Eric Trump invests in $1.5B drone manufacturer, construction merger

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Eric Trump is one in all a handful of traders backing drone producer Xtend and actual property growth and building firm JFB Building Holdings’ $1.5 billion merger agreement, in keeping with a press launch on Tuesday.
Buyers embrace drone maker Uncommon Machines. Eric’s brother, Donald Trump Jr., is a stakeholder and serves on Unusual Machines’ advisory board.
The deal features a $152 million funding dedication, $42 million of which was agreed to fund at signing, according to a securities filing. The pending merger is anticipated to shut in mid-2026.

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Different traders backing the merger embrace actual property and funding agency American Ventures, Israel-based protection non-public fairness firm Protego Ventures, funding administration agency Aliya Capital, and funding agency Agostinelli Group.

As soon as the transaction closes, the joint firm shall be renamed Xtend AI Robotics and listed on Nasdaq below the ticker XTND, per the press launch.

The merger plan will even develop its international drone footprint in India, Mexico, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan, in keeping with the securities submitting.

Xtend was established in 2018 and is predicated in Tel Aviv, Israel. The corporate produces autonomous drones utilizing synthetic intelligence software program for the protection and safety industries.

Israel’s navy makes use of Xtend’s drones for numerous functions in Gaza, akin to exploring inside buildings or utilizing robotic arms to hold an adhesive explosive to blow open doorways and drop grenades, CEO and co-founder Aviv Shapira told the Wall Street Journal in December 2023.

The producer established a U.S. headquarters and manufacturing facility in Tampa, Florida, in July 2025 to help the U.S. protection sector and rising demand.

The corporate had a partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Protection, in keeping with a now-deleted page on the corporate’s web site. Via the partnership, Xtend supplied its Skylord drone mannequin as a part of an initiative to help the U.S. Army Special Forces Operations in 2020.

The Department of Defense also awarded Xtend an undisclosed multimillion-dollar, firm-fixed-price contract in November 2025. Any such contract locations the utmost threat and accountability for all prices on the corporate and minimizes the executive burden on the U.S. authorities, according to the Defense Acquisition University.

Xtend will provide DOD’s small tactical group operators with “deadly” unarmed aerial drones to help in precision strikes and survivability amid “irregular” warfare operations in complicated terrain and rural confined areas, per the company’s press release. Xtend will even present coaching, spares, upkeep and manufacturing from its Tampa facility.

The DOD contract aligns with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s drone directive issued in July 2025, aiming to supply the company “lethality at low cost-per-kill,” the drone maker mentioned within the launch.

Moreover, Hegseth’s directive helps President Donald Trump’s govt order to expedite domestic drone production, strengthen the availability chain and cut back the US’ reliance on international international locations.

Moreover, Xtend is one of 25 vendors that DOD chosen to take part within the company’s Drone Dominance Program, an acquisition reform effort geared toward accelerating the scaling of assault drones at low value. This system additionally helps the “Arsenal of Freedom,” a blueprint to rebuild the protection industrial base below DOD’s New Acquisition Transformation technique.

“What drew us to XTEND is the energy and scalability of its AI-driven working system,” JFB CEO Joseph Basile III mentioned in an announcement. “By pairing Xtend’s working system and superior AI capabilities with JFB’s execution, infrastructure, and buildout experience, we see a transparent alternative to speed up US manufacturing, scale manufacturing responsibly, and help a next-generation protection know-how platform inbuilt America and prepared for the general public markets.”

Along with the Trump brothers’ involvement, JFB appointed Stefan Passantino to function a board member, in keeping with a Feb. 13 securities submitting. Passantino served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel throughout Trump’s first time period within the White Home.