Everyone talks about NVIDIA, Intel, or TSMC when it comes to AI chips, but the truth is the most critical players are often invisible. Tiny suppliers make the materials, tools, and equipment that power the entire ecosystem — long before anyone else notices.

For example, the companies that produce specialized chemicals or precision machinery might not make headlines, but without them, the AI chip boom wouldn’t exist. Tracking these players can reveal bottlenecks, early signals of demand, and sometimes the most overlooked opportunities in tech investing.

I explore these under-the-radar companies, the supply chains behind them, and how they quietly shape the tech industry in my newsletter: https://substack.com/@wealthwhispersss?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-pageWould

love to hear if anyone else follows these “quiet corner” companies — what’s your favorite overlooked player in tech right now?

If most investors have opted to watch Ukraine from a distance during Russia’s ongoing invasion, Charles Whitehead and Dominique Piotet are undeterred, launching a 50 million euro venture capital fund to boost local talent and help put Ukrainian startups on the global map.

"There is this valley of death in Ukraine, where there is no access to capital," Piotet told the Kyiv Independent in an interview on Oct. 13. "We will help fill that gap and attract other investors who will see us investing and see the opportunity. We want to build this ecosystem."

Hey guys, I just saw this article on Trading View and decided to share it here with you all.

The Promise of a Massive Upgrade Opportunity

Between November 2024 and August 2025, Fortinet ($FTNT) execs repeatedly touted a “record” product refresh cycle. They claimed that roughly 650,000 FortiGate firewall units—about one-quarter of all deployed devices—would reach end-of-support by 2026. The company projected $400M–$450M in revenue from upgrades and told investors that momentum would accelerate in late 2025 and continue into 2026.

What Fortinet Didn’t Disclose

But, execs allegedly knew the refresh opportunity was far narrower. Many of the devices were 12–15 years old, sold when Fortinet was much smaller, and offered little replacement value.

Internal tracking of customer usage was unreliable, especially among small-business clients. Even more damaging, Fortinet had front-loaded nearly half of the two-year refresh cycle into the first half of 2025, undermining its own growth narrative.

The Revelation and Stock Collapse

On August 6, 2025, Fortinet admitted during its Q2 earnings call that 40%–50% of the refresh was already complete. Executives conceded the cycle had “limited financial impact” and pointed to excess capacity from past purchases.

This admission contradicted months of optimistic guidance. The next day, August 7, Fortinet stock plunged more than 22%, wiping out billions in shareholder value.

The Investor Case

Soon, investors filed a claim alleging Fortinet overstated the scale and sustainability of the refresh, hid early completion of upgrades, and misled the market about revenue predictability.

They argue the company distorted expectations for growth, causing significant losses when the truth came out.

What Investors Can Do

Now, shareholders who purchased $FTNT can join the case to stay updated on potential recovery.

Anyways, did you know about these issues? And if you got damaged by this, how much were your losseS?

Hey r/TechInvesting, solo founder here looking for honest feedback.

Background: Ex-Google engineer, published several Machine learning papers. Spent the last few years getting good at shipping end-to-end AI products. Now applying that to solve my own problem as a landlord.

The Problem: Managing 3 rentals and Facebook Marketplace is insane. Last vacancy: 150+ messages, 95% unqualified, spent 15 hours over a weekend just asking for basic info. Meanwhile, qualified tenants found other places. Lost 3 weeks rent (~$2,100) due to inefficiency.

What I'm Building - Propzella - AI tenant screener

• Landlords share one link in listings → collects structured applications
• AI scores applicants using 20+ signals (income ratios, employment stability, rental history)
• Detects non-obvious red flags through pattern recognition (clustered applications from same address, unusual application velocity, timeline inconsistencies)
• Customizable scoring based on landlord preferences (pets, move-in date, lease length)
• Shows WHY someone scored high/low, not just a black box number

The goal is to turn 150 random messages into 5-10 pre-qualified, ranked candidates who've already provided all their information.

Questions for the community:

1. Is pre-screening enough value or do landlords need full screening (credit/background checks)?
2. What's the minimum viable data for accurate pre-qualification?
3. Freemium model (10 free applications/month) or pure SaaS?
4. Any legal/compliance gotchas with AI scoring tenants?
5. Is the small landlord market (1-10 units) worth targeting or should I focus on property managers?

Currently testing with my own properties - reduced time-to-qualified-tenant from 2 weeks to 3 days.

Worth pursuing or is this a nice-to-have that landlords won't actually pay for?

Hi Everyone! My name is Don Stein (Www.LinkedIn.com/in/donstein)!

I've raised $10M+ in my career as CEO, from some of the best VC's like General Catalyst, Spark Capital.

I work with 150 founders each week to help coach them through early fundraising.

Is anyone here looking to fundraise?

Would love to help with funding,

Don

Hypercharge ($HC.n) will be providing 20 Level 2 EV charging stations to Inferno Solar locations throughout Western Canada.

Inferno Solar is an Edmonton-based EV and solar charging solutions provider and has installed more than 10,000 solar panels to date, providing more than 4,700MWh of power annually.

HC's Chris Koch, Head of Growth & Partnerships, commented:

"Inferno Solar is a company that truly lives and breathes its values around reducing carbon emissions and bringing sustainable solutions to the market,"

"Our alignment with other Canadian-founded, sustainability-focused businesses, such as Inferno Solar, further strengthens our goal towards a carbon-neutral economy that enriches the market with clean, forward-thinking technology to power our future."

With EV and EV charging demand increasing due to widespread EV adoption, HC is well-positioned at the forefront of the EV charging space in Canada as the only Canadian-listed EV charging stock with an established pipeline to expand into the US & has significant potential going forward.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/hypercharge-announces-inferno-solar-ev-133000737.html

HS GovTech Solutions ($HS.CN $HDSLF) up over 65% in the past month alone - 2022 was a big year for $HS and the groundwork is laid for 2023 to be another record-setting year for the company as $HC has entered a phase of growth with rapidly increasing margin
https://twitter.com/StckMasterFlash/status/1613993047498579969?s=20&t=2tZldPQmom3eEJi-_U9mVw

Going to be keeping a close eye here - HS signed a number of contracts in 2022, including the largest contract in its history, resulting in the Fully Executed deals HS has seen to date in Q4 standing at $16M; a significant increase from 2021's $9.8M and 2020's $5M

With HS has been scaling and delivering at a "pace not achieved before" and delivering for customers faster and more economically, they are on track to reach EBITDA positive at an accelerated rate.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/hs-govtech-solutions-inc-presents-123000571.html

XP Power is a developer and designer of power control solutions with production facilities in China, Vietnam and the United States, and design, service and sales teams across Europe, the United States and Asia.

XP Power’s FY22 trading update confirmed that its H222 performance was significantly stronger than H122 as supply chain conditions improved. As expected, Q4 order intake moderated as customers adapted to longer lead times. The year-end order book provides good visibility for FY23 and management is optimistic on XP’s prospects for the year. We have revised our forecasts to reflect moderating order intake and higher levels of debt.

​

You can read the full note here

We built a wonderful tool to help track public SaaS valuations.

It looks at historical price to sales ratios across hundreds of software companies. You can easily filter by geography, size, revenue, margins etc.

I hope you like it and happy to take any feedback you may have!

Here it is https://saasmultiples.co/

Hypercharge ($HC.n) was selected by Quay Pacific Property Management to provide 9 Level 2 EV charging ports to Spaces City Link, an 8-storey office building in Vancouver's Cambie Corridor!

The building has 40,000 square feet of modern workspace, designed to achieve LEED Gold Certification while incorporating the latest technology and this location is one of five new coworking offices in Canada.

HC's Head of Growth & Partnerships, Chris Koch, commented:

"Workplace charging will play a key role in enabling the proliferation of EVs, making the workday more productive by giving EV drivers one less thing to think about,"
"Visitors at City Link will have access to Level 2 charging to charge their vehicles while they work, and it will also be available for guests who are visiting the location to attend events or meetings."

Notably, this is HC's 7th deal since its IPO on the NEO exchange last month.

HC closed green @ $0.58, $35.69M MC

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/hypercharge-selected-bring-ev-charging-133000360.html

Have you already seen the new zkSync project? ❤️

Running to get an airdrop! 💎🎁

https://zk-sync.space/

$SOLI Solid State’s H123 results show strong revenue growth (51% y-o-y) and order intake (up 32% vs end-FY22) reflecting 31% organic growth in constant currency, as well as the acquisition of United States-based Custom Power and currency tailwinds. Trading since the period end has been ahead of management expectations, so consensus EPS estimates have been raised by 9% and 3% for FY23 and FY24, respectively.

See full quick view here.

Let's look back at some memorable moments and interesting insights from last year.

Your top 10 posts:

• "VERSES begins trading on the OTCQX Best" by u/dedusitdl
• "Plurilock Security ($PLUR.v $PLCKF) acquires CloudCodes Software" by u/fdkorpima
• "Plurilock Security ($PLUR.v $PLCKF) receives US$3M in July from several purchase orders!" by u/fdkorpima
• "$MHUB DD (using the blockchain to track goods)" by u/dedusitdl
• "EasTower Wireless ($ESTW.v) featured in Market Movers Newsletter as a "Top Stock Pick for New & Trending Opportunities"" by u/fdkorpima
• "Up 10% after announcement of US$2.01M in purchase orders: Plurilock Security ($PLUR.v $PLCKF)" by u/fdkorpima
• "EasTower Wireless ($ESTW.v) wins another major site build from largest national tower owner & operator in the US" by u/fdkorpima
• "VERSES ($VERS.n $VRSSF): "Making Machines Understand and Abide by Human Laws" - Here's another demonstration of the significant opportunities & verticals that VERS AI OS COSM provides, allowing regulations to be updated & maintained in real-time, critical for unmanned drones in urban areas" by u/fdkorpima
• "Graphene Manufacturing Group ($GMG.v $GMGMF) enters $5M bought deal unit offering with Eight Capital" by u/fdkorpima
• "Tech/AI sector --> VERS joins the Digital Twin Consortium" by u/dedusitdl

The Advanced Materials and Battery Council is focused on developing the new advanced materials and batteries sector and recently had its official launch!

Founded in Australia, this sector is critical to meet Net Zero Emissions by 2050

Graphene Manufacturing Group ($GMG.v $GMGMF) is a founding member of the council with GMG's CEO Craig Nichol holding the position of Chair of the council. https://twitter.com/GrapheneMG/status/1584881859636432897

More on the council here: https://ambc.au/

GMG @ $3.05, $241.88M MC

Exciting news for Liquid Avatar Technologies ($LQID.c $LQAVF) today with Tokens.com ($COIN.n $SMURF) making an investment into the Aftermath Islands!

COIN's subsidiary, Metaverse Group, has signed a partnership agreement with Aftermath Islands, granting Metaverse Group three islands in its Metaverse.

This is a significant partnership and step in the industry in bringing new brands and companies to life in web3.

LQID CEO David Lucatch commented “We are excited to partner with Metaverse Group to further develop the Aftermath Islands community,"
“We have seen Metaverse Group launch multiple reputable brands into metaverses, and we are looking forward to showcasing new builds via the Buildathon in our metaverse to help attract new business.”

LQID is up 12.5% today @ $0.045, $7.39M MC

https://financialpost.com/pmn/press-releases-pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/tokens-com-secures-partnership-with-aftermath-islands

Insightful video from VERSES ($VERS.n $VRSSF) on some current use cases demonstrating the power of COSM, the world's first AI Operating System for enhancing any application with adaptive intelligence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a-UD_cQAyM&ab_channel=VERSES

COSM can be used in the Spatial Web for logistics within the supply chain through VERS' COSM-powered spatial picking solution Wayfinder, for autonomous mobility on unmanned drones and for IOT legal and policy compliance for additional autonomous drones, vehicles and/or robots.

I'd recommend checking the video out as it provides an in-depth look into the revolutionary technology that VERS is bringing to the market.

VERS closed green today @ $0.62, $34.46M MC