Barring any new legal rulings, China-based drone manufacturer DJI faces a ban at the end of 2025. On September 26, District Judge Paul Friedman rejected DJI’s lawsuit challenging its designation as a “Chinese Military Company” by the Department of Defense. DJI claimed it has no ties to the Chinese government despite the court filings showing that DJI was funded by multiple Chinese government-connected funds.
Even if DJI and its lesser-known rival Autel (which is also on the Entity List) get banned at the end of 2025, it is still only the beginning of the long struggle to build a domestic drone industry for small drones in the United States.
America’s Missing Consumer Drone Market
As of 2025, there are still no major consumer drone startups in the United States. While there are plenty of defense drone startups targeting the Department of Defense, new startups targeting the consumer market are virtually nonexistent. Part of this is because of how difficult it is for domestic startups to compete with a behemoth such as DJI. Multiple drone companies have left the American consumer drone market, including Chinese DJI rival Autel, because of how cheap DJI drones are in comparison to other options on the market. As outlined in the DJI lawsuit, this cheapness is due to excellent manufacturing practices, and to pricing dumping and subsidies that the company receives.
