The Fourth Industrial Revolution is being built from the ground up by companies most investors overlook. These aren’t trillion-dollar behemoths. They’re sub-$20B firms laying down the architecture for quantum systems, sovereign cloud, autonomous aviation, biotech, and defense-grade robotics. The market cap may be small. The footprint isn’t.
Nebius Group expanded its sovereign cloud infrastructure across Central Asia, adding 1.2 exabytes of capacity in Kazakhstan during Q2. Tempus AI now processes over 50 petabytes of clinical data monthly, with its oncology platform supporting 38% of US cancer centers. Rocket Lab completed 11 launches in the first half of 2025 and secured a $1.1B contract with the Department of Defense for responsive space delivery. Kratos Defense posted a 17% year-over-year revenue jump in its unmanned aerial systems division.
AST SpaceMobile completed its first direct-to-cell satellite call from a standard iPhone in June. Kraken Robotics is supplying sonar systems to NATO fleets, with backlog up 42% since January. Zeta Global integrated real-time AI into retail analytics, with Q2 revenue up 23%. Joby Aviation received FAA Part 135 certification and expects commercial air taxi service in Los Angeles by Q4.
Astera Labs shipped PCIe 6.0 connectivity chips to hyperscalers. Q2 revenue hit $142M, up 31%. Planet Labs is imaging 98% of Earth’s landmass daily. Redwire is building lunar infrastructure components for NASA’s Artemis program. Intellia Therapeutics is advancing in vivo CRISPR trials for transthyretin amyloidosis, with Phase 2 data expected in September.
Intuitive Machines landed its second lunar payload in May and secured a $450M NASA contract. Okta is expanding zero-trust architecture across federal agencies. Archer Aviation completed its first full-scale flight test in June. IonQ is scaling its quantum systems to 64 qubits, with commercial access expected by year-end. AbCellera Biologics is partnering with Eli Lilly on antibody discovery, with $1.2B in milestone payments on deck. SentinelOne is integrating autonomous threat detection into industrial control systems. BlackSky Technology is delivering real-time geospatial intelligence to defense clients, with Q2 bookings up 39%. GitLab is expanding DevSecOps adoption across Fortune 500 firms.
Similarweb is seeing 80% earnings estimate revisions upward and trades at $8.5. VTEX is expanding its e-commerce footprint across 43 countries and has partnerships with TikTok and Pinterest. PagerDuty is scaling its AI-powered incident response platform, with fiscal 2025 earnings estimates up 2.9%. Compass is gaining share in luxury real estate markets and streamlining transactions with AI tools.
NOTE: This is not financial advice. Please conduct your own due diligence.
Sources
https://www.kratosdefense.com/newsroom/press-releases
https://www.rocketlabusa.com/news/updates/
https://www.tempus.com/newsroom/
https://www.planet.com/company/press/
https://www.intelliatx.com/news/
https://www.ast-science.com/news/
https://www.abcellera.com/newsroom/
https://www.intuitivemachines.com/news
https://www.zetaglobal.com/news
https://www.okta.com/press-room/
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/4-top-ranked-tech-stocks-under-20-promise-gains-2025