Even GoPro is all about defense

Want to make money? Start building data centers. Or build batteries to power data centers. Or: focus on defense.

This isn’t financial advice, but it’s certainly what seems to be attracting public markets and private investors lately. Ford’s nascent energy storage business — which is a fraction of Tesla’s size and won’t be ready until next year — has helped its shares soar. More than it has been in years. Redwood Materials has raised $425 million from major companies like Google and Nvidia Focus on energy storage in the data center. Cerebras has just pulled out of one of The most important IPOs of 2026.

Investment in defense startups continues to flow, with Anduril increasing Another $5 billion this week. Any company that has little chance of seizing government contracts seems to be trying to do just that.

Which brings us to the GoPro.

The action camera company has survived a lot over the years. For a while during the 2000s, the term “GoPro killer” was almost as common as “Tesla killer” or “iPhone killer”, with people claiming everything from TomTom action camera To Google Clips (Remember that?) would topple the California company that invented this category.

However, survival doesn’t necessarily equal success, and GoPro has struggled recently. sales decreased, Losses are highand its stock price has been essentially flat at around $1 for two years. So, it’s surprising that last month GoPro announced a plan to “explore defense and aerospace market opportunities.”

It makes sense for a company that combines top-level image quality with durability enough to withstand a motorcycle collision, or Fall from space. And the axis He was Enough to nearly double the company’s stock price for a few days. But this too has fallen back to the ground. Apparently the “defensive gimbal” idea isn’t as bulletproof as GoPro cameras, after all.

You can probably guess where this is headed. GoPro announced Thursday that it has hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey to do just that Help with evaluation “Possible sale and other strategic alternatives.” The company’s board said it had recently received “numerous unsolicited inbound strategic inquiries from parties across various sectors including defence, consumer and financial”, which is a lot of words to effectively say: “Oh”.

This isn’t the first time GoPro has considered a sale; Founder and CEO Nick Woodman that He was short On the table again In 2018.

But things are now definitely more serious for the company. Not only are its finances deteriorating, but last month the company announced it would lay off a quarter of its workforce, which has already shrunk to just over 600 workers after hiring as many as 1,500.

GoPro has been a technology darling for 15 years. But like many of us, she now finds herself navigating a more volatile world. It is not surprising that A The Pentagon’s budget has swelled dramatically Seems like a viable path through the froth.