New drone ETF launches with industry expected to reach $60B by 2030

The drone economy is taking off, and investors are getting more options to put money into the budding industry.

The recently launched REX Drone exchange-traded fund, for example, has 80% of its portfolio earmarked for companies that generate the bulk of revenues from drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UVA) and the companies that support the industry’s technologies.

“The drones theme is exciting for a couple of reasons,” REX CEO Greg King told FOX Business. “No. 1, the military applications. Ukraine and the Middle East have approved the utility there. And defense budgets are shifting over to a lot more spending on UAVs than traditional weapons. But what’s more exciting to us is the commercial applications. You’ve got delivery services, monitoring services, inspection services across a variety of sectors that are now starting to ramp up along the lines of this theme.”

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Within the military, drones have become a game-changer. Ondas Holdings, the fund’s largest position, provides technology for aerial intelligence and next-generation connectivity to provide stealth security.

AeroVironment, the second-largest holding, is known for its Switchblade precision loitering munitions. The company recently expanded these combat-proven systems that help ensure “warfighters maintain tactical overmatch in the most contested environment,” the company said.

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And Palantir Technologies, a smaller position, has received high marks for its commitment to back only America’s military. It’s support of the U.S. Army includes software helping decipher data with artificial intelligence.

The drone industry is expected to grow about 8% to 10% annually, reaching $60 billion by 2030 as more industries adopt the technology, King said.

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“The military has been growing steadily for a while, but with the commercial applications, whether it’s monitoring crops or inspecting pipelines or Amazon, Walmart and UPS delivering to remote areas, it’s really hard to say which of those sort of sectors within the theme are going to grow the most. That’s why we have this broad exposure to that theme,” he added.

DRNZ is designed for one-stop shopping for those investors looking to tap into a growth industry. King likened the industry’s future by connecting to the past.

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“The efficiencies that can be achieved just to us kind of undergirds this entire investment thesis. If you think about it, we invented little birds that we can control, right? Started with the carrier pigeon, and now we’ve got stronger, faster birds that we could send anywhere and do anything we want,” he said. 

“I think lots of them haven’t even been thought of. So, it’s definitely an exciting space.”