Eric Trump invests in Israeli drone maker XTEND’s merger with Florida construction firm

FILE PHOTO: The Trump Organization Executive VP Eric Trump speaks to Reuters during an interview in Riyadh · Reuters

Reuters

Wed, February 18, 2026 at 12:51 AM GMT+9 1 min read

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Feb 17 (Reuters) - Eric Trump, son of U.S. President Donald Trump, is investing in a $1.5 billion merger between Israeli ‌drone maker XTEND and Florida-based JFB Construction Holdings in a ‌deal aimed at taking XTEND public.

Drone maker Unusual Machines, which tapped Eric’s brother ​Donald Trump Jr. in November 2024 as an advisor, is also investing in the merger, JFB said in a release on Tuesday.

The Trump family has been expanding its business ventures since Donald Trump’s ‌return to office, including ⁠cryptocurrency sales that generated about $800 million for the family in the first half of 2025 alone.

The move ⁠comes as drones have become a top-selling item at the Pentagon and are playing a central role in the Ukrainian battlefield, where ​conventional ​warplanes are scarce due to dense ​air defense systems near ‌the front lines.

The success of drones on the ground has also led to a spike in Silicon Valley investment in drone and military artificial intelligence startups, driving up the valuations of U.S. firms such as Anduril Industries and Shield AI.

XTEND’s AI-enabled systems are ‌being used by the U.S. Department ​of Defense, Singapore, Europe, the U.K. and ​Israel Defense Forces, as ​of July 2025.

Other investors in XTEND’s merger include ‌Israel-based Protego Ventures, Texas-based real ​estate development firm ​American Ventures and Miami-based Aliya Capital.

The all-stock merger is expected to close by the middle of 2026, after which the ​joint company will ‌be renamed to XTEND AI Robotics and will be listed ​on Nasdaq under the ticker “XTND”.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Jain in ​Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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