00:00So taking a look at JEDI, this is interesting, you only launched this at the end of September
00:04of 2025, and now it seems like one of the ETFs that's well-suited for this moment in time. But
00:10talk us through what the original thinking was here, especially when you did actually
00:15set sail on this ETF back in September. Yeah, well, we knew that geopolitical tensions were
00:21rising, and we knew that government spending was going into this area, right? So if you look at
00:26kind of just what's happened over the last couple of years, global spending on defense
00:30and modern warfare hit the highest levels it's hit since the Cold War era in the last
00:35two years. We're talking about spending on drones and a TAM on drones that went from $50
00:40billion and is suited to go to $100 billion within the next two or three years. Unmanned
00:47systems, $26 billion, looking to target $50 billion in the next couple of years. So government
00:52spending is going into this area. And we just knew that warfare was going to be different.
00:57You know, what's happening right now in the market? Everything is AI. Everything is improved
01:00by AI. And if you think about the future of warfare, what does that mean? That means space
01:05and satellites. That means unmanned drones, unmanned systems. That means ISR. That means AI for
01:11intelligence. And really, we wanted to craft an ETF that represented that. Because you have
01:15the old aerospace and defense names out there, right? So think about instead of $150 million
01:19missile, you have 200 low-cost unmanned drones giving you intelligence.
01:25That is quite the vision there. I'm picturing the scene from Terminator when the robots are
01:30battling the robots. Look, I get it. I could see this, you know, definitely triggering people's
01:37imaginations. I look at the holdings here. As I said, I don't recognize a lot of these names.
01:41Yes.
01:42I'm used to seeing the big sort of defense contractors in sort of ITA. Can you walk me through that?
01:47Is
01:47that by design? Or is it that ITA doesn't have any that meet the 50% criteria?
01:52Well, as you said, you don't recognize these names because a lot of them are new and they're
01:55up and coming in the area of aerospace and defense. This is the future of aerospace and defense,
02:00right? So if you think about it, you have some of these drone companies in there,
02:03like AeroEnvironment. You have Kratos in there. You know, you have some of these,
02:08some of the ISR types of names in there. Satellites, again, unmanned systems. And then you have names
02:14like Palantir that you recognize, which are basically the AI engine behind warfare and
02:18defense. But, you know, you want this to be different, right? You want this to be different.
02:22These are the companies that are the cutting edge of AI and modern warfare.
02:26And I know that this ETF follows an index here, but in light of recent events, of course,
02:32what transpired over the weekend with Iran and the expectation that, you know, this could unfold
02:37over the course of several weeks here. Are there any plans to sort of tweak the holdings to that
02:42reality? I don't think that the ETF needs to be tweaked. I think that it represents very well
02:47what you need for the future of AI and modern warfare, right? So I think, again, we're, instead
02:52of, instead of thinking about having the most powerful weapon, we would like to think of the
02:57idea that the military has the best decision-making capability because of the intel that they gather
03:02through these drones and these unmanned systems and space satellites, and then real-time connectivity.
03:06If you look at what's going on in the Ukraine, a lot of this is actually being deployed in that
03:10war
03:11and in that conflict. And so this is already here. While it feels new and you don't know the names,
03:16these companies are actually growing. They're becoming profitable and performing.
03:19I'll be honest. When I saw the ticker, I thought this really should be the ticker for a space ETF
03:23because it is in Europe. JEDI is for a space ETF.
03:25Well, space is a part of this. Space and satellites are a huge part of this.
03:29Well, it's not just space. Space warfare. I've never seen that in a prospectus. What's that going to look like?
03:34Well, we'll see what that looks like, right? But if you think about it, it's the idea right now.
03:38It's part of ISR, right? It's part of surveillance. It's part of wireless connectivity.
03:43It's part of targeting and things like this. But what that develops into over time,
03:47think about what Mr. Musk is doing and what will come to market in years to come.
03:52I think that space will be a huge part of modern warfare defense spending.
03:55And the government money is going that way, too.
03:57You're starting to see recurring revenues going into all of these sectors as well.
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