Space, drone, and satellite stocks like Rocket Lab, Redwire, Intuitive Machines, AST SpaceMobile, and Planet Labs are outperforming both broader indexes and the thematic baskets of momentum stocks and shares with high retail sentiment with which they are often lumped.

There’s little clear news on the tape to attribute for the move higher. (Though the FAA did announce a streamlining of launch licensing rules that cover a number of these companies, including Rocket Lab and Firefly Aerospace, as well as Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s commercial space giant, SpaceX.)

More broadly, the outbreak of war with Iran has burnished the space, drone, and satellite sector in the eyes of investors, as the conflict underscores the importance of the three technologies to the future of defense. And in a world where nations are growing unsure of traditional alliances, countries across the board will look to boost their own capabilities. (Belgium just announced that it has selected Redwire, for example, to provide its first national security satellite system. Belgium!)

As Goldman Sachs analysts put it in a research note from January:

“Companies with native drone and satellite technology cultures like AeroVironment and Rocket Lab may find themselves particularly well positioned. And in Europe, a remilitarization of the Continent is underway that could require a $160bn investment over the next 5 years just to catch up with Russia.”

Since the start of the Iran war, most of these types of shares have handily outpaced the Nasdaq Composite Index. Rocket Lab, Redwire, and Intuitive Machines are all up more than 12% during that period, compared to a Nasdaq that’s just slightly in the red, as of shortly before 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Tesla’s Terafab project, which CEO Elon Musk said could launch this week, is poised to be one of the company’s most expensive bets yet. The facility is intended to manufacture the chips needed for Tesla’s autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots, and to avoid supply bottlenecks.

If the company reaches its long-term goal of producing 100 million humanoid robots annually, it could require more than 200 million chips a year — over 50x its current demand, Morgan Stanley said.

The firm estimates total capital expenditure for the facility could reach $35 billion to $45 billion, including construction costs and roughly $20 billion to $25 billion for wafer fabrication equipment alone. That spending is not included in Tesla’s already sizable $20 billion capex budget for this year. Morgan Stanley’s semiconductor analysts described the effort as a “Herculean task,” noting the difficulty of building leading-edge chip capabilities from scratch.

While Tesla would likely spread the investment out over several years — even on an aggressive timeline, initial output would likely not arrive until the latter part of the decade — the effort would still weigh heavily on free cash flow and mark a shift toward a more capital-intensive business model.

Tesla’s most expensive factory to date, its Nevada battery plant that it began building in 2014, is estimated to have cost about $10 billion over time — a fraction of the expected Terafab cost.

Eli Lilly slipped in early trading after analysts at HSBC gave the pharmaceutical darling at the center of the obesity drug boom a rare downgrade.

Analysts at the bank cut their rating to “reduce” from “hold.” They cut their price target to $850 from $1,070. The stock closed at $989 on Monday.

“We think Lilly shares are priced to perfection, are uncomfortable with working capital trends, and think medium-term earnings trends are optimistic,” the analysts said.

According to Bloomberg, this is the only sell rating on Lilly among the 38 analysts who cover the stock.

The company has rallied more than 20% in the past year as its obesity drug sales continue to rise, far outpacing its top rival, Novo Nordisk.

But the space is getting increasingly crowded with new entrants and new products from Lilly and Novo, putting downward pricing pressure on their products. HSBC noted that the emergence of cash-pay channels for their drugs makes them subject to economic cycles and seasonality.

And while the introduction of oral options has expanded the market, HSBC analysts said they think “the compliance and persistence of these drugs might disappoint.”

“Whilst the momentum in the launch might be positive, we think oral drug launch expectations for Lilly are too high,” they said.

Nebius dropped as much as 7.5% in premarket trading on Tuesday, after the AI infrastructure company announced its intentions to sell $3.75 billion worth of convertible senior notes with maturities in 2031 and 2033.

The company will offer the debt in two tranches, the first batch worth $2 billion and due March 15, 2031, followed by $1.75 billion worth of notes due March 15, 2033. There’s also the potential for an additional $562.5 million of these notes to be issued via an over-allotment option.

The interest and initial conversion rate will be determined at the pricing of the offering, but regardless of the premium, a $3.75 billion offering would be pretty sizable for a company that closed yesterday’s trading session with a ~$33 billion market cap, and the market is quickly pricing in a decent chunk of equity dilution.

The offering is conspicuous in its timing, with Nebius soaring 15% yesterday on the back of a major infrastructure deal with Meta — worth up to $27 billion over five years.

The funds will likely be put to good use to deliver on some of these major projects. Per the company’s press release, the capital raised will be used to:

“...finance the continuing growth of its business, including expenditures related to the construction and build-out of its data centers, investments to develop its full-stack AI cloud, the expansion of its data center footprint and the procurement of key components (including GPUs), and for general corporate purposes.”

Harder, better, stronger, faster... Amazon, not content with completely altering our expectations for how quickly our goods should arrive, is rolling out one- and three-hour deliveries in new cities in the US as it continues to double down on ultrafast delivery.

Per the company’s press release, one-hour delivery is now available in “hundreds of cities and towns” in the US, and three-hour options are offered in “over 2,000 cities and towns,” both available seven days a week though their regular same-day shopping experience. More than 90,000 products, which are typically available in local supercenters, are currently eligible for delivery under the two plans, and Amazon expects to bring the new scheme to more areas in the coming months.

Delivery fees for Prime members are set at $9.99 for one-hour delivery and $4.99 for three hours, though this price range more than doubles to $19.99 and $14.99, respectively, for customers without a Prime membership.

Regarding the new delivery options, Udit Madan, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said, “We’re excited to say that two decades after Prime launched, we’re still innovating to make delivery even faster, while maintaining the same everyday low prices and vast selection Amazon is known for.”

Indeed, since it launched same-day delivery in 2015, Amazon has been experimenting with a number of ultrafast delivery options, including recently piloting a 30-minute delivery service in selected US cities, built on its network of fulfillment centers and on-demand workers. The e-commerce giant’s latest push also comes as competitors like Walmart have started to boost its delivery capacity, touting that it can deliver to 95% of American households in less than three hours.

Uber and Lyft both announced expanded AI and autonomous vehicle partnerships with Nvidia at the company’s GTC event, sending both ride-hailing stocks up after-hours on Monday and into Tuesday’s premarket session.

Uber is currently up more than 2%, while Lyft has risen around 1.3%.

Uber said Nvidia-powered Level 4 robotaxis will launch on its platform in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2027, with plans to scale to 28 cities globally by 2028. Meanwhile, Lyft said it will use Nvidia’s AI infrastructure to improve ride-matching, mapping, and efficiency, while also using Nvidia’s DRIVE Hyperion platform as a foundation for future autonomous fleets.

Separately, Nvidia announced expanded autonomous driving partnerships with Kia and Hyundai.

The announcements highlight Nvidia’s growing push to provide the AI hardware and software powering next-generation robotaxi networks — packaging the technology needed for self-driving cars into a platform that other companies can use to compete with Tesla.