According to a May 27 report by The Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is in talks to provide government funding to a group of U.S. drone companies, including component manufacturer Unusual Machines and Sequoia Capital-backed autonomous drone startup Neros, with the goal of boosting domestic drone production and lowering procurement costs. The negotiations have been ongoing for several months, involving the Pentagon and the Office of Strategic Capital — an office established by the Biden administration to provide loans to companies critical to national security supply chains. Following the announcement, shares of Unusual Machines rose as much as 37% in pre-market trading, while shares of other domestic drone companies such as Red Cat, Kratos Defense, AeroVironment, and Swarmer also rose between 7% and 13%.
The talks come as the Trump administration has made “drone dominance” a “presidential priority,” a commitment outlined in its $1.5 trillion defense budget request for fiscal year 2027. Notably, Unusual Machines has hired Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor, while Eric Trump has also been promoting another drone startup, Powerus, alongside his brother during the same period; critics argue that such funding negotiations pose potential conflicts of interest. Additionally, the U.S. Congress passed a revised version of the Banning DJI Act earlier this year, further tightening restrictions on the procurement of Chinese drones, thereby placing domestic alternative suppliers under pressure to rapidly scale up production.