductor
Speculative

Gallium-nitride power chips for fast charging and data centers.

AEHR
Aehr Test Systems
Speculative

Tests chips for reliability. Tiny, lumpy, customer-concentrated.

Memory

2 picks

AI is insatiable for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and storage. Every GPU server needs more of it, one of the cleanest AI tailwinds in the chip stack.

MU
Micron Technology
Blue chip

US memory leader, one of only three HBM suppliers for AI GPUs.

SNDK
Sandisk
Growth

Pure-play NAND flash storage, recently spun off from Western Digital.

Photonics & optical

6 picks

AI moves staggering amounts of data inside and between data centers. Light through fiber, not copper, is how that happens at scale.

GLW
Corning
Blue chip

Optical fiber and specialty glass. Also tied to the data-center cabling buildout.

COHR
Coherent
Growth

Optical transceivers and lasers. Key supplier for AI interconnect.

LITE
Lumentum
Growth

800G and 1.6T transceiver leader for data-center connectivity.

AAOI
Applied Optoelectronics
Speculative

Smaller, higher-beta transceiver maker ramping data-center optics.

POET
POET Technologies
Speculative

Optical-engine chips for AI interconnect. Micro-cap, pre-revenue.

ALMU
Aeluma
Speculative

Photonics and compound-semiconductor materials. Micro-cap, speculative.

AI infrastructure

4 picks

Everything around the chip, racks, cooling, AI servers, and the cloud providers renting GPU compute to AI companies.

DELL
Dell Technologies
Blue chip

The bigger, more diversified AI server play. Steadier counterpart to SMCI with enterprise + PC exposure on top.

VRT
Vertiv
Growth

Liquid cooling and power infrastructure for AI racks. Cooling is the new bottleneck.

NBIS
Nebius
Growth

AI cloud / GPU compute, vertically integrated. Sells the actual compute that AI companies run on.

SMCI
Super Micro Computer
Speculative

Custom liquid-cooled GPU servers for hyperscalers. Volatile (2024 accounting reset), but real demand.

Software & internet

5 picks

High-margin recurring revenue businesses that benefit from AI without having to fund the buildout themselves.

CRWD
CrowdStrike
Growth

Cybersecurity SaaS leader. AI-native detection.

PANW
Palo Alto Networks
Growth

Cybersecurity platform consolidating the whole stack.

SOFI
SoFi Technologies
Growth

Digital bank and fintech platform. Profitable now, still swingy.

RDDT
Reddit
Speculative

Social platform monetizing ads plus AI-data licensing. Recent IPO, volatile.

ZETA
Zeta Global
Speculative

AI marketing and data cloud. Higher-risk, higher-growth, size it smaller.

Quantum

4 picks

Real moonshot: computing that could break today's limits, years from payoff. The fund route is QTUM.

IBM
IBM
Blue chip

The big-tech quantum leader (Qiskit, a real roadmap) inside a stable blue chip.

IONQ
IonQ
Speculative

Trapped-ion quantum computing, a pure-play leader. Pre-revenue, volatile.

RGTI
Rigetti Computing
Speculative

Superconducting quantum chips. Micro-cap, pre-revenue, high-risk.

QBTS
D-Wave Quantum
Speculative

Quantum annealing; the one selling commercial systems today. Volatile.

Robotics & automation

8 picks

The machines, and the parts that make them see, move, and work, from surgical robots to warehouse automation to the sensors that give them sight. The fund route is BOTZ.

ISRG
Intuitive Surgical
Blue chip

Da Vinci surgical robots, ~80% share. The dominant medical-robotics leader.

ROK
Rockwell Automation
Blue chip

The largest pure-play US industrial-automation and factory-control company.

TER
Teradyne
Growth

Chip-test gear plus Universal Robots cobots and MiR warehouse robots.

SYM
Symbotic
Growth

AI-powered warehouse robots automating retail supply chains. Huge backlog.

AMBA
Ambarella
Growth

Edge-AI vision chips that give cameras, drones, and robots on-device sight.

VPG
Vishay Precision Group
Growth

Precision force and strain sensors, including for humanoid robots.

OUST
Ouster
Speculative

Digital lidar, the "eyes" for robots and autonomous machines. Smaller, higher-beta.

SERV
Serve Robotics
Speculative

Autonomous sidewalk delivery robots, a Postmates spin-out. Speculative.

Defense

3 picks

Record defense budgets + the shift to drone & AI warfare are reshaping who wins. The legacy primes are fine but slow, the modern drone & software names below are the better bets.

AVAV
AeroVironment
Growth

Drones and unmanned systems. How modern wars are actually being fought. Real revenue, real contracts.

ONDS
Ondas Holdings
Speculative

Drones + private wireless for defense. Smaller and more speculative.

BBAI
BigBear.ai
Speculative

Defense and government AI analytics. Small and speculative.

Space

4 picks

Commercial space is finally a real industry, direct-to-cell satellites, cheap launch, Earth imaging, and now SpaceX itself, which you can own directly via SPCX. More speculative, so size smaller (0.5–1.5% each).

SPCX
SpaceX
Growth

Newly public (June 2026, the largest IPO ever). Starlink plus launch dominance, the megacap space play.

RKLB
Rocket Lab
Growth

Electron rocket (second-most-launched US vehicle) plus the larger Neutron in development. Real revenue.

PL
Planet Labs
Growth

The largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites. Recurring geospatial-data revenue.

ASTS
AST SpaceMobile
Speculative

Satellite-to-phone network, no special hardware. Partnered with AT&T and Verizon. Pre-revenue.

Rare earths & critical materials

7 picks

The physical inputs for everything, magnets, copper, lithium, uranium. Strategic, geopolitical, and supply-constrained. The fund route is REMX.

FCX
Freeport-McMoRan
Blue chip

One of the world's largest copper miners. Large, liquid, lower-risk.

MP
MP Materials
Growth

The flagship US rare-earth miner (Mountain Pass), now making magnets. The anchor.

ALB
Albemarle
Growth

The world's largest lithium producer. The blue-chip battery-materials play.

UUUU
Energy Fuels
Speculative

US uranium producer adding domestic rare-earth oxide processing.

USAR
USA Rare Earth
Speculative

US rare-earth magnet maker building a Texas plant. Pre-revenue, speculative.

AREC
American Resources
Speculative

Critical-mineral refining via its ReElement stake. Micro-cap, speculative.

UAMY
United States Antimony
Speculative

Antimony, a restricted strategic metal. Small and volatile.

This is the list, what I watch and research. How I size positions, when I buy, and when I sell lives in the investing guide →