Shares of Ondas Holdings (ONDS +5.80%) were among the big winners in 2025 as the company pivoted to autonomous drone systems last year, which investors see as a high-potential market.
Ondas is still a very small company, but it reported explosive growth last year, and investor sentiment has been favorable toward emerging technology companies in areas like drones, as investors don't want to miss the next big technology following the breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI).
According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the stock finished the year up 281%. As you can see from the chart below, the stock was actually down for the first six months of the year before its move into autonomous drones set a fire under it.
What happened with Ondas last year
Ondas was largely an overlooked small-cap stock in the first half of the year, but the stock started to soar in early August as it jumped 51% in three sessions in August from Aug. 4-6.
First, the company nominated Brigadier General Yaniv Rotem to its advisory board, which was expected to advance its goals of delivering modular, AI-powered drone systems for defense missions.
On Aug. 4, it said it had completed government-led counter-drone pilot programs in Europe and Asia, which are expected to lead to long-term deployments. That news seemed to indicate that Ondas was further along in its technological development than investors had believed, sparking the three-day rally in the stock.
The stock jumped on its second-quarter earnings report later that month, reporting revenue of $6.3 million, up from $1 million, and its generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net loss widened from $9.4 million to $12 million. It also reaffirmed its full-year revenue target of at least $25 million.
Ondas got some positive comments from Wall Street analysts in the aftermath of the report, and continued to gain through September, peaking in early October as a number of other AI and speculative growth stocks did. The stock sold $425 million worth of shares right as the price hit its high for the year.
Image source: Getty Images.
What's next for Ondas
Ondas has gotten off to a strong start in 2026 as it's benefited from investor attention on defense stocks, following the apprehension of President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
On Jan. 20, the stock popped even as the broad market fell more than 2% as investors seemed to believe that tensions over Greenland were positive for it.
Ondas is still a high-risk, speculative stock, but if investor sentiment remains on its side, the stock could easily move higher. Ultimately, the company will have to deliver results in order to justify those gains, but analysts expect triple-digit revenue growth at least through next year.
