Eric Trump-Backed Startup Wants to Send Armed Humanoid Robots Into Combat

Key points

• Foundation Future Industries, founded in 2024, holds government contracts inherited from two earlier companies worth millions of dollars.
• Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump, is both an investor and chief strategy adviser at the company.
• The company tested its Phantom MK1 humanoid robot with Ukrainian forces.
• Robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks estimates it will take more than a decade before humanoids can reliably operate in complex, unfamiliar settings.
• The next version of the company's robot, Phantom MK2, will be the first model to be waterproof and dustproof.

Sankaet Pathak runs a startup called Foundation Future Industries. Most humanoid robot companies want their machines folding laundry or working factory floors. Pathak's target customer is different: the US military.

Pathak told Wired that he plans to give the company's Phantom MK1, a human-shaped machine roughly the size of a person, lethal capabilities within the next couple of months. He called them "kinetic things," which is industry language for weapons systems. The robots could also handle reconnaissance and building inspections, jobs that currently put human soldiers at risk.

The company has a high-profile backer. Eric Trump is both an investor and the company's chief strategy adviser. Speaking on Fox Business in April, he described fist bumps, high-fives and robots following voice commands. "The uses are unlimited," he said.

Is the company actually delivering for the government?

Not yet, on its own. Fox Business reported a "$24 million contract with the Pentagon," but the contracts Foundation shared with reporters came from two earlier organisations: Boardwalk Robotics, which Foundation acquired in 2024, and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a Florida nonprofit known for humanoid research. Foundation doesn't appear to have independently won new government money.

That matters if you're trying to gauge how serious the military is about this particular company, as opposed to the broader idea.

The broader idea does have real support. The US Army runs a programme called xTech Humanoids that funds militarised humanoid technology. Humanoid robots appeal to planners because they can traverse stairs and move through spaces designed for people, unlike wheeled vehicles. The war in Ukraine has become a testing ground for autonomous systems, and it's where Foundation says it tested the Phantom MK1. Two weeks ago, we reported that the US military used explosive drone boats in combat for the first time, a reminder of how quickly autonomous weapons are moving from concept to deployment.

Building a humanoid that works in combat is a different problem entirely. Robert Griffin, a senior researcher at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition who worked with Foundation's predecessor company, said there's a wide gap between what today's humanoids can do and what a battlefield demands. Perception and navigation still break down in unfamiliar terrain. Picking up an object, including a firearm, remains one of the hardest unsolved problems in robotics. Rodney Brooks, professor emeritus at MIT and one of the field's founding figures, said in 2025 that even after a solid laboratory demonstration, getting a system reliably deployed takes at least ten more years.

Ethical questions follow too. Giving a machine the ability to use deadly force without a human making the final call worries researchers and policymakers alike.

Pathak is dismissive. He argues that precise, robot-led operations could reduce civilian casualties. His near-term goal is more modest: the Phantom MK2 will be the first model to be both waterproof and dustproof.

One honest takeaway: Before deciding how seriously to take any humanoid company's military claims, check whether the government contracts they cite are new wins or inherited from earlier firms. The answer tells you a lot.