When most people think about EV stocks, they picture automakers and battery makers. The less glamorous but often more profitable layer is the semiconductor one, and that is where Brownstone Research’s “Elon Musk’s NEW AI Masterplan” pitch plants its flag.
The pitch promises three “secret” stocks that could “unleash enough wealth to make every household in America $2.38 million,” with an applications leg built on onsemi. Understanding where onsemi actually fits in the electric vehicle supply chain is the fastest way to judge whether that claim holds water.
The EV Supply Chain, Layer by Layer
An electric vehicle is built from several layers. There are the raw materials, the battery cells, the motors, and then the power electronics, the silicon that turns a battery’s energy into motion and manages it safely. Above that sits a layer of sensors and cameras, and finally the software that ties it all together.
Investors tend to fixate on the first two layers because they are the ones in the headlines. The middle layers, the power chips and sensors, are where a lot of the durable profit pools actually sit, because every EV needs them no matter who wins the automaker race.
Power Chips: The Overlooked Layer
Every electric vehicle needs power chips that can switch large currents on and off very fast, very precisely, and with as little wasted heat as possible. These chips live in the inverter that drives the motor, the onboard charger, and the converters that step voltage up and down throughout the car. A single EV can carry hundreds of dollars of power silicon, and that number grows as cars add range and features.
That is the quiet backbone of the EV trade, and it is exactly the business onsemi is built on.
Where onsemi Fits
onsemi is the second-largest power chipmaker in the world and one of the biggest suppliers of image sensors to the automotive market. Its silicon goes into electric-vehicle drivetrains, automotive safety systems, and industrial energy infrastructure, which means it sits across several layers of the supply chain at once. The ad makes the point directly, noting that onsemi is “already supplying Tesla with a key piece of sensor technology.”
That breadth is the argument for owning the name. Rather than betting on one automaker or one battery chemistry, you own a supplier that shows up in most of them, a point our teardown of the sibling Elon Musk’s 10X Project promo makes in the same territory.
Silicon Carbide and the Next Upgrade
The growth angle inside the EV story is silicon carbide, a material that lets power chips run at higher voltage and lose less energy as heat. For an EV, that translates directly into more range and faster charging, which is why automakers are paying a premium for it. onsemi has invested heavily in silicon carbide capacity, competing with names like STMicroelectronics, Infineon, and Wolfspeed in the space.
That upgrade cycle is real and still early, and it is one of the more concrete reasons to like the EV semiconductor layer over the long run.
The Fine Print Worth Reading
Two numbers in the ad deserve scrutiny. The claim that a chip-equipment maker could be “on the receiving end of up to $500 billion in 2027 alone” is aimed at ASML, not onsemi, and it does not survive contact with reality, since ASML’s annual revenue is only about $30 billion. The “39 hedge funds are investing” line is filler, not a signal.
For onsemi itself, the honest read is a quality franchise trading at about 18 times forward earnings with a roughly $28 billion market cap, and a tease price of $71.67 that simply matches the current price. This is a re-pitch at today’s level, and the physical AI robot catalyst the pitch leans on is still years away. That is the fine print, and it is worth reading before you treat an EV stock as a shortcut to a $2.38 million headline.
Silicon carbide is worth one more word because it is the clearest way this layer grows. Traditional silicon power chips lose energy as heat when pushed hard, but silicon carbide can switch at higher voltage with less loss, which is why it is becoming the default for EV inverters and fast chargers. The transition is still early and expensive, so the companies that build capacity first, onsemi among them, are positioning for a multi-year upgrade cycle. That is a more durable growth driver than any single robot demo, and it is the part of the EV semiconductor story that has real legs today.
The same logic explains why the pitch is less about electric vehicles than it first appears. The cars are the proven, in-hand business, and the robots are the speculative layer on top. Keeping those two straight is the simplest way to avoid paying a robot premium for what is still, today, an electric vehicle supplier.
Ready to see the research? Click here to view the Elon Musk’s AI Masterplan presentation.
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