# 1789 Capital **1789 Capital** is a Trump-aligned venture capital firm founded in **October 2022** by [[Omeed Malik]], [[Chris Buskirk]], and [[Rebekah Mercer]], out of the orbit of the [[Rockbridge Network]]'s 2022 summit; [[Blake Masters]] took part in the founding conversations and later advised. The name invokes the year the Bill of Rights was drafted. [[Donald Trump Jr.]] joined as a partner after the 2024 election, publicly declining a government post in favor of it. The firm's stated thesis is **EIG — entrepreneurship, innovation, and growth** — constructed as the deliberate inverse of [[ESG]]. Malik's formulation is that portfolio companies should have "no ESG or DEI components in them whatsoever." Around that screen sits a broader bet on deglobalization, reshoring, and the construction of a **parallel economy**: a full stack of conservative-aligned consumer, media, and industrial businesses intended to be insulated from institutional pressure. The lineage runs back through the Mercer donor operation and the [[Peter Thiel]] network, which makes 1789 the clearest single node where those two networks and the Trump family converge. ## The numbers are contested — do not flatten them Reported fund size varies by a factor of four depending on source and measure, and the vault holds all of the following rather than picking one: | Source | Figure | |---|---| | InfluenceWatch | $150M fund launched 2023 | | Fox Business (2025) | ~$200M to ~$2B in a single year | | Wikipedia, citing filings | $861M (Oct 2025) → $3.5B (May 2026) | These are probably not contradictory so much as different objects — committed capital, assets under management, and the marked value of a portfolio that includes fast-appreciating private positions are three different quantities, and a fund that marks up a stake tenfold shows explosive "growth" without raising a dollar. That mechanism is itself the story below. ## The federal-contract overlap The central allegation is not that 1789 lobbies. It is that its portfolio and the government's procurement decisions moved together, and that the fund's returns are therefore partly a function of federal spending directed by an administration the fund's partner is related to. On **January 23, 2026**, Senators [[Elizabeth Warren]], [[Richard Blumenthal]], and [[Andy Kim]] wrote to the Defense Department naming specific awards to 1789-linked companies: **$45M** to [[Cerebras]] for AI chip interconnects (April 2025), **$10.8M** to [[PsiQuantum]] for quantum chips (April 2025), **$4.9M** to Firehawk Aerospace for rocket engines (August 2025), **$10M** to [[Vulcan Elements]] for magnets, and a separate **$12.8M** contract to another Trump Jr.-affiliated company — alongside the $620M loan discussed below. Their framing: *"The Trump family is profiting from funds appropriated by Congress to keep Americans safe."* By CNN's July 2026 accounting, 1789 portfolio companies had taken in more than **$735 million** in federal contracts and funding during the administration's first year. ## The Vulcan Elements case 1789's sharpest exposure is **[[Vulcan Elements]]**. In August 2025 the fund took an undisclosed stake in the rare-earth magnet startup's $65M round (see [[1789 Capital Stake in Vulcan Elements]]). Roughly three months later the Pentagon's [[Office of Strategic Capital]] announced a record **$620M loan** to Vulcan — a deal ProPublica reported was initiated by [[Donald Trump Jr.]]'s friend [[Peter Navarro]] (see [[Vulcan Elements OSC $620M Pentagon Loan]]). Vulcan's valuation went from roughly $200M to roughly $2B, marking up 1789's position about tenfold. The firm says it played no role in the loan and did not know of it before it was public. **[[Unusual Machines]]**, a drone-parts maker Trump Jr. advises, was reportedly under OSC review as well. The structural point generalizes beyond this one deal. A venture fund does not need a contract awarded to itself. It needs the government to validate a portfolio company's valuation — and a federal loan or contract does exactly that, converting public procurement into private mark-ups that are realized later and by someone else. ## Prediction markets and the Iran war (2026) 1789 backs [[Polymarket]], and per "Follow The Money" (Ed Elson, Prof G Media, March 2026) is also tied to rival [[Kalshi]]. When the U.S. launched [[Iran War 2026]] against Iran, more than $500M was traded across the two platforms on the timing of the strikes; one anonymous account netted over $500K on a first trade placed roughly an hour before the news broke. Because [[Donald Trump Jr.]] backs or advises both the fund and the platforms, 1789 sits at the intersection of the family's defense-tech equity positions and the prediction-market front-running channel. See [[Iran War Market Manipulation]] and [[Trump Family Iran War Profiteering]]. **From backer to lead investor (August 2026).** On August 31, 2026, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported that 1789 had led a **$1 billion** round valuing Polymarket at about **$21 billion**, up roughly 40% from April. 1789 put in about $300 million, bringing its total to about **$500 million** (1789 confirmed the amount and valuation to reporters, per MoneyCheck). 1789 is now one of Polymarket's two largest outside backers alongside NYSE owner [[Intercontinental Exchange]]. Polymarket faces CFTC scrutiny of its marketing and lawsuits from several states, and the CFTC is run by a Trump appointee. See [[Polymarket]] and [[Shayne Coplan]]. ## The rest of the portfolio Defense and space: [[Anduril]], [[Hadrian]], [[Axiom Space]], Firehawk. AI and compute: [[Cerebras]], [[Groq]], [[Perplexity]], [[xAI]], [[PsiQuantum]]. Media and platforms: [[Tucker Carlson Network]], [[Substack]], [[Polymarket]]. Fintech: Plaid, Ramp. Consumer and parallel-economy: [[GrabAGun]] (taken public by Malik's [[Colombier SPACs]]), [[Juul]], [[Enhanced Games]], BlinkRX. Reporting describes the fund as holding positions in nearly all of [[Elon Musk]]'s companies, [[SpaceX]] included. Other open threads: a reported inquiry into a Treasury Department AI summit sponsorship arrangement; BlinkRX's position relative to the administration's pharmaceutical executive orders; and 1789's Polymarket investment landing alongside the closure of federal investigations into that platform. On **August 26, 2026**, [[Jamie Raskin]] wrote to Malik, Buskirk and Trump Jr. citing Vulcan Elements, Anduril, Juul and Polymarket and requesting records by September 9; in July 2026 [[Elizabeth Warren]], [[Ron Wyden]] and [[Chuck Schumer]] asked whether 1789 claims protection under the Trump tax-leak settlement. Both letters are summarized at [[Omeed Malik]]. ## Why it matters for the KB 1789 is the vault's cleanest example of **influence held as equity rather than exercised as lobbying**. Traditional corruption tracking looks for payments, contracts, and access. This structure needs none of them: the return arrives as an unrealized mark-up on a private position, disclosed to no one, triggered by a procurement decision made by the government. It is faster than lobbying, larger than a bribe, and largely invisible to the disclosure regime built for both. ## See Also - [[Omeed Malik]] · [[Chris Buskirk]] · [[Rebekah Mercer]] — the founders - [[Donald Trump Jr.]] — partner since 2024 - [[Rockbridge Network]] · [[Peter Thiel]] · [[Blake Masters]] — the surrounding networks - [[Vulcan Elements]] · [[Office of Strategic Capital]] · [[Peter Navarro]] — the marquee case - [[Trump Family Corruption Ecosystem]] — the wider pattern - [[Defense Tech Conflicts of Interest]] — the category - [[ESG]] — the frame 1789 defines itself against