While everyone argues about AI valuations and tariff chaos, one company is quietly stacking $268 billion in orders and barely making headlines. RTX Corporation — the company formerly known as Raytheon Technologies — just reported 2025 results that should make growth investors sit up and pay attention.
Full-year turnover came in at $88.6 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of $6.29. Both figures beat the January guidance of $83-84 billion in sales and $6.00-6.15 in EPS. The stock barely budged. But the order backlog — $268 billion, up from $218 billion just a year earlier — tells you everything about where this company is heading. That’s three years of revenue sitting in the queue, and it’s growing faster than the company can deliver.
RTX operates three divisions, each roughly comparable in size, and each feeding off different growth drivers. Collins Aerospace makes cockpit systems, cabin interiors, and air-traffic management tech. Pratt & Whitney builds engines for commercial and military aircraft, including the F-35 stealth fighter. And Raytheon makes the missiles, Patriot anti-missile systems, Iron Dome defenses, radars, and high-powered laser systems that are in surging demand as global tensions escalate. The F-35 alone uses components from all three divisions — engine from Pratt, helmet display from Collins, smart bombs and missiles from Raytheon.
The growth story here has four legs, and none of them depend on AI hype. First, that $268 billion backlog gives RTX years of revenue visibility — something almost no other company this size can claim. As production ramps to clear the backlog, scaling effects kick in, margins expand, and earnings grow faster than sales. Second, the commercial aerospace aftermarket is recovering post-Covid, driving double-digit growth in high-margin spare parts, maintenance, and retrofit work. Third, global defense budgets are expanding rapidly. NATO allies are finally spending what they promised, the Middle East remains volatile, and the U.S. government is increasing its own defense allocations. Fourth, RTX is investing heavily in next-gen propulsion systems, advanced materials, and AI-enhanced analytics to boost operational efficiency.
The financial profile backs it up. Free cash flow hit $7.9 billion in 2025. The company generated organic sales growth of 11% — impressive for an $88 billion business. And unlike many large-cap industrials, RTX has pricing power. Defense contracts are often cost-plus, meaning inflation actually helps margins rather than compressing them. The commercial aftermarket operates on razor-and-blade economics — once airlines fly RTX engines, the maintenance revenue follows for decades.
The risk? Execution. Pratt & Whitney has dealt with engine quality issues in the past, and supply chain constraints have delayed some deliveries. Government spending is also subject to political whims — though with bipartisan support for defense spending at multi-decade highs, that risk feels manageable.
In a market where everyone is chasing the same handful of AI stocks, RTX offers something different: a boring, predictable, multi-year earnings ramp backed by a quarter-trillion dollars in confirmed demand. Sometimes the best trades are the ones nobody’s excited about.