According to a 2016 Business Insider report, global drone sales will climb from roughly $8 billion in 2015 to $12 billion in 2021.
And companies like Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) are helping fuel this 50% sales increase by investing in the industry.
Just look at AirMap, a company that provides real-time mapping services for drones to broadcast their flight plan. The drone services company announced a $26 million funding round led by Microsoft on Feb. 23, 2017.
It wasn’t disclosed how much of that $26 million Microsoft contributed, but leading the round means the tech giant was the first or highest monetary investor.
Investing in Drones Will Be Like Investing in Smartphones in 2009: If you've thought of drones in military terms or just as toys, this is a wake-up call. Find out more.
And there’s a strategic reason MSFT CEO Satya Nadella is pouring money into the drone market, and long-term investors in drone stocks will be rewarded because of it...
Drone Stock Prices Could Climb Thanks to Latest Microsoft Corp. Investment
According to The Verge, large enterprise companies operating in the agriculture, energy, construction, and security industries will soon look for reliable data to power autonomous vehicles.
Drones will be able to provide detailed maps and aerial images that remove guesswork and uncertainty for businesses in these industries.
But how will Microsoft profit from this?
Many of these firms already use Microsoft’s software and services, like Microsoft’s Azure cloud service as well as its data and analytic software, according to The Verge. To collect drone data and analyze it, companies without Microsoft’s software may sign up for enterprise accounts.
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 plan costs $210 per month per user. If a business needs 100 accounts, that’s $250,000 in revenue from just one company.
These new revenue sources will help increase Microsoft’s sales totals, which could help the Microsoft stock price climb.
And that’s just the start of the potential applications for drone technology...
Agriculture companies could use drones to produce precise 3D maps for early soil analysis, which helps optimize seed-planting patterns, according to TechnologyReview.com.
Power companies are using drones to take videos of hazardous work conditions in place of workers having to climb power lines. According to The Washington Post, 35 workers died in 2016 from being electrocuted while working on or near power lines.
For the construction industry, 15% of materials delivered to construction sites end up in landfills because of mismanaged scheduling and purchasing, according to a 2016 Fortune report.
An Animated History of the Drone
However, that problem could be reduced or even eliminated through drones. Drones can provide up-to-date topographical maps that will help companies know how much of their resources should be deployed to a job site, trimming costs.
And for the security industry, drones can aid in preventing prison breaks, robberies, and malicious intrusions. According to TechCrunch, Aptonomy Inc. makes drones designed to record suspicious activity, shine light on an intruder’s face, and allow for two-way communication through a loudspeaker.
But Microsoft’s ambitious plan to increase mapping capabilities for aerial vehicles across the world is also going to be a boon to the already growing drone market.
Sources are saying there could be $127 billion in new wealth being created in the drone market as we speak.
And this is beyond anything Money Morning Executive Editor Bill Patalon could have imagined...
Financial Guru Bill Patalon Just Uncovered Your Next Profit Opportunity
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Before Patalon moved into the investment research business in December 2005, he spent 22 years as a journalist, most of it covering financial news as a reporter, columnist, and editor for outlets such as Gannett Co. Inc. and The Baltimore Sun.
He has covered finance and investing, economics, manufacturing, the defense sector, biotechnology, and telecommunications. The companies he's covered include Eastman Kodak Co., Xerox Corp., Harley-Davidson Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC, Verizon Communications Inc., MedImmune LLC, and Black & Decker Inc.
His most memorable interviews include former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, General Electric CEO John F. "Jack" Welch, Forbes magazine publisher and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, and business-turnaround specialist and helicopter-industry pioneer Stanley Hiller, Jr.
It was Patalon's work covering Eastman Kodak Co. during the latter half of the 1990s that solidified his reputation as one of the nation's top analytical business journalists. With his award-winning reports on Kodak's competitive travails, he consistently scooped his competitors in the national business media. His chronicles of Kodak's turnaround efforts took him to China, Japan, Silicon Valley, New York, Washington, D.C., and even Hollywood.
Along the way, he earned the esteem of heavyweights like Anthony Gallea, senior portfolio management director at Morgan Stanley, who collaborated on Patalon's 1999 groundbreaking book, "Contrarian Investing."
Patalon's ideas so impressed Jim Rogers that the hedge fund genius eagerly wrote a glowing six-page introduction to the book.
A winner of approximately two-dozen journalism awards – including top honors from the Associated Press and the prestigious Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) – Patalon has had his work featured in Kiplinger's personal finance magazine, USA Today, and The South China Morning Post, among other publications.
Before taking over Money Morning, he served as the editor of The Rebound Report, an investment newsletter focused on turnaround stocks.
Patalon has a Bachelor’s in Print Journalism from Penn State University and an MBA in finance from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Yes, he's uncovered a lot of investment stories. And he's even been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes.
But he's never seen a story as potentially lucrative as this one...
The Next $127 Billion Profit Opportunity
In the barren, hostile plains of the New Mexico desert, not far from the Mexican border, they're building a city like no other.
A city with high rises, avenues, parks, a big-box store, churches, and gas stations for a population of 35,000, all at a ground-up cost exceeding $1 billion...
Made to look like so many other cities in America, except for one thing: people. There are none. It's a ghost town, and it always will be.
Here's what Patalon learned about this ghost town and what he believes is really going on.
Its location in New Mexico is the first key: The state scoops up tons of government research dollars straight from Washington.
And indeed, located in hardened shelters far beneath this empty city will be teams of top-secret scientists and federal contractors hard at work...
Driven by what they call "mother's milk" – the hopes of seeing billions of dollars in government funding coming their way. No to mention the many billions more in new wealth that they hope to create.
Patalon has identified the main group of scientists and researchers behind this project.
They are quite clearly inventing a big future, with new technologies that stretch the imagination – new technologies that are about to be everywhere.
They call their ghost town "Project CITE."
It's the brainchild of the government contractor Marble Arch.
And when you learn how tight Marble Arch is with the Pentagon and how many massive government contracts Marble Arch has scooped up over the years, you know something big is happening here.
“Big,” as in “$127-billion-in-new-wealth-for-early-investors Big,” Patalon's findings suggest.
Marble Arch is run by Bob Brumley, who was President Reagan's point man for privatizing commercial space transportation. He's definitely a big thinker – like an Elon Musk with a direct line to government funding!
And this new venture of his is every bit as ambitious as space travel, and with even bigger impact, because it's going to happen right before our eyes.
Now, as we mentioned, the specific details of this venture are not public. But after Patalon's investigation, he's incredibly confident it will involve the next big thing in tech, security, and investing.
He's talking about unmanned flying machines.
Yes, drones.
But not the drones you're probably thinking of. Not the kind the military uses to hunt down and kill enemy terrorists. Not any kind you've ever heard of before.
These are what Patalon calls "AI Drones" – a brand-new breed of amazingly intelligent, super-capable drones unlike anything Patalon’s ever witnessed; drones that can use artificial intelligence to benefit more people, businesses, and countries than you could have ever imagined possible.
But there's another reason why these new drones will soon be everywhere.
I'm talking about a big event that just happened...
An event that's blowing the lid off the drone market not two years from now… not a year from now… not even six months from now…
IMMEDIATELY.
It's happening as we speak.
And Patalon has uncovered one tiny company sitting at the center of it all. You may never have a better shot at getting in on the ground floor of such a massive new market.
By getting in early, you could profit from the potential 4,636% gain that Patalon's projecting. A gain like this would be the equivalent of turning...
Every $50 you invest into $2,318...
Every $2,500 into $115,900...
And every $10,000 into $463,600.
As you know, these kind of quadruple-digit returns are exceptional and don't happen every day. But think about it – even a fraction of these gains could make you a fortune.
Plus, this kind of spike makes perfect sense when you think about it. This is investing in the next frontier in aviation – the next great leap forward.
Patalon sees dollar signs, pure and simple, which is why he put a briefing together for you, including this investment recommendation, as well...
Now, because this is a small stock, there will be volatility. So he'll also recommend a tight buying strategy. The last thing any investor wants to do is blindly chase a small stock upward with no plan in mind. And, as always, never investing more than one can afford to lose is good advice.