The Next Decade’s Chipmaker Play
Sometimes the best investment is a pick-n-shovel play vs. chasing the gold itself. We saw this play out when cell phone adoption rocketed. And we see it again in Nuclear Power. Here's an update on one of our top AI Power Play Stocks to Watch $LEU...
Megan Brantley
September 02, 2025
In the 1990s, mobile phone adoption exploded, growing from about 12 million users worldwide in 1990 to more than 700 million by 1999, with U.S. penetration climbing from under 5% of the population to over 30% in less than a decade. Analysts projected the market would surpass 1 billion users within a few years.
Most investors focused on the companies making the phones: Motorola (MOT), Nokia (NOK), and Ericsson (ERIC).
These were the brands consumers recognized, and their stocks rewarded shareholders. Nokia surged several hundred percent, while Motorola and Ericsson more than doubled. Those were strong returns.
But the even bigger winner was Qualcomm (QCOM).
Qualcomm didn’t sell phones. It built the specialized chips and controlled the patents that every phone required to connect to wireless networks. Qualcomm was the toll collector of the wireless boom. No matter which brand captured market share, Qualcomm got paid.
The result was historic.
In 1999 alone, Qualcomm’s stock price climbed from about $3 to more than $90, a 3,000% gain in a single year.
Motorola, Nokia, and Ericsson delivered good returns, but Qualcomm soared because it supplied the technology every competitor required. Investors didn’t have to guess the winning phone brand. Qualcomm fueled them all.
Centrus Energy (LEU) is in the same kind of position today.