Apple, Volatus Aerospace and innoscripta: One Giant and Two Rising Stars with Multiplier Potential

When Metal Turns into Software

Elon Musk was already the richest man in the world before SpaceX’s IPO—thanks to Tesla. The electric vehicle pioneer’s stock is extremely expensive relative to established manufacturers such as GM, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and VW. Analysts are divided. Some see a fatal overvaluation, while others view Tesla more as a software company with an attached auto manufacturing division. Musk himself repeats like a mantra that anyone who views Tesla solely as an auto manufacturer is applying the “wrong framework.” His favourite term is “AI & Robotics Company,” because the real value creation lies in autonomous driving, AI supercomputers, and humanoid robots. There is a cold, hard calculation behind this: traditional automakers are currently valued on the stock market at only 5 to 8 times their annual profit, while investors assign tech companies entirely different multiples.

A similar pattern is evident with SAP. The transition from a license seller to a cloud provider (SaaS—Software as a Service, a subscription model for software) is now nearly complete and is generating predictable, recurring revenue. In early summer 2026, however, the stock came under noticeable pressure. Concerns that artificial intelligence could render traditional enterprise software obsolete pushed the share price to a yearly low in July. Since the release of its half-year results, which confirmed double-digit growth in the cloud business, the stock has recovered significantly, however. Many analysts and market observers consider the concern to be exaggerated anyway. Since SAP itself is investing in the AI trend with its own business AI platform, the company is more likely to be a beneficiary than a loser of this technological development.

Fighting Wildfires with Drones and AI

SAP has all but completed its transition to a SaaS provider, and Tesla has in Musk a spokesperson who inspires investors with his vision. Volatus Aerospace is also aiming to join this league—but the transformation from an aviation service provider to a SaaS provider, which could justify a revaluation of the stock, is still in its early stages. CEO Glen Lynch and his team therefore still have a lot of work to do to win investors over. The conditions could not be better: with cash on hand of CAD 59.2 million and a record-high working capital of CAD 63.8 million, Volatus has the strongest balance sheet in the company’s history and can afford to transform its business model. This transformation costs not only time but also money. According to the figures just released, the company generated revenue of CAD 8.4 million in the second quarter, down from CAD 10.6 million in the same period last year. The decline was due to a single defence contract worth approximately CAD 2.6 million that could not be completed as planned due to supply chain issues. Compared to the previous quarter, however, revenue rose by 49.5%, driven by a 38% increase in equipment deliveries and a 59% increase in services. The loss per share of CAD 0.01 was exactly in line with analysts’ expectations.

Originally, Volatus was purely an aviation services operator. Approximately 28 manned aircraft and over 100 drones cover about 1.7 million km annually in pipeline inspections, generating recurring revenue of around CAD 20 million per year. However, the focus is shifting from hardware and surveillance flights toward intelligent control. At the core of this strategy is SKYDRA, a SaaS subscription model for planning drone defence operations that achieves margins of 35%—significantly higher than the lower-margin core business. SKYDRA is complemented by the autonomy platform V-CORTEX, a flight controller measuring just 3.5 x 3.5 cm and weighing less than 15 grams, which uses artificial intelligence to enable navigation even without a satellite signal. A strategically significant development for Volatus was its inclusion in the next phase of the US Drone Dominance Program, a four-stage defence program with a planned investment volume of USD 1.1 billion, aimed at procuring more than 300,000 low-cost autonomous systems. At the same time, the defence business is growing through the production facility in Mirabel, Québec, which opened in June and is designed to generate annual revenue of up to CAD 250 million. Added to this are NATO training contracts and a civilian business that remains strong.

In early August, Volatus reached an agreement with the Spanish manufacturer Singular Aircraft to develop its autonomous heavy-lift aircraft, the FlyOx 1—with a takeoff weight of approximately 4,000 kg and a payload of up to 1,560 litres of fire suppressant—for future use in Canadian wildfire suppression and disaster response. Additionally, through a partnership with Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, the company secured exclusive rights as the Canadian partner for the long-range drone K1000ULE and its associated communications network, ATNE++, intended for use in forest fire reconnaissance and Arctic surveillance, among other applications. Both Canaccord Genuity and Stifel have set a price target of CAD 1.00 for the stock. This suggests potential for the share price to double.

The High-Margin Trojan Horse

Apple is another prominent example where analysts disagree on whether the core of its business model is hardware or software. While the gross margin for iPhones, Macs, and iPads is around 35%, it exceeds 75% in the services business. Although services account for just under 28% of revenue, their high margins contribute nearly half of gross profit—which is supposed to justify the current P/E ratio of 34. But those software billions only exist because people own physical iPhones. Thus, the hardware functions as the highest-margin Trojan horse in economic history—top-tier but expensive devices lure customers into a closed ecosystem, where monthly payments are then collected, much like in a SaaS model.

Effective September 1, 2026, John Ternus, previously in charge of hardware engineering, will take over as CEO from Tim Cook. This marks Apple’s first CEO change since 2011. Operationally, the Cupertino-based company recently delivered one of its strongest summer quarters. Revenue rose 16% to USD 109.4 billion, and diluted earnings per share climbed 29% to USD 2.02—driven by iPhone growth of just under 22%. Nevertheless, the market reacted cautiously because semiconductor supply shortages and a tight memory market are dampening the outlook for the September quarter, with growth expected to be 9-11%. In the ranking of the world’s most valuable companies, Apple has now fallen back behind Nvidia; immediately after the quarterly results were released, the Silicon Valley icon had briefly regained the top spot. The majority of analysts currently view the stock as having run its course; the average price target of USD 306.28 is only slightly above the current level of USD 303.35.

Legal Certainty in the Jungle of Bureaucracy

Unlike Apple or Volatus, innoscripta did not have to reinvent itself. The company, based in Tutzing near Munich, has been a pure-play software firm from the very beginning. With its cloud platform Clusterix, innoscripta helps companies manage their research and development projects, apply for and document government research grants, and ensure legal certainty in the event of a tax audit. The business model combines a traditional SaaS subscription with a performance-based consulting component, in which a portion of the actual funding received is charged as a fee—known in the industry as a “software-enabled service.” The number of locations, and thus the number of customers, is growing rapidly. Most recently, the company announced its successful market entry in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the Bavarian firm is also already active in Austria. The key advantage: the Clusterix platform can be adapted to the specific conditions in other countries with minimal effort. Nothing stands in the way of further scaling. In addition, no single customer accounts for more than 1% of consolidated revenue, so concentration risk is not an issue. The churn rate is below 2%, which points to a fragmented market environment consisting of niche consultants and auditors, in which innoscripta, according to its own figures, has already positioned itself as the market leader with a roughly 16% market share of all applications filed with the BSFZ (the official certification body for research tax credits).

At its initial public offering on May 23, 2025, the stock was priced at EUR 120.00; it is currently trading at EUR 80.10. Its listing in the relatively insignificant Scale segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, combined with AI-related concerns in the software industry, is likely one of the reasons the company has received little investor attention so far, despite its dynamic growth figures. MP Capital Markets/Warburg Research confirmed its “Buy” rating in a report at the end of May with a price target of EUR 225, implying upside potential of around 180%. This was prompted by the first-quarter 2026 results, which significantly exceeded expectations. Adjusted revenue rose by 57% to EUR 40.3 million, and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased by 63.5% to EUR 27.3 million, corresponding to a margin of 67.7%. Noteworthy here is the so-called operating leverage. Cost ratios for sales, research, and administration declined despite the growth—an indication that additional customers on the existing platform now incur only minimal additional costs.

The business model is also receiving a boost from two regulatory changes to the research tax credit that will take effect in 2026: the maximum tax base will increase from EUR 10 to 12 million, and a flat-rate surcharge of 20% on eligible expenses will be introduced. For the full year 2026, management has set a revenue target of just over EUR 140 million and an EBIT target of at least EUR 80 million. The half-year results, which are expected to provide further insight into the sustainability of the growth, are scheduled to be published on August 25.

Where the Valuation Gap Is Widest

While Apple, SAP, and Tesla have long been playing in the top league and, accordingly, command market capitalizations ranging from EUR 200 billion to 4 trillion, small-cap stocks like Volatus or innoscripta remain largely undiscovered and offer significant upside potential. Although innoscripta’s market capitalization is already just under EUR 800 million, its P/E ratio of 13.8 for the current year does not even begin to reflect its robust growth—hence analysts’ high price target. Added to this is a dividend yield of over 4%. Volatus Aerospace is not expected to turn a profit in 2026 as it transitions to an AI and SaaS provider, so a P/E ratio cannot be calculated. However, a comparison with other drone specialists shows that the stock still has plenty of room to rise. AeroVironment, DroneShield, Kratos, and Red Cat all have market capitalizations in the billions of US dollars, while Volatus, at just under CAD 400 million, is still valued like a low-growth aviation service provider. Analysts’ current price targets, which range from CAD 0.95 to 1.25, are therefore far from reaching their upper limit.

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