Private Market Spotlight:High-Conviction Private Companies – June 2026 OutlookDate: June 17, 2026
Dear G.L.A Family,
The private markets continue to deliver breakthrough innovation across defense, AI infrastructure, enterprise software, and vertical applications. Below is a concise summary and forward-looking outlook for each standout private company in our current focus list. These represent some of the most compelling opportunities where technology meets massive secular tailwinds: national security, AI scaling, and mission-critical workflows.
Onebrief AI– powered collaboration and workflow platform purpose-built for military command staffs. Enables superhuman decision-making, operational planning, and coordination across classified networks (NIPR, SIPR, JWICS). Already deployed at scale with U.S. Combatant Commands. Outlook: Onebrief is transforming staff processes that traditionally consume thousands of man-hours. Agentic AI workflows are delivering measurable acceleration in planning cycles. With proven traction at COCOMs, expect broader DoD adoption and potential expansion into allied forces. High strategic value in contested environments.
d-Matrix – Pioneering next-generation AI inference compute with its Corsair platform. Ultra-low latency, energy-efficient memory-compute integration for generative AI at datacenter scale. Targeting hyperscalers, enterprises, and sovereign customers.
Outlook: Corsair’s in-memory architecture delivers compelling TCO advantages, especially in decode-heavy inference workloads when paired with GPUs in heterogeneous setups. Full production ramp and rack-scale solutions (SquadRack) position d-Matrix as a differentiated player in sustainable AI infrastructure. Strong tailwinds as inference demand explodes.
Saronic. Defense technology leader building autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) — maritime drones designed from the keel up for naval superiority, domain awareness, reconnaissance, and swarm operations. Rapidly scaling production with major U.S. Navy contracts.
Outlook: Outside of Anduril, Saronic remains my favorite defense tech investment. Recent $1.75B Series D at $9.25B valuation underscores explosive momentum. Vertical integration, shipyard acquisitions, and Port Alpha scaling signal readiness for volume production. We continue to believe Saronic and Anduril could ultimately merge to create a dominant full-spectrum autonomous systems powerhouse. Maritime domain is a critical gap — Saronic is closing it fast.
Shield AI. – AI and autonomy company developing intelligent systems (Hivemind AI pilot software, V-BAT/X-BAT aircraft) to protect service members and civilians. Mission autonomy for drones and teaming across U.S. Special Operations, Air Force, Marines, and allies.
Outlook: Hivemind’s edge autonomy in GPS-denied environments is combat-proven and expanding rapidly. V-BAT swarming and X-BAT fighter ambitions position Shield AI as a leader in attritable autonomous aircraft. Expect continued DoD contract wins and international growth.
Stripe-Global leader in online payments and financial infrastructure. Powers commerce for millions of businesses with seamless payments, billing, tax, and emerging tools in AI commerce, stablecoins, and blockchain. Processes trillions in volume annually. Outlook: Stripe remains the gold standard for developer-friendly financial infrastructure. AI-powered commerce tools and stablecoin/blockchain expansions open new TAMs. Enterprise and global growth should remain robust even in uncertain macro conditions. Evergreen private market compounder.
Lightmatter – Photonic computing company building the next era of AI infrastructure. Photonic chips and interconnects (Passage platform) dramatically improve speed, energy efficiency, and scalability for large-scale AI training and inference beyond traditional silicon limits.
Outlook: Passage’s 3D photonic interconnects address critical data-movement bottlenecks. As AI clusters scale to millions of chips, photonic solutions offer a path to sustainable performance gains. Positioned for major hyperscaler partnerships as the industry hits electrical interconnect walls.
Databricks –The Data and AI company powering the lakehouse architecture. Unified platform for data engineering, analytics, warehousing, and AI agents used by over 60% of Fortune 500. Massive revenue growth driven by AI workloads.
Outlook: Unity Catalog and agentic capabilities make Databricks indispensable for enterprise AI. Continued hyper-growth in AI data pipelines expected. Strong moat in multi-cloud environments keeps it a top-tier private asset with clear public path.
Perplexity-AI-powered answer engine and conversational search platform delivering accurate, real-time answers with citations. Combines LLMs with live search for research, summarization, and analysis. Rapid enterprise adoption.
Outlook: Perplexity is redefining how knowledge work gets done. Enterprise traction and focus on trustworthy, cited outputs differentiate it from pure chat models. Expect continued user and revenue growth as organizations prioritize reliable AI research tools.
Gecko Robotics. AI + Robotics (AIR) platform for inspecting and maintaining critical infrastructure. Deploys climbing, flying, and swimming robots with AI analytics for energy, defense, manufacturing, and other sectors.
Outlook: Turning hazardous, manual inspections into high-frequency, data-rich operations. Cantilever platform delivers digital twins and predictive insights at scale. Expanding into defense and international markets creates multi-sector upside.
CHAOS (Chaos Industries). Defense technology innovator building advanced radar, communications, sensing, and counter-UAS solutions powered by Coherent Distributed Networks. Focused on domain dominance and rapid prototyping.
Outlook: CDN technology enables faster, more resilient detection at lower cost than traditional systems. Recent large funding rounds and DoD appropriations signal strong momentum in counter-threat and training applications. Watch for accelerated field deployments.
Loft Orbital.Space infrastructure-as-a-service provider. Makes access to low Earth orbit simple and fast via standardized satellite platforms and modular payload integration. Enables rapid mission deployment without owning full spacecraft.
Outlook: “Space made simple” model lowers barriers dramatically. Growing constellation operations and international expansion (e.g., Orbitworks) position Loft as a key enabler for proliferated LEO capabilities across government and commercial users.
OpenEvidence- Leading medical AI platform and search engine for clinicians. Provides evidence-based clinical decision support grounded in medical literature and real-world data. Widely adopted by U.S. healthcare professionals.
Outlook: Trusted partnerships with NEJM, JAMA, NCCN, and others give OpenEvidence unmatched credibility. Voice mode and hospital expansions accelerate adoption. As AI integrates deeper into point-of-care, OpenEvidence is becoming essential infrastructure for clinicians.
Vercel-Frontend cloud platform enabling developers to build, deploy, and scale high-performance web applications. Powers Next.js ecosystem with seamless AI integration, edge infrastructure, and developer velocity tools.
Outlook: Dominant position in modern web development. AI integrations and edge capabilities keep Vercel at the forefront of developer experience. Enterprise momentum and Next.js adoption should drive sustained high growth.
Final Thoughts & Portfolio Perspective
–These companies sit at the intersection of AI, autonomy, infrastructure, and national security — the defining investment themes of this decade. Defense tech (Saronic, Shield AI, CHAOS, Onebrief) offers asymmetric upside amid geopolitical tensions. AI infrastructure and data platforms (d-Matrix, Lightmatter, Databricks) address the physical limits of scaling intelligence. Vertical applications (OpenEvidence, Perplexity, Gecko, Vercel, Stripe) own critical workflows and data loops. We remain especially bullish on the Anduril + Saronic thesis as a potential category-defining combination.
If you need any research on anything in the public or private markets let me know!
As always, INVEST IN THE BEST, IGNORE THE REST!!
Coach Kyle
Founder & Lead Researcher, G.L.A. INVEST Research
Disclaimer:This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment advice. Private market investments involve significant risk, including illiquidity and total loss of capital. Always conduct your own due diligence. G.L.A. INVEST Research and its principals may hold positions in mentioned companies.