By Rising Star Stocks 
June 9, 2026
Most People Are Still Missing This
Featured – Rising Star: Veeco Instruments (VECO)
A lot of people are still looking at this the wrong way.
They see a big-name IPO story.
They see Elon.
They see headlines.
But they do not yet see where the real opportunity may be hiding.
And that matters.
Because the best opportunities rarely feel obvious at the beginning.
They feel easy to ignore.
Easy to delay.
Easy to come back to later.
Until suddenly everyone is talking about them…
And the chance to get there before the crowd is gone.
That’s why I’m bringing this to you now.
Not at the last second.
Not after the story has been fully picked apart.
But while there’s still time to understand what may be developing behind the SpaceX narrative.
In my view, that’s where the real intrigue is.
Most investors are still focused on the surface.
They have not yet connected the deeper Starlink angle, the broader AI buildout, and the related plays that could benefit if this story keeps accelerating.
That disconnect may not last long.
And once it closes, you may not be looking at the same kind of upside.
You may just be looking at a trade everybody else already discovered before you did.
That’s the part I don’t want you to miss.
Because if this unfolds the way I think it could, the people who moved early may have a very different experience from the people who waited for more confirmation.
Click here and you’ll also get my FREE “SpaceX” pre-IPO recommendation now.
Better to be a little early on something important than a little late to something everyone else already sees.
Yours for peace, prosperity, and liberty, AEIOU,
Dr. Mark Skousen
Macroeconomic Strategist, The Oxford Club
Rising Star: Veeco Instruments (VECO)
While chip designers and fabless names have been getting cut down, something quiet has been happening on the equipment side of the semiconductor world. The physical machines that build advanced chips – the deposition systems, the annealing tools, the ion beam platforms – are attracting serious institutional attention. And today, one name in particular made that case loudly.
Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) surged roughly 17.7% Tuesday after a leading logic customer placed a follow-on order for its NSA500 nanosecond annealing system, following successful acceptance of an evaluation tool. The company also disclosed a third advanced logic customer shipment for evaluation. That is not a one-off win – it is a signal that Veeco’s laser annealing platform is gaining real traction at the leading edge of chip fabrication.
Shares moved from $61.04 to $71.85 on volume of over 700,000 shares. The 52-week low was $19.04. Let that sink in for a moment.
What Veeco Actually Does
Veeco is not a chip company. It builds the process equipment that goes inside semiconductor fabs. Laser annealing, ion beam deposition, MOCVD systems, wet processing, advanced packaging lithography – these are the tools that enable the world’s most demanding chip architectures to exist at all. The company’s technologies play an integral role in the fabrication and packaging of advanced semiconductor devices, spanning AI processors, high-performance computing, 5G RF components, and silicon photonics.
That positioning matters right now. The broader semiconductor equipment market is expanding fast regardless of what individual chip stocks are doing. According to SEMI, semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales are on track to reach $125.5 billion in 2025 – a 7.4% year-over-year increase – with projections climbing to $138.1 billion in 2026. The machines don’t stop selling just because Nvidia pulls 20% in a week.
Elon Musk Just Called the Dollar “Hopeless” – Then Reinvented It
What’s going on with Elon Musk? Last year, he launched a full-blown attack on the U.S. dollar, calling it “hopeless.” And within months, he hatched a plan to reinvent the world reserve currency. Now, with the blessing of President Trump and the U.S. Treasury, it’s coming to life. And investors who grasp what’s going on could make a fortune.
The Numbers Behind the Move
FY2025 revenue came in at $664.3 million, down modestly from 2024 as the company worked through a cyclical trough in wafer fab demand. But the forward picture looks different. Management reaffirmed full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $740 million to $800 million – roughly 16% growth – supported by a backlog that is approximately 35% higher year over year.
In May, Veeco disclosed over $250 million in new orders for indium-phosphide laser manufacturing tools tied to AI data center demand and silicon photonics. Q2 2026 revenue is guided between $170 million and $190 million. The company is targeting $1 billion in annual revenue by 2030, with served available market projections of $3 billion in semiconductor and $2 billion in compound semiconductor by that same year.
Not all the metrics are clean. Q1 2026 posted a near-breakeven GAAP result, and export control restrictions on China shipments shaved roughly $8 million from the top line last quarter. China exposure is a real risk here – it is worth watching as trade policy continues shifting.
The Axcelis Layer
There is one more variable the market is increasingly focused on. Veeco is set to be acquired by Axcelis Technologies in an all-stock deal, with closing targeted for the second half of 2026. Both companies’ shareholders have already approved the combination – the only remaining hurdle is Chinese antitrust clearance. Veeco shareholders are expected to own approximately 42% of the combined company. Analysts have raised price targets sharply since the deal was announced, with some firms moving targets from the mid-$30s toward $60 and above.
The combined platform would cover a broader range of semiconductor equipment categories – expanding addressable market and customer reach in a sector where scale increasingly matters.
What’s interesting is that this is not a story about hype. It is a story about where the capital is actually going. AI infrastructure spending is pulling through demand for the machines that make the chips that power data centers. DRAM equipment spending is forecast to grow 15% in both 2025 and 2026, driven largely by HBM and advanced node upgrades. Veeco sits at several of those intersections at once.
Whether today’s move holds or fades short-term is one question. The harder question – the more interesting one – is whether the order flow emerging across Veeco’s laser annealing, silicon photonics, and GaN power platforms reflects something structural rather than cyclical. The backlog trend suggests it might.
Rising Star Stocks Editorial Team