ASX Tech June Winners: Defence tech stocks dominate record-breaking month

• S&P500 and Nasdaq hit new highs on Big Tech run

• ASX energy leads, but tech holds strong in June

• Defence stocks dominate as DroneShield, Elsight, archTIS surge

Wall Street wrapped up the quarter on a strong note, with both the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq setting fresh record highs.

The S&P500 is now up 25% since April’s panic lows, a comeback so sharp it feels like the market went from “brace for impact” to “bring out the champagne” in under 90 days.

And leading the charge was none other than Big Tech.

The Nasdaq, flush with mega-cap firepower, hit fresh highs as investors kept pouring into names they now treat like digital infrastructure: Nvidia, Oracle, Meta, Apple.

During the month, Oracle broke records on news of a single US$30 billion-a-year cloud deal, and Nvidia became the world’s most valuable company at nearly US$4 trillion.

Global X now reckons that Nasdaq could finish the year somewhere between 21,000 and 24,000 (from the current 20,400 level).

This, it said, will be fuelled by profit upgrades and the broader shift in investor psychology: that AI and semiconductors aren’t just themes, they’re foundational to the next economic cycle.

And while Wall Street partied, the ASX didn’t just sit in the corner holding a warm beer.

Energy stocks absolutely belted it in June, up 9% for the month, easily the strongest sector. Blame Middle East supply fears and a tight physical market keeping oil prices jumpy.

Monthly return for ASX Sectors

But the quiet achiever in June was tech, up 0.73% for the month and moving in rhythm with the global tune.

Names like NextDC (ASX:NXT) got some love after recent pullbacks. And Goodman Group (ASX:GMG), with its data-centre exposure, continues to look like a long-term compounder.

Local investors are waking up to the fact that some of our home-grown names are quietly building the digital infrastructure of the future.

BlackRock is flagging defence tech as the next trend to watch.

And global fund managers have picked their lane, too. They’re overweight tech, underweight hesitation.

ASX tech winners in June

Making news for the right reasons or just hitting milestones, here were some of the month’s notable gainers…

iCetana (ASX:ICE)

icetana AI surged in June after signing a $3.6 million strategic partnership with global tech heavyweight SoftBank Robotics.

The deal includes a $1.87 million equity investment from SoftBank Robotics Singapore, giving it a 17.6% stake in icetana AI.

SoftBank Robotics Corp. was also appointed exclusive distributor in Japan, with a guaranteed minimum of around $693k in annual recurring revenue.

On top of that, it agreed to a three-year, $1.08 million joint development program to integrate icetana AI’s video analytics with its own robotics and security platforms.

The deal is icetana AI’s biggest to date and sets it up for deeper expansion into Japan’s market, building on its long-standing relationship with local partner Macnica.

Read later: Hot Money Monday: icetana moves into the spotlight with $3.6m deal

archTIS (ASX:AR9)

archTIS rose in June off the back of two major defence wins that put it firmly on the radar.

The first was a breakthrough deal with the US Department of Defense, where a prime contractor signed on for 1,000 licences of NC Protect, worth $38,500.

While the initial value is modest, the deal is seen as the gateway to a much bigger rollout, potentially onboarding 150,000 users across the DoD’s warfighter network over the next year.

Just days earlier, it landed another win, this time in the UK, signing a three-year, $263k contract with the local arm of a global aerospace and defence giant.

The deal covers an initial 400 users as part of the client’s Microsoft 365 cloud migration.

The timing couldn’t be better. With NATO recently agreeing to lift collective defence spending targets from 2% to 5% of GDP, and cybersecurity sitting high on the agenda, archTIS could be well placed here.

Elsight (ASX:ELS)

Elsight is another defence tech stock that lit up in June.

The company locked in a fresh US$5.1 million order from its European defence OEM customer for more of its Halo connectivity units.

That takes total orders from this one client to US$14.7 million for 2025 alone, a sixfold jump on what it booked for all of last year. Not bad for a company that was flying under the radar not long ago.

The new contract comes off the back of that OEM securing a bunch of downstream defence clients who have now standardised on Halo as the go-to comms backbone for unmanned systems.

Despite the regional conflict back home in Israel, Elsight said its production lines didn’t miss a beat.

Read more: Elsight’s hot streak continues as Halo becomes a battlefield essential

DXN (ASX:DXN)

DXN surged in June after landing two key contracts worth a combined $6.2 million.

The big one was a $4.6 million deal with Globalstar to design and deliver three high-spec modular data centres for deployment in Hawaii by the end of 2025.

The win came after a tough global tender, with DXN chosen for its strong customisation track record in defence, satellite and telco builds.

Days later, it locked in a $1.6 million deal with Ventia to roll out its new indoor StructCore solution for a major Aussie telco, marking DXN’s entry into the brownfield data centre retrofit market.

Both contracts back the company’s FY25 revenue guidance of $15.7-16 million, up at least 45% from last year.

The market’s now watching as DXN scales up across both satellite and telco infrastructure plays.

DroneShield (ASX:DRO)

Yet another defence stock on a tear.

DroneShield locked in a record $61.6 million contract in June with a European military via its local reseller, marking the biggest deal in its history and larger than all of its 2024 revenue.

The deal is for handheld and mobile counterdrone kits, with delivery and payment locked in for Q3 and Q4 next year.

Just days later, it added a $9.7 million contract out of Latin America, again through a repeat reseller.

Both wins reflect growing global demand as militaries move from testing to full-scale rollouts of counterdrone tech.

With NATO ramping budgets and drone warfare heating up, DroneShield looks well-placed and well-armed for what’s next.

ASX tech losers in June

This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decision.