JEDI crossed $200 million after taking a Shield AI stake

Defiance Drone & Modern Warfare ETF DJEDI, a fund that holds companies in drones and newer military technology, is not the fund Defiance described at launch. The index rules changed in April. In August the fund took a stake in Shield AI, a private defense company, and less than two weeks later Defiance said assets had crossed $200 million. The shares had already given back a spring surge.

Defiance put that crossing at Friday, August 21. Sylvia Jablonski, Defiance's chief investment officer, said reaching the mark in under a year "tells us the thesis is landing."

On Thursday, April 30, the index DJEDI tracks, the BITA Drone & Modern Warfare Select Index, widened what it can include, changed how it weights companies, and allowed some new names between scheduled updates. Defiance says results from before that date reflect the old rules.

In late July the documents let the fund put up to 15% of its assets into private companies that fit the theme, including through a separate company set up to hold one firm. That 15% is a limit, not a goal. Defiance has said it does not expect private positions above about 5% of assets when it buys them. The fund must still keep at least 80% of its assets in drone and modern warfare companies, and those securities may be public or private. The change took effect on Thursday, August 6. On Tuesday, August 11, Defiance said the fund had taken the Shield AI stake through one of those vehicles, not by owning Shield AI shares. The stake is 2.8% of assets.

The management fee is still 0.69%. The vehicle charges a one-time access fee of about 5% to 8% of the money placed in it, and that fee reduces what reaches the private company. Spread across the whole fund, Defiance estimates that fee at about 0.30% of assets this year, which takes total expenses to 0.99%. Because the charge does not repeat, Defiance expects expenses in later years to be lower.

What the shares did

The shares rose 74.8% from $24.27 at the end of 2025 to $42.42 on Thursday, May 28. They fell 43.6% from that close to $23.91 on Friday, July 31. They closed at $26.31 on Monday, August 31, and at $26.42 on Thursday, September 24. Defiance measured the value of the holdings as up 6.04% from launch through Monday, August 31, a span that covers both sets of index rules. Investors added a net $180 million this year through Thursday, September 17, while the shares finished only a little above where 2025 ended.

What a buyer owns

At launch, Defiance said the fund would emphasize drones and newer warfare technologies rather than the old defense companies. Jablonski said it was "leaving legacy defense behind."

The weights still match that promise.

The fund has 48 holdings, including Unusual Machines, a maker of drone parts. Global X Defense Tech ETF SHLD, a fund that holds defense-technology companies, including the large military contractors, overlaps DJEDI by 11% of weight. RTX is 9% of SHLD and 0.45% of DJEDI.

Someone who bought the fund for that basket, rather than the old contractors, still has it. They also hold a small private stake the fund could not own at launch, and the index rules are no longer the ones from the first day.