Drone Firm XTEND to Go Public
XTEND, a drone and AI robotics company, is set to go public through a merger with JFB Construction Holdings in a $1.5 billion all-stock deal. The transaction includes an investment from Eric Trump. This SPAC merger highlights growing investor interest in the crossover between construction, drone technology, and defense applications.
- At the core of XTEND's technology is its proprietary XOS operating system, a hardware-agnostic software platform that allows a human operator to manage multiple autonomous drones across air, land, and sea. This software-first approach has led to collaborations, including an integration of XOS with Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works' autonomy platform for multi-class UAS command-and-control. - The company has secured multi-million-dollar contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and is a participant in the Pentagon's "Drone Dominance" program, which aims to rapidly field low-cost, scalable drone technologies. The merger is intended to expand XTEND's NDAA-compliant domestic manufacturing at its facility in Tampa, Florida, to better serve U.S. and allied governments. - Founded in 2018 by CEO Aviv Shapira, CXO Matteo Shapira, CTO Rubi Liani, and CQO Adir Tubi, the company originally started as a gaming venture using VR and drones to simulate flight. This gaming background influenced their operator interface, which is designed for intuitive control in complex, GPS-denied environments like tunnels or dense urban areas. - Prior to the SPAC merger, XTEND had raised approximately $90 million over six funding rounds. The $152 million strategic investment supporting the public listing includes capital from defense-focused fund Protego Ventures, Aliya Capital, and Unusual Machines, a separate drone company where Donald Trump Jr. serves as an adviser. - XTEND's systems are designed for tactical missions where human oversight is critical; its AI assists operators rather than replacing them, helping with tasks like identifying and navigating through windows or classifying targets. Their drones have been operationally deployed by the U.S. DoD, the Israel Defense Forces, and militaries in Singapore and Europe. - The transaction is structured as a reverse merger, which provides a faster path to accessing U.S. public capital markets compared to a traditional IPO. Upon completion in mid-2026, the combined company will be renamed XTEND AI Robotics and is expected to trade under the Nasdaq ticker symbol "XTND". [cite: 2,
