$300 million Follow-On Investment in Polymarket Revealed, Unveiling Trump's Eldest Son's 1789Capital

Original Title: "Investing $300 Million More in Polymarket: Unveiling 1789 Capital with Trump's Son on Board"
Original Author: Mach, Foresight News

On September 1st, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., a partner at 1789 Capital, plans to add approximately $300 million in investment to the prediction market platform Polymarket, making the total size of this funding round around $1 billion.

The relationship between 1789 Capital and Polymarket didn't start this week.

In August 2025, Polymarket announced a strategic investment from 1789 Capital and invited Donald Trump Jr. to join its advisory board. Reuters cited sources on the same day, stating that the investment was in the tens of millions of dollars.

From $100 Million to $3.5 Billion

In the name 1789 Capital, 1789 was the year the United States' Bill of Rights was ratified. The fund is headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida, and its motto is "Providing Capital for the Next Chapter of American Exceptionalism." While not a native crypto fund, it is becoming one of the most prominent political capitals behind Polymarket's funding.

1789 Capital was founded in October 2022 by three individuals: investment banker Omeed Malik, conservative publisher and investor Chris Buskirk, and Republican super-donor Rebekah Mercer.

The idea for the fund's establishment came from a gathering of the donor network Rockbridge, involving Buskirk and current Vice President JD Vance. Early pitch materials outlined the strategy in three parts: Parallel Economy, Anti-Globalization, and Industries Hurt by ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Principles. They coined an oppositional label, EIG (Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Growth), with Malik stating, "We do not invest in any companies with ESG or DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) components."

The backgrounds of these three individuals determined the fund's character, unlike traditional Silicon Valley institutions.

Omeed Malik

Malik previously served as the Global Head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's hedge fund advisory business. After leaving in 2018, he had litigation with the bank and settled for an eight-figure sum. In 2019, he founded the boutique investment bank Farvahar Partners. He had donated to Hillary Clinton before turning to Trump and becoming a member of Mar-a-Lago. In 2025, he was also appointed to the Freddie Mac board.

Chris Buskirk

Buskirk is also the founder and Chief Investment Officer. According to the official website, he is the founder and head of the family investment company Buskirk Capital; it was this company that drove the establishment of 1789 Capital.

The person on the left is Donald Trump's eldest son, Don Trump Jr

Shortly after the November 2024 election, Don Jr joined the fund as a partner. He had an earlier personal relationship with Malik: they met in the Hamptons in 2018 through Kimberly Guilfoyle and had been discussing investments together since around 2020. The New York Times reported that both men, unhappy with the regulations during the pandemic, moved their families to Palm Beach. According to the official website, Don Jr's focus is on developing new investment projects, fundraising, and strategy. His extensive connections in the business and investor community provide significant outreach capabilities for 1789 Capital's global network.

What truly made 1789 Capital a market topic from a small fund was its scale. The publicly reported trajectory of assets under management is as follows: initial target fundraising of approximately $100 million, reaching around $100 million by the end of 2023. After Trump's victory and Don Jr's entry, it was around $1.5–2 billion. In May 2026, the Financial Times cited partner Paul Abrahimzadeh: the fund grew from $200 million to about $3.5 billion over the past year. In terms of performance, in July 2026, the New York Times cited insiders saying the main fund had returned about 200% as of June 30.

Late-stage Growth Stocks, Defense, and AI are Core Holdings

1789 Capital is not a seed fund. According to PitchBook, the number of investments has exceeded 40, with the portfolio growing from 5 early-stage companies to about 40. Abrahimzadeh was very straightforward about the strategy in a public interview: buy industry leaders, and you could ideally exit in another year or two; occasionally do early-stage, but the main holdings are growth stocks.

There are four main investment directions that could be verified.

One category is Defense and Reindustrialization: Anduril, Hadrian, Firehawk Aerospace, Axiom Space, and the rare earth magnet company Vulcan Elements. CNN reported in July 2026 that 1789 Capital had already invested in over 10 defense, aerospace, and foundational software companies.

One category is the Musk ecosystem. Its fund partner has publicly stated that SpaceX is one of the largest positions in the portfolio; xAI, X, and Neuralink are also included in the reported holdings.

Another category is AI compute power and models. Cerebras represents the most explicit realization: 1789 Capital entered at around an $8 billion valuation, then doubled down at around a $23 billion valuation. The company went public on the Nasdaq in May 2026, becoming one of the largest IPOs of that year. Other players in this category include Groq, Reflection AI, PsiQuantum, Perplexity, Replit, and Skild AI. On the software side, we see companies like Databricks, Ramp, Deel, and Plaid—the logic being applications that are “AI-enhanced” rather than “AI-replaced.”

A third category involves their original cultural businesses: the first investment in 2023 was in Tucker Carlson's Last Country; the list also includes names like Juul and firearms e-commerce GrabAGun. However, what really accelerated the pace of fundraising was institutions like SpaceX, Cerebras, and Anduril jumping into assets, coupled with the President's son's surname.

From the Casino to Financial Infrastructure

1789 Capital bets on prediction markets, a strategy Donald explained himself for entering the market.

At the 2024 Republican National Convention, he approached the then 26-year-old Polymarket founder Coplan, stating that Polymarket's odds were closer to what he heard from voters than traditional polls. Just two years before, Polymarket had been heavily fined $1.4 million by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and ordered to block US users.

In August 2025, Donald wrote in a press release about the platform as a tool that “bypasses media narratives and expert opinions, allowing people to bet based on real judgment,” emphasizing that “America needs access to this platform.” For a fund that positioned itself as anti-ESG and anti-"weaponized capital," the prediction market was framed as an information right rather than a gambling right.

1789 Capital invested in Tucker Carlson's Last Country, Musk's X, and then Polymarket, with their fund constructing a complete “anti-establishment decentralized information loop”: X provides the public forum, Carlson delivers viewpoints, and Polymarket offers real betting odds to shatter traditional mainstream media polls.

When elite capital is deeply intertwined with a prediction platform, the platform transforms from a decentralized oracle into a suspected insider trading hotspot. Once Washington's political power shifts or the two-party game escalates, Polymarket will directly become the prime target of congressional anti-monopoly and anti-insider trading investigations.

Nevertheless, the prediction market is no longer just a casino for the crypto community; the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange and the hedge fund where the president's son is employed are turning it into a key piece of U.S. alternative financial infrastructure.

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