NVIDIA, AAON, Anthropic, Take-Two and SpaceX offer a growth narrative built on computing capacity, cooling equipment, coveted content and ambitious engineering.
Inflation has once again arrived at Wall Street’s breakfast table without an invitation. Yet beneath the uncomfortable price data, a more constructive business story is taking shape: companies are expanding the infrastructure of artificial intelligence, converting industrial capacity into earnings and preparing products with the potential to command unusually strong demand. The opportunity is not that every growth stock deserves a higher valuation. It is that selected businesses have identifiable engines of expansion that extend beyond the next interest-rate decision. AAON (NASDAQ: AAON) is reporting sharply higher revenue and operating profit. Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO) is approaching the scheduled launch of Grand Theft Auto VI. Anthropic has launched its initial public offering roadshow, while SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) is preparing another consequential Starship test. For many, the compelling question is no longer simply whether inflation will cooperate. It is which companies can create enough additional earning power to make an uncooperative economy less decisive.
October CPI: An Unwelcome Number, Not the Entire Story
The October 2026 Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% from September, following a 0.6% increase the previous month. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, advanced 0.3%, matching its increases in August and September. Food prices climbed 0.5%, shelter increased 0.3% and energy rose 0.7%. That is hardly a declaration of victory over inflation. But the details are more nuanced than a uniformly accelerating price spiral. Monthly headline inflation moderated from September, energy inflation slowed substantially and shelter’s increase eased from 0.4% to 0.3%. Core inflation remained persistent rather than accelerating. An important statistical limitation also deserves attention: the Bureau of Labor Statistics cannot publish October year-over-year changes for most CPI series because October 2025 observations were unavailable during the government shutdown. A missing annual comparison should not be mistaken for either reassuring evidence or an invitation to invent one. Meanwhile, the labor market continues to provide an economic foundation. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 165,000 in October, according to the BLS. Employment growth does not neutralize higher prices, but it adds context to an economy still generating jobs. The constructive equity-market interpretation is selective rather than euphoric. Companies that can expand production, improve efficiency and generate cash have a more substantial case than those whose principal operating asset is an attractive presentation.
NVIDIA: The AI Opportunity Must Be Underwritten Alongside the Risks
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) remains central to the AI infrastructure discussion, but a credible bullish argument cannot treat regulatory scrutiny as background decoration. Bloomberg reported that NVIDIA’s general counsel contacted U.S. officials concerning the Megaspeed investigation into suspected AI-chip diversion. The report raises consequential questions about compliance and corporate oversight. Megaspeed has denied the chip-diversion allegations, while NVIDIA has said its government communications support resolving diversion concerns and serving lawful customers. These are reported allegations and company responses, not a judicial determination of wrongdoing. NVIDIA’s own SEC filings make the broader commercial stakes plain. Export restrictions can disrupt distribution, limit addressable markets, reduce demand and create inventory-related costs. The company’s quarterly report for the period ended July 26, 2026, explicitly describes those risks. There is historical evidence that strong growth and meaningful restrictions can coexist, although neither cancels the other. In its fiscal second quarter ended July 27, 2025, NVIDIA reported revenue of $46.7 billion, up 56% year over year, despite recording no H20 sales to China-based customers during that quarter. That is historical context, not a substitute for current financial results. The bullish thesis therefore requires discipline: AI computing demand may support substantial business expansion, while export policy and governance can still affect the value assigned to that expansion. Many need not confuse confidence in accelerated computing with indifference to the rulebook. The latter has an unfortunate habit of becoming expensive.
Anthropic’s IPO Makes the AI Capital Cycle More Tangible
Anthropic’s proposed IPO offers a fresh measure of the financial resources being assembled around advanced AI. On November 10, the company announced an offering of 825 million Class A shares at an expected price of $70 to $78 per share. It has applied to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the proposed symbol ANT. The registration statement had not yet become effective when the announcement was issued, so ANT should be described as a proposed ticker, not an already trading security. The composition of the offering matters. Anthropic plans to sell approximately 801.35 million shares itself, while existing stockholders would sell approximately 23.65 million. Anthropic would not receive proceeds from the secondary shares. At the top of the proposed range, the base offering would total $64.35 billion before expenses, with approximately $62.5 billion attributable to the company’s own shares before underwriting discounts and expenses. That distinction separates capital available to the business from capital paid to selling holders. Both involve large checks. Only one directly replenishes the corporate account. The broader bullish implication is not that any proposed valuation must be attractive. It is that a major AI developer is seeking substantial primary financing, potentially strengthening its capacity to compete, develop products and support future spending. The offering’s scale creates opportunity, but it also raises the standard against which future operating performance will be judged. For many assessing the AI ecosystem, the useful distinction is between enthusiasm expressed in a valuation and capital actually available to finance a business.
AAON: The AI Infrastructure Story Comes With an Income Statement
If AI models supply the intellectual excitement, cooling equipment supplies something less glamorous and equally necessary: operating conditions. AAON’s third-quarter results provide one of the clearest operating examples in this group. The company reported:
- Revenue of $707.4 million, up 84.1% year over year.
- Operating income of approximately $100 million, up 129.3%.
- GAAP diluted earnings of $0.83 per share, up 124.3%.
- Backlog of approximately $1.85 billion, up 40.5% from a year earlier.
- Nine-month operating cash flow of $146.9 million, compared with an $18.8 million cash outflow in the prior-year period.
The growth is closely connected to data-center demand. BASX-branded sales increased 218.3% to $397.2 million. Within AAON Coil Products, BASX-branded liquid-cooling sales reached $165.5 million, up 255.6%. These brand-level and segment-level figures describe different reporting categories and should not be added together as separate pools of revenue. The company also raised its full-year sales-growth outlook to 72% to 75%, from 55% to 60%. That is a substantial revision supported, management said, by stronger throughput, expanded capacity and backlog conversion. The attraction is straightforward: AAON is not merely describing demand. It is shipping equipment and translating higher volume into substantially greater operating profit. There are qualifications. Gross margin improved sequentially to 26.7% but remained below the prior-year quarter’s 27.8%. Backlog declined 5.9% from the second quarter, which management attributed primarily to faster conversion into revenue and the timing of large project awards. The company also restated its first two quarters of 2026 and identified a material weakness in financial-reporting controls. Although the restatements increased first-half revenue and earnings, remediation remains an important execution test. Those issues do not erase the operating momentum. They define what many should monitor as the business scales. Artificial intelligence may be virtual. The heat, reassuringly for cooling suppliers, is not.
Take-Two and GTA VI: A Near-Term Catalyst With Long-Term Ambitions
Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO) offers a different growth mechanism: intellectual property with a concentrated release catalyst. The company’s November 9 earnings release reaffirmed November 19, 2026, as the scheduled release date for Grand Theft Auto VI. Management described preorders as reaching unprecedented levels and reiterated fiscal 2027 net-bookings guidance of $8 billion to $8.2 billion. Its GAAP revenue outlook stands at $7.98 billion to $8.18 billion. These measures should remain distinct. Net bookings capture products and services sold digitally or sold into physical distribution during the period, along with specified other commercial activity. GAAP revenue follows accounting-recognition requirements. The two are related, not interchangeable. The latest quarter was not uniformly strong. Revenue declined to approximately $1.50 billion from $1.77 billion, while net bookings fell 18% to $1.60 billion. Take-Two reported a $54 million net loss, narrower than the $133.9 million loss a year earlier. The bullish argument rests on the change ahead, not a cosmetic reinterpretation of the quarter behind it. Management projects more than $1 billion in operating cash flow for fiscal 2027. Recurrent consumer spending also represented 81% of both quarterly net bookings and GAAP revenue, illustrating the importance of continuing engagement across the existing portfolio. That does not establish future GTA VI monetization, but it demonstrates that Take-Two’s business extends beyond initial game purchases. For many, the relevant milestones are launch execution, customer reception and conversion of demand into cash. An enthusiastic preorder queue is encouraging. It is not yet a completed earnings cycle.
SpaceX: Reusability Is an Economic Proposition, Not Just a Spectacle
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) brings engineering milestones into the same growth conversation. The company’s mission page targets Starship Flight 15 for as soon as November 13, subject to regulatory approval. SpaceX explicitly cautions that the schedule can change. Its recent Starship material also frames orbital delivery of advanced Starlink satellites as a central development objective. The commercial logic extends beyond the spectacle of launch day. In SEC-filed offering materials, SpaceX describes reusable hardware as a means of lowering launch costs and enabling a higher flight rate. Its platform links launch capabilities with satellite connectivity and additional computing ambitions. These are company-described strategies, with future benefits dependent on successful execution. There is an established connectivity business beneath those ambitions. The same SEC-filed materials reported approximately 10.3 million Starlink subscribers as of March 31, 2026. They also reported 2025 connectivity-segment operating income of $4.4 billion and segment adjusted EBITDA of $7.2 billion. The latter is a non-GAAP measure and should not be presented as net income or free cash flow. That relationship is what makes reusability financially interesting. Lower deployment costs and greater launch capacity could support expansion of a revenue-producing satellite network. The engineering achievement matters because it may improve the economics of the services riding aboard. A rocket returning intact is impressive television. A costly asset returning for another assignment is also a concept the accounting department can appreciate.
The Bull Case Is About Execution, Not Perfect Weather
These businesses do not share the same risks, valuations or earnings profiles. They do share a useful analytical thread: each has an identifiable mechanism through which execution could create additional value. For NVIDIA, it is serving AI-computing demand while navigating export restrictions and oversight. For Anthropic, it is converting financing and technical capability into a durable commercial business. For AAON, it is turning expanded manufacturing capacity and cooling demand into profitable shipments. For Take-Two, it is delivering a major release and translating engagement into cash. For SpaceX, it is connecting engineering progress with launch and satellite-service economics. That is a more durable foundation for optimism than simply hoping the next inflation report will be polite. The strongest bullish story is not that obstacles have disappeared. It is that selected companies have measurable ways to move beyond them. For many, the opportunity lies in recognizing where ambition is becoming production, where production is becoming earnings and where earnings may eventually justify the price.
The Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Consumer Price Index: October 2026,” released November 10, 2026.bls
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Consumer Price Index: September 2026,” released October 14, 2026.bls
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI publication notice explaining unavailable October 2026 annual comparisons.bls
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment Situation: October 2026.”bls
- Bloomberg, “Nvidia Intervened in US Probe of Megaspeed Chip Smuggling,” November 9, 2026.news.bloomberglaw
- SEC.gov, NVIDIA Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 26, 2026.sec
- SEC.gov, “NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for Second Quarter Fiscal 2026,” August 27, 2025.sec
- Anthropic, “Anthropic Launches Roadshow for Proposed Initial Public Offering,” November 10, 2026.anthropic
- SEC.gov, AAON third-quarter 2026 earnings release, Exhibit 99.1, November 9, 2026.sec
- SEC.gov, Take-Two Interactive Software fiscal second-quarter 2027 earnings release, November 9, 2026.sec
- SpaceX, “Starship Flight 15,” official mission details and conditional launch target.spacex
- SpaceX, “Go For Orbit,” November 6, 2026.spacex
- SEC.gov, SpaceX free-writing prospectus and offering presentation, June 2026.sec
Stay Updated with Vista Partners
Subscribe to receive market insights, investing ideas, and the latest updates directly in your inbox.
