After Pentagon Inks Deal With AI Firms, Buy These Under $20 Stocks

1 hour ago 3

Alex Sirois

Mon, May 4, 2026 astatine 9:10 AM CDT 4 min read

Quick Read

C3.ai (AI) reported Q3 FY2026 gross of $53.26M (down 46.1% YoY) with federal, defense, and aerospace bookings rising 134% YoY and present representing 55% of full bookings, portion BigBear.ai (BBAI) posted Q4 2025 gross of $27.3M (down 38% YoY) but raised $693M successful capital, chopped indebtedness by implicit 90%, and accrued backlog to $400M done the $250M Ask Sage acquisition.
The Pentagon’s AI Acceleration Strategy is driving national spending connected defence AI, with some C3.ai and BigBear.ai positioned arsenic pure-play vendors benefiting from implicit $170B successful supplemental Department of Homeland Security backing and $150B allocated to the Department of Defense for disruptive defence technology.
The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and C3.ai wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

The Pentagon's accelerating propulsion to embed artificial quality crossed defence and nationalist information operations has enactment a spotlight connected a tiny radical of pure-play national AI vendors. With the U.S. Government's AI Acceleration Strategy present driving existent bookings, 2 NYSE-listed names trading good nether $20 person moved from speculative bets to credible defence AI plays. Both are unprofitable, some are volatile, and some beryllium squarely successful the way of a generational national walk connected disruptive defence tech.

With that successful mind, present are 2 stocks trading nether $20 that look positioned to payment arsenic Pentagon AI dollars flow.

C3.ai (NYSE: AI)

C3.ai (NYSE:AI) is an endeavor AI bundle institution supplying agentic and generative AI applications to ample commercialized customers and a increasing roster of national agencies, including the U.S. Air Force, Department of Energy, and NATO.

The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and C3.ai wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

Shares began May up 8.15% implicit the past period but down 58.04% implicit the past year. For a retail investor, that single-digit grip reflects a profoundly discounted concern successful modulation alternatively than a quiescent compounder.

The fundamentals are disfigured successful the adjacent term. Q3 FY2026 gross came successful astatine $53.26 million, down 46.1% YoY, missing expectations by 29.59%, with non-GAAP EPS of -$0.40 and gross borderline collapsing to 17%. Market headdress sits adjacent $1.30 billion, and the P/E is antagonistic astatine -4.50.

The bull lawsuit rests connected the national mix. Federal, defense, and aerospace bookings roseate 134% YoY successful Q3 and present correspond 55% of full bookings, with 90% of gross recurring done subscriptions. A 26% workforce simplification is expected to present astir $135 cardinal successful yearly non-GAAP operating disbursal savings. CEO Stephen Ehikian told investors the institution is present "a much agile, much disciplined, and much accountable organization" focused connected a instrumentality to growth.

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