Bryan Perry's Hi-Tech Trader is promoting The Empire Strikes Back, a three-stock space-race pitch. We identify the companies and test its WW3 claims.
One promotion, several names — all of them point to the same pitch, and the same stock.
“Official White House Document Reveals The Exact Day WW3 Will Begin” is the headline Bryan Perry is using to sell Hi-Tech Trader. The promotion turns a looming global conflict into a space-race stock pitch.
The report, “The Empire Strikes Back: Three Stocks Set to Help America Win the Space Race,” promises three companies tied to orbital communications, lunar missions and military space infrastructure. It gives December 31, 2026 as the deadline.
We identify the basket below. Confidence is high: 91/100 for the headline pick, with stronger confidence in the two accompanying stocks.
The same pitch is also branded as “The Empire Strikes Back” and “America's Space Dominance.” Those are different wrappers for the same three-stock idea, not separate discoveries.
The role labels do much of the detective work: “America's Orbital Lifeline,” “America's Lunar Freight Pioneer” and “America's Space Command Backbone.” One company should connect phones beyond cell towers, another should be taking payloads to the Moon, and the third should sit inside America's defense and command networks.
The three stocks are AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (ASTS), Intuitive Machines, Inc. (LUNR), and Leidos Holdings, Inc. (LDOS). AST SpaceMobile is the headline pick, matching “America's Orbital Lifeline” and carrying 91/100 confidence.
AST SpaceMobile's March 2022 Form 8-K and SpaceX announcement document a multi-launch agreement, while later filings record BlueBird satellites launching on SpaceX rockets from California. Its 2025 10-K and company materials describe a low-Earth-orbit network designed to deliver voice, messaging and broadband beyond traditional cell-tower coverage. That is the strongest clue. The same documents don't support the promotion's billion-dollar valuation for the SpaceX deal or its claim that SpaceX will build AST's satellites.
The other two complete the map. Intuitive Machines matches the lunar role through its Nova-C lander, NASA's CLPS missions and the Lanteris Space Systems acquisition, earning 95/100 confidence. Leidos matches the command-backbone role through NASA work, Space Force contracts, missile-warning systems and defense networks, earning 96/100. The separate “The Next 6 Tech Blockbusters” bonus is less settled: STM and QCOM are only 8/100 guesses each, because the public bonus page names neither semiconductor.
The offer bundles 2 bonus reports that tease their own stocks. These get a sentence or two of copy each, so the evidence is much thinner than for the main pick and what follows is our best reading rather than a confident answer.
| Bonus report | Our best guess | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| The Next 6 Tech Blockbusters | STM — STMicroelectronics N.V. | 8/100 — best guess |
| The Next 6 Tech Blockbusters | QCOM — QUALCOMM Incorporated | 8/100 — best guess |
The claim-by-claim checks separate solid company evidence from promotional stretching. They draw on AST SpaceMobile's 2022 8-K and 2025 10-K, NASA's CLPS and contract announcements, Leidos' filings and releases, company technology pages, and institutional 13F filings.
The distinction matters most around AST SpaceMobile's SpaceX relationship and the unnamed semiconductor bonus picks. A real launch agreement can still be described too grandly, and an unnamed stock cannot be identified just by guessing which large chip companies fit the theme.
| The promotion claims | Verdict | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| AST SpaceMobile secured a billion-dollar deal with SpaceX | Overstated | AST's March 2022 Form 8-K and SpaceX announcement disclose a multi-launch agreement but no billion-dollar value; AST later reported $22.8 million in payments and launch deposits tied to the arrangement. |
| AST SpaceMobile's SpaceX deal covers building its next-generation satellites | Contradicted | AST's March 2022 Form 8-K describes the SpaceX relationship as a launch agreement covering BlueWalker 3, the first BlueBird satellite and future launches; it does not say SpaceX would build the satellites. |
| The promotion claims | Verdict | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Intuitive Machines is one of very few companies building spacecraft designed to land on the Moon | Checks out | Intuitive Machines' company description identifies its Nova-C lunar lander, and NASA's CLPS provider materials identify the company as a commercial lunar-lander provider. |
| NASA selected Intuitive Machines to carry scientific instruments and mission payloads to the Moon | Checks out | NASA's CLPS provider page says Intuitive Machines has received four contracts to deliver more than 20 NASA payloads to the Moon, including instruments carried by the IM-1 mission. |
| The promotion claims | Verdict | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Leidos supports America's space command-and-control architecture | Checks out | Leidos' 2024 Space Force contract announcement says it provides mission software and technology-enabled services for Combatant Commanders Integrated Command and Control Systems and missile-warning capabilities. |
| Leidos supports NASA missions | Checks out | Leidos' space materials describe NASA flight-control and Space Launch System work, and NASA's June 2024 cargo mission contract assigns Leidos analytical, engineering, maintenance and operations support. |
| The promotion claims | Verdict | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| STMicroelectronics is one of the bonus report's two preferred semiconductor stocks | Can't verify | The publisher's public page for The Next 6 Tech Blockbusters describes two unnamed semiconductor picks but does not identify STMicroelectronics. |
| Qualcomm is one of the bonus report's two preferred semiconductor stocks | Can't verify | The publisher's public page for The Next 6 Tech Blockbusters describes two unnamed semiconductor picks but does not identify Qualcomm. |
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The stated deadline is December 31, 2026. What is it actually attached to? The promotion gives the date, but the evidence reviewed here doesn't tie it to a checkable launch, earnings date, government decision or other event that would make the deadline an investment fact.
We received this promotion on one separate day, October 9, 2026. That is too thin a record to say whether the deadline rolls, so this one gets a question mark rather than a verdict.
This is the fourth Bryan Perry promotion we've identified. Earlier pitches were “Get Paid to Own Gold,” mapped to the NEOS Gold High Income ETF (IAUI), down 1.41% since we identified it; “Safe 14.1% Income Fund,” mapped to the NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (QQQI), down 0.74%; and “The Next $1 Trillion Crypto,” mapped to Ethereum.
That isn't a performance verdict on a four-pitch sample. It is simply the ledger: two ETF identifications with the stated returns, plus an Ethereum pitch, before this space basket.
The pitch's central claim is that a coming world conflict makes American space dominance urgent, and ASTS, LUNR and LDOS are the three ways to own that response.
That chain holds at the company level. AST SpaceMobile is building a direct-to-device satellite network, Intuitive Machines has NASA lunar-delivery work, and Leidos supports NASA and Space Force missions. The weak link is the leap from those real businesses to an exact WW3 date and an almost inevitable investment outcome. The SpaceX deal also gets a glossy rewrite: the filings show launches, not a billion-dollar satellite-building partnership.
As a basket, these aren't interchangeable space bets. ASTS and LUNR carry the more speculative space-growth edge, while LDOS is the broader and more established defense and mission-support business. The members genuinely fit the theme, but they differ sharply in what has to go right.
On the merits, the basket is worth researching, not treating as a single destiny trade. ASTS has the cleanest match to the headline and the most promotional overstatement around it. LUNR has tangible NASA work and lunar hardware. LDOS has the strongest defense and government-services foundation. The filings support a selective space basket; they don't support the idea that a dramatic war forecast makes all three automatic winners.
How confident are we? ASTS 91, LUNR 95, LDOS 96 out of 100. We identified 3 stocks from the promotion's own clues and checked 25 claims across them against filings, earnings calls, ownership records, market data and public reporting. Confidence is scored per stock, so a weaker one does not borrow credit from a stronger one. This is our analysis, not the publisher's disclosure — we have no relationship with them.
Knowing which stock it is only gets you halfway. We score ASTS on valuation, profitability, growth, financial health and momentum — and reach our own conclusion, independent of how it was sold to you.
Read the ASTS report →Independent of the promotion — our own numbers, score and analysis.
The analyst-grade research report — charts, grades, valuation, and price targets — in 10 minutes.
| Intuitive Machines, Inc. |
| 95/100 — high |
| 3 | LDOS | Leidos Holdings, Inc. | 96/100 — high |
| AST SpaceMobile's satellites are expected to launch aboard American rockets |
| Checks out |
| AST's March 2022 SpaceX announcement says the agreement secured launches for its satellites from the United States, and AST's later 10-K records BlueBird satellites launching on SpaceX rockets from California. |
| AST SpaceMobile operates a satellite network beyond traditional cell-tower coverage | Checks out | AST SpaceMobile's 2025 Form 10-K describes a space-based cellular broadband network of low-Earth-orbit BlueBird satellites, while its company website says phones connect to the satellite network beyond cell-tower range. |
| AST SpaceMobile's network supports emergency messaging | Checks out | AST's 2025 Form 10-K records voice and short-message service over satellite, and AST company materials describe emergency communications testing and emergency-response use cases. |
| AST SpaceMobile's network powers global tracking systems | Can't verify | AST's 2025 Form 10-K and network materials support cellular broadband, emergency response and government communications, but they do not establish that AST powers global tracking systems. |
| AST SpaceMobile provides next-generation wireless services beyond cell towers | Checks out | AST's company materials describe direct-to-device voice, video, messaging and broadband at 4G and 5G speeds through ordinary phones outside terrestrial cellular coverage. |
| Intuitive Machines technology is scheduled for multiple NASA Moon missions |
| Checks out |
| NASA's CLPS materials list Intuitive Machines missions IM-1 through IM-4, with IM-3 and IM-4 scheduled for later lunar deliveries after the 2024 IM-1 mission. |
| Intuitive Machines recently completed a major acquisition | Checks out | Intuitive Machines announced completion of its Lanteris Space Systems acquisition in January 2026 for an announced price of approximately $800 million before closing adjustments. |
| The Intuitive Machines acquisition significantly expanded its capabilities | Checks out | Intuitive Machines said the Lanteris transaction expanded spacecraft manufacturing and space-systems capabilities; its separate KinetX acquisition also expanded deep-space navigation and constellation-management services. |
| Checks out |
| Leidos' company and annual-report materials describe national-security software, military mission support, intelligence analysis, cyber operations and systems coordinating land, sea, air and space operations. |
| Leidos provides advanced defense technology | Checks out | Leidos' defense materials describe integrated satellite systems, missile-warning capabilities, space-based sensors, electronic warfare, cyber systems and other mission-ready defense technologies. |
| Leidos secured a major NASA contract supporting Artemis missions | Checks out | NASA announced in June 2024 that Leidos received the Cargo Mission Contract 4, with a potential value of $476.5 million, supporting the International Space Station Program and Artemis campaign. |
| Leidos works on U.S. Space Force and advanced defense-network projects | Checks out | Leidos announced a 2024 $51 million Space Systems Command award for missile-warning and Combatant Commanders Integrated Command and Control Systems work, directly tying the company to Space Force defense networks. |
| Leidos generates more than $17 billion in annual revenue | Checks out | Leidos' latest financial statements report approximately $17.6 billion in annual revenue, above the promotion's $17 billion threshold. |
| Vanguard owns a significant stake in Leidos | Checks out | Vanguard's latest 13F filings show approximately 8.2 million Leidos shares across its reported investment entities. |
| BlackRock owns a significant stake in Leidos | Checks out | BlackRock's latest 13F shows approximately 9.95 million Leidos shares, making it one of the company's largest institutional holders. |
| State Street owns a significant stake in Leidos | Checks out | State Street's latest 13F shows approximately 6.28 million Leidos shares, a substantial institutional position. |
| Can't verify |
| The public bonus page gives the 1,369% figure but does not identify the company or define the earnings period and measure, so the claim cannot be assigned to either proposed semiconductor stock. |
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