Compare moats
Up to three covered companies, band by band. Every call is a curated editorial judgment, never a disclosed figure — and every band carries its cited basis.
| CrowdStrike | Applied Digital | Axcelis Technologies | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moat rating | narrow Narrow rather than wide because the FY2026 10-K argues both ways and its own risk factors are the harder side: it describes a self-reinforcing data advantage and says "we do not believe any of our competitors currently have a true platform offering equivalent to the Falcon platform", but the same filing calls the market for security and IT operations solutions "intensely competitive, fragmented", warns that "Competitive pricing pressure may reduce our gross profits", and still carries the July 19 Incident as having "had, and is expected to continue to have, an adverse effect on our business, sales, customer and partner relations, reputation" more than two years after it occurred. | none The FY2026 10-K (filed 2026-07-29) shows contracted revenue, not a demonstrated competitive edge. About 1,410 MW is leased under 15-year take-or-pay, non-cancellable base terms worth about $36.2 billion, but only about 100 MW of the roughly 1.5 GW that is contracted and either operating or under construction was operating and earning revenue at May 31, 2026, and Item 1A says "lessees may have the right to terminate applicable leases if there are significant delays in construction." Item 1A also concedes "We do not have the resources to compete with larger providers of similar products or services at this time," and the Competition section names 13 power-advantaged developers the company competes with. Signed leases give revenue visibility, but the filing does not show a durable advantage. | narrow Axcelis's FY2025 10-K describes a protected but contested position. On the durable side, it says 'Axcelis and Applied Materials are the only ion implant system manufacturers with a full range of implant products'. About 3,400 Axcelis products are in use in 27 countries, and they feed an aftermarket business (CS&I) that earned $268.0 million, or 31.9% of 2025 revenue. The company holds 169 active U.S. patents and 356 active patents granted in other countries. On the limiting side, the risk factors say the ion implant segment 'includes one company with substantially greater financial, engineering, manufacturing, marketing and customer service and support resources', as well as 'several smaller companies that could provide innovative systems'. U.S. export controls 'exacerbate the risk that Chinese customers will change suppliers to non-U.S. vendors', while Kingstone Semiconductor and CETC 'continue to develop ion implanters for the Chinese domestic market'. 'None of our customers have entered into a long-term agreement requiring it to purchase our products.' Revenue fell to $839.0 million in 2025 from $1,017.9 million in 2024. A full-line position with a large installed base, against a better-resourced rival and new Chinese entrants, is a narrow moat. |
| Moat type | network effects The 10-K states the mechanism directly: "The more data that is fed into our Falcon platform, the more intelligent the AI Security Cloud becomes, the stronger our ability to anticipate and counter evolving adversary tradecraft, and the more our customers benefit, creating a powerful network effect that increases the overall value we provide." | none The 10-K claims three advantages: power-advantaged sites (it believes securing power and interconnection ahead of demand is 'the principal constraint on new HPC capacity and a core differentiator for us from many of our competitors'), a standardized 'franchise-style' design, and hyperscaler master service and master telecom service agreements 'that are difficult to obtain.' The filing does not show any of them to be durable. Its Competition section says competition 'centers on securing and developing sites with access to large-scale, reliable, and cost-competitive power and interconnection' and names 13 power-advantaged developers going after the same leases, and Item 1A concedes it lacks the resources to compete with larger providers. Signed leases are take-or-pay and non-cancellable, so a tenant leaving for convenience owes 'the full remaining contractual value,' but that is contractual lock-in on each lease rather than a moat source, so no moat type is assigned. | intangibles ip The FY2025 10-K grounds the advantage in owned implant technology rather than contractual lock-in. Its Purion implanters share 'a common platform which enables a unique combination of implant purity, precision, and productivity', and its high energy systems use 'production-proven RF Linac high energy, spot beam technology'. System assembly and testing stays in-house 'due to the high degree of expertise and intellectual property associated with the process and design'. The company holds 169 active U.S. and 356 foreign patents, though it says it is not 'substantially dependent on any single patent or any group of patents'. The installed base supports aftermarket revenue but does not lock customers in: the risk factors say customers often train 'their own staff to maintain and service' equipment and buy parts that are not patent-protected from third parties. Switching costs are therefore the weaker candidate. |
| Leadership | co leader Co-leader rather than clear leader because the only claim of platform primacy available is the company's own ("we do not believe any of our competitors currently have a true platform offering equivalent"), while the same 10-K describes a fragmented market and lists seven distinct categories of competitor, from legacy antivirus to network security, cloud security, identity and legacy SIEM vendors. | behind The 10-K makes no leadership claim and gives no ranking or share figure. Item 1A concedes "We do not have the resources to compete with larger providers of similar products or services at this time" and that some rivals have "substantially greater liquidity and financial resources than we do." Its Competition section places APLD against established operators (Digital Realty, Equinix), hyperscalers that build their own capacity, independent developers and 13 named power-advantaged developers (IREN, Cipher Digital, TeraWulf, Hut 8, Riot, CleanSpark, HIVE, Core Scientific, Bitdeer, Galaxy Digital, Fermi, Keel Infrastructure, MARA). | fast follower The FY2025 10-K says 'In the market for ion implantation systems, we mainly compete against Applied Materials' and that the two 'are the only ion implant system manufacturers with a full range of implant products'. It claims Axcelis 'has been a market leader in high energy ion implanters for many years' and is 'a technology leader and supplier of choice' in power devices. But its risk factors say the implant segment includes 'one company with substantially greater' resources (unnamed there; Applied Materials is the main rival it names), and it lists 'Achieve market share leadership across all served markets' as a 2026 goal rather than a current fact. No third-party market-share source was fetched, so these are the company's own claims. Which of the two full-line suppliers has the larger overall share is not established by the sources read. Because the only basis for a shared lead is the company's own description, and that description treats share leadership as a goal not yet met, the band is held at fast_follower rather than co_leader. |
| Pricing power | moderate The 10-K's risk factors state that "Competitive pricing pressure may reduce our gross profits" and that competing successfully may require "aggressive pricing", which is the company's own case against strong pricing power; the offsetting factor it cites is module consolidation on one sensor. | weak Item 1A says "Due to the limited number of hyperscalers, we expect that a limited number of customers will continue to account for a high percentage of our revenue for the foreseeable future," and that if customers' equipment usage declines or they discontinue use of its facilities, APLD "may be compelled to lower our lease prices in some instances or risk losing a significant customer." One customer was 59% of FY2026 revenue from continuing operations. Take-or-pay, non-cancellable terms protect contracted revenue over the base term, and Note 19 reports a $39.1M HPC Hosting segment profit on $385.3M of segment revenue in FY2026, but those terms are agreed with a small group of concentrated buyers. | moderate The FY2025 10-K reports gross margin of 44.9% in 2025 against 44.7% in 2024. That held steady while revenue fell from $1,017.9 million to $839.0 million, but its risk factors warn that 'if we must lower prices to remain competitive without commensurate cost of goods savings, our gross margin and profitability will be adversely affected'. They also say that if suppliers raise component costs, Axcelis 'may not be able to raise the price of our products to cover all or part of the increased cost'. On the Q2 2026 call (https://www.marketbeat.com/earnings/reports/2026-8-5-axcelis-technologies-inc-stock/), management reported a non-GAAP gross margin of 42.7% (the call states its income-statement measures are non-GAAP unless noted, so it is not directly comparable with the 10-K's GAAP figures), 'slightly below our outlook of 43%', citing CS&I mix and higher than anticipated services costs. |
| Summary | A single lightweight sensor collects enterprise data once and reuses it across 33 cloud modules, and the pooled telemetry trains the models every customer is then defended by — the 10-K calls this crowdsourced, high-fidelity data "cloud-scale AI" and treats it as the fundamental differentiator from competitors. | Applied Digital designs, builds and operates purpose-built, liquid-cooled HPC data centers, which it calls 'AI factories', and leases the capacity to CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers. At May 31, 2026 its 10-K lists five campuses (Polaris Forge 1-3 and Delta Forge 1-2) with about 1,410 MW contracted under roughly 15-year take-or-pay, non-cancellable leases worth about $36.2 billion over the base terms. The filing claims three sources of advantage: it controls power-advantaged sites, it uses a standardized 'franchise-style' design built to deliver about 150 MW in about 14 to 18 months, and it holds hyperscaler master agreements that are 'difficult to obtain.' The same document shows how early the company is. About 100 MW was operating and earning revenue. One customer was 59% of FY2026 revenue from continuing operations. It competes with Digital Realty, Equinix, hyperscalers that build their own capacity and 13 named power-advantaged developers, and it concedes that it lacks the resources to compete with larger providers. Signed leases give long-dated revenue visibility, but the filing does not show a durable competitive advantage. | Axcelis is an ion-implant specialist. The FY2025 10-K says implantation was 98.2% of 2025 revenue, sold as the Purion family of high energy, high current and medium current single-wafer implanters, the Ovation batch implanters, and aftermarket parts, upgrades and services. Its strongest ground is power devices. Axcelis calls itself 'a technology leader and supplier of choice in the implant-intensive power device segment', which made up 55% of the value of 2025 system shipments, and its Purion Power Series covers silicon carbide wafers. 2025 was a down year: revenue fell to $839.0 million from $1,017.9 million, systems backlog to $457.0 million from $645.8 million, and operating profit to $119.3 million from $210.8 million, while gross margin held at 44.9%. The 10-K names Applied Materials as the main rival and the only other full-range implant maker; other competitors include Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology, Nissin Ion Equipment, Advanced Ion Beam Technology and two Chinese developers. Among its 2026 goals the company lists 'Achieve market share leadership across all served markets', which it has not yet reached. On the Q2 2026 call (https://www.marketbeat.com/earnings/reports/2026-8-5-axcelis-technologies-inc-stock/), management said electric vehicles remain the number one driver of silicon carbide demand. It also said it expects its merger with Veeco, under which each Veeco share converts into 0.3575 Axcelis shares according to the 10-K, to close in the second half of 2026, pending approval in China. |
| Chain position | AI-native security platform — an adopter and reseller of AI rather than a supplier of AI infrastructure. | Developer and landlord of power-advantaged, liquid-cooled AI data-center capacity, leased long-term to CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers. | A front-end wafer-fab equipment supplier to chipmakers, concentrated in Asia and in power devices. The FY2025 10-K says implanter shipments to Asian customers were 76.0% of 2025 system revenue, international sales 83.7% of total revenue, and the top ten customers 55.2% of net sales. It also says sales to Chinese customers are expected to remain significant under U.S. export-control licensing. |
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| Long-horizon vote | +0.13 at weight 0.20 · swarm neutral Editorial prior, not backtested. | -0.20 at weight 0.20 · swarm neutral Editorial prior, not backtested. | +0.06 at weight 0.20 · swarm bearish Editorial prior, not backtested. |