AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) is lifting off in 2025, thanks to Trump’s tariff threats skipping over a Made-in-America company building cellular broadband networks in space.
ASTS stock has gained more than 29% since the start of the year, vastly outperforming the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and communications and IT industries.
Zooming out, ASTS has returned a whopping 872% over the past year, propelling its market cap to around $9 billion.
It’s not hard to see what’s fueling ASTS’ growth. A quick glance at its chart reveals two vertical pumps around President Trump’s inauguration and the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report.
On Inauguration Day, Trump said, “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
That was enough to get investors excited about AST SpaceMobile, which aims to bring satellite-based broadband to billions of people on Earth. This year and next, the company plans to launch roughly 60 satellites into orbit.
Then, on March 4, ASTS received another pump after the company’s Q4 financial results beat estimates.
Although the company reported a net loss of $35.9 million during the quarter, revenue trends suggest that demand is picking up.
A few weeks later, AST SpaceMobile announced strategic agreements to expand its satellite broadband capabilities, which includes a Spectrum Usage Rights Agreement with a company called One Dot Six LLC.
Space Force is still a thing
While the connection between Trump’s Mars ambition and ASTS is fuzzy at best, investors are getting excited about America’s reach for the stars.
“Post the election, there seems to be this very deep and broad excitement about opening up private space opportunities,” said Edison Yu, an analyst with Deutsche Bank.
If Trump’s first term is anything to go by, he’s committed to building up America’s space capabilities.
After all, he was the one who established the Space Force back in 2019, marking a renaissance for military space ambitions.
Yes, the Space Force is still a thing today. In February, it convened a “technical integrated planning team” to evaluate America’s military capabilities in space.
Space stock enthusiasts were also happy with Trump’s selection of private astronaut Jared Isaacman as NASA’s chief.
The pick “was very well received by the institutional community,” said Yu. “If you talk to investors who follow space very closely, if you talk to people who are running the companies, that was seen as very positive.”
Analysts say “pure-play” space stocks will continue to achieve lift-off as President Trump moves the needle on his space ambitions. ASTS is among a small group of companies that could be poised to benefit, even if its current business model is slow to get off the ground.
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