Title: 10 Stocks That Crushed 2025 — The wisdom of crowds Show: Compounding Quality (Substack, compoundingquality.net) Guest: Pieter Slegers (author) Date: 2026-JAN-04 URL: https://www.compoundingquality.net/p/10-stocks-that-crushed-2025 Length: written post (paid) — no timestamps Note: Paid-subscriber post captured via Stephen's logged-in session. Body text verbatim; UI chrome (like/share counts, subscribe CTAs) removed. Charts referenced as "Source: Fiscal.ai" are images not reproduced here.
The wisdom of crowds is amazing.
At the beginning of 2025, I asked all Partners about their favorite stocks.
Some of these stock picks did amazingly well.
Let's dive into the 10 best performing ones today.
Amazing results
Wow. That's the only thing I can say.
The S&P 500 increased by +16% in 2025.
It was almost impossible to have the same returns as the S&P 500 this year.
But guess what? The average stock return of Our Readers equaled +17.3% last year.
It shows what an amazing Community we have.
Today we'll dive into the 10 best-performing stocks Our Partners picked.
Please note that these stock picks are the best performing ones.
On average, (way) more risk was involved with these companies.
However, I think it's still very interesting to look into them.
10. Eos Energy Enterprises ($EOSE) YTD: +107.2%
How does the company make money? Eos Energy develops zinc-based battery systems designed for long-duration energy storage. Their batteries are used to stabilize power grids and store renewable energy over extended periods.
This is the only graph you need to explain why Eos Energy is up +107.2% up this year:
Source: Fiscal.ai
The company also raised large amounts of new funding.
This allows them to have enough cash to expand production and keep operating smoothly.
The reason? There's a growing demand for long-duration battery storage for power grids and data centers.
9. Energy Fuels Inc. ($UUUU) YTD: +156.0%
How does the company make money? Energy Fuels produces uranium and rare earth elements, primarily in the United States. These materials are essential for nuclear energy, defense, and clean technologies.
Stocks relating to precious metals had an amazing year.
Energy Fuels is no exception.
Uranium, which helps power electricity, is in high demand.
When you charge your phone, use a computer, or stream videos, the electricity behind it may come from nuclear power plants that use uranium.
Uranium and rare earth materials are becoming increasingly important due to nuclear power and new technologies.
Investors know this and the stock did really well in 2025:
Source: Fiscal.ai
8. Nebius Group ($NBIS) YTD: +174.4%
How does the company make money? Nebius is a cloud infrastructure and AI services company with roots in high-performance computing.
Nebius Group quietly spent years building AI-focused data centers.
In 2025, the market finally noticed.
Nebius reported triple-digit revenue growth (!) as demand for GPU compute exploded.
The turning point came when Microsoft signed a multi-year AI infrastructure deal worth over $17 billion. Meta soon followed.
Investors realized Nebius was a critical supplier in the global AI race.
It's a classic pick-and-shovel play.
Source: Nebius
7. Rocket Lab Corp ($RKLB) YTD: +179.5%
How does the company make money? Rocket Lab provides launch services and space systems for commercial and government customers. Unlike pure launch companies, Rocket Lab offers end-to-end space infrastructure.
Rocket Lab had an amazing year. It showed real progress on the things that matter.
It launched more rockets than ever before and successfully placed satellites into orbit. This proved it can handle complex and important missions.
On top of that, Rocket Lab won a massive contract of about $816 million to build satellites for the U.S. Space Development Agency.
That deal gave investors more confidence in future revenue and long-term growth.
Many investors also like that Rocket Lab works closely with government and defense customers.
This demand is usually very stable and likely to last for years.
The stock price itself even looks like a rocket:
Source: Fiscal.ai
6. Robinhood Markets ($HOOD) YTD: +186.8%
How does the company make money? Robinhood makes money mainly by earning interest on customers' uninvested cash and by charging fees for premium services like Robinhood Gold. They also get paid by market makers for directing trades, a practice called payment for order flow.
Robinhood is a meme stock. But the company also had a great year.
People traded more stocks, crypto, and options than ever:
Source: Fiscal.ai
The reason?
When the stock market rises, brokers like Robinhood attract even more users. More users means more revenue.
The broker also added prediction markets and new financial tools.
5. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions ($KTOS) YTD: +187.8%
How does the company make money? Kratos provides defense technology, like drones, satellite communications, and missile systems, primarily for U.S. defense agencies.
There are three main reasons why Kratos did really well in 2025:
Defense spending is rising globally. When countries worry about safety and war, they buy more military tech.
Kratos joined the S&P MidCap 400 Index.
The company gained momentum thanks to signing new contracts.
Source: Fiscal.ai
4. Micron Technology ($MU) YTD: +226.8%
How does the company make money? Micron produces memory chips used in data centers, consumer electronics, and AI infrastructure.
AI and data centers are booming. Micron is riding that wave.
Your phone, laptop, and AI apps all need the memory chips it makes.
Micron sold out its production through 2025 and beyond. Revenue and profits beat expectations. Future sales look strong.
The stock surge is a result of revenue and margin expansion.
In 2025, demand for high-bandwidth memory exploded. Pricing improved, utilization rose, and Micron's earnings power surprised even optimistic investors.
Source: Fiscal.ai
Now let's dive into the top 3.
3. AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) YTD: +235.6%
How does the company make money? AST SpaceMobile is building a satellite network that allows standard smartphones to connect directly to space. There is no additional hardware required.
AST SpaceMobile wants to connect normal smartphones directly to satellites, without special equipment.
In 2025, the company proved this idea works by making real two-way calls from space.
Big partnerships with AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, and Rakuten showed that telecom giants believe in this technology.
As AST moved from testing to the early phase of commercial launches, confidence in future revenues grew quickly.
That growing belief turned the stock into one of the strongest performers of the year:
Source: Fiscal.ai
2. IREN Ltd ($IREN) YTD: +261.1%
How does the company make money? IREN operates data centers powered by low-cost renewable energy. They serve Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing customers.
In 2025, IREN shifted from being known mainly as a Bitcoin miner to becoming a fast-growing AI cloud infrastructure provider.
Do you start to see a correlation between AI and the best performers of the year?
The big moment came when IREN struck a multi-year AI cloud contract with Microsoft worth about $9.7 billion. Sounds exactly like Nebius, right?
As a result, investors pushed the share price up.
Source: IREN
1. Olema Pharmaceuticals ($OLMA) YTD: +348.8%
How does the company make money? Olema is a clinical-stage biotech focused on targeted therapies for breast cancer.
This was the best-performing partner pick of the year.
2025 was transformational.
Olema Pharmaceuticals grabbed attention because it could be the next big cancer drug success.
The company's lead breast cancer therapy called palazestrant.
This showed promising early trial data and gave optimism about its future potential.
Investors made a return of +350.1% in just a year.
Source: Fiscal.ai
Conclusion
The best performing Partner picks of last year prove an important point:
These are not the type of companies we usually cover at Compounding Quality.
Most businesses on this list are cyclical by nature.
They are exposed to commodity prices, capital cycles, technological shifts, or regulatory changes.
That makes them fundamentally different from the high-quality compounders we typically focus on.
The goal of Compounding Quality?
Everything in life compounds Pieter (Compounding Quality)
Book Order your copy of The Art of Quality Investing here
Used sources Interactive Brokers: Portfolio data and executing all transactions Fiscal.ai: Financial data
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