Eric Trump-Backed Startup Misses Payroll After $4.6 Million Loan

San Francisco-based Foundation Future Industries missed its Oct. 30 payroll and has not yet paid workers, according to people with knowledge of the private company who spoke to CNBC.

The shortfall has angered some employees because CEO and co-founder Sankaet Pathak borrowed $4.6 million from the firm last year to buy a home.

Public records show that an LLC listing Pathak as its sole principal purchased a $4.6 million property in Sausalito, California, in October 2025.

A Board of One

Pathak is Foundation’s sole board member and owns most of its shares, a structure that has raised governance concerns among prospective investors, the people said.

That arrangement allowed him to take what he called a short-term loan, and existing investors were told of it in company disclosures.

“This is what happens in a company with no governance,” one of the people told CNBC.

A spokesman for Pathak did not respond to requests for comment. In a memo to staff this week, Pathak said he was working to source money to pay back wages.

The company also ran short of cash in August, the people said, and paid workers about two days late after a bridge loan from an existing investor.

Eric Trump’s Role at Foundation

An April television interview introduced Eric Trump, the U.S. president’s son, as a Foundation investor and chief strategy adviser. The size of his stake is unclear.

“We have to win robotics in the United States of America,” Eric Trump said in that appearance.

The company later drew attention for talks with the Israel Defense Forces on supplying humanoid robots.

Eric Trump did not respond to CNBC’s questions. A spokesperson has told the Financial Times that he had “no involvement in Foundation’s management, operations, strategic decisions or commercial activities,” including government contracts.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren had earlier called his involvement “corruption in plain sight,” after coverage treated Foundation as the winner of Pentagon work.

Contracts and a Cash Hunt

A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the widely reported $24 million in Pentagon contracts were research awards to Boardwalk Robotics, which Foundation acquired in late 2024, not awards the startup itself had won.

Foundation used Boardwalk’s Alex robot as the basis for its first model, the Phantom MK-1, that person said.

Pathak has been trying to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a $3 billion valuation and has said the firm is close to unveiling a weapons-ready humanoid meant to compete with Chinese military robotics programs.

His previous fintech firm, Synapse, collapsed in 2024, and Pathak reportedly took loans from that company as it neared bankruptcy.