Around Scottsdale, Axon Enterprise has been in the news for more than three years – with controversy over its plan to build an apartments-hotel-office complex on Hayden Road near the Loop 101.
The company is in the local news now more than ever, with allegations by three City Council candidates that Axon is funding efforts to block them.
On a national level, the company founded here by Chaparral High grad Rick Smith is scoring headlines in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere for its financial performance.
An eyebrow-raising investor also led to national stories.
According to a June 29 CNBC story, “President Donald Trump bought as much as $5 million in shares of Axon Enterprise
— maker of Tasers, body cameras and policing software — two weeks before Immigration and Customs Enforcement sought a five-year, $220 million contract that experts told CNBC appeared tailored to the company’s weapons.”
The White House stressed Trump’s assets are held in a trust managed by his children and the president’s investments are managed by independent third-party firms.
“There are no conflicts of interest,” spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNBC; she called scrutiny a “tired narrative” pushed by Democrats.
According to the story, the ICE notice does not name Axon, but “calls for ‘conductive-energy weapons’ with specifications and capabilities that procurement reviewers and three policing experts told CNBC appeared to match only Axon products.
“The company already supplies the federal government with Tasers.”
The notice refers to an upgrade to the “T10,” Axon’s “Taser 10″ model, to replace ICE’s older “X26P/X2 Tasers,” which are also Axon-made, according to the story.
As the CNBC story underlined, “There’s no evidence Trump was involved in or had knowledge of the procurement process, that contracting officials knew of his stock purchase or that Axon knew that Trump was a shareholder.”
On Feb. 10, Axon stock was trading at around $445 per share.
Over the last year, the Scottsdale company has been on a rollercoaster ride: Axon’s stock price topped $860 per share last August before falling under $350 in April.
In the spring, Trump’s investment might have seemed like a dud – but Axon has been on an upward trend since, rocketing to $550 per share June 30 – the day after the CNBC story.
Last month, a Yahoo Finance story outlined some of the company’s diversification/growth efforts:
“Among recent developments, Axon’s launch of Axon Vision, Axon Assistant and Axon 911 in April 2026 is especially relevant. These offerings sit at the heart of Axon’s real time intelligence push and could be the primary catalyst for expanding high margin software and services around its hardware footprint.”
Just over a month ago, Echodyne announced a partnership with Axon Enterprise to integrate its radar into Axon’s public safety drone ecosystem, boosting Axon’s “drone as first responder” program.
The Scottsdale Police Department uses Axon Tasers and body cameras but has not purchased Axon drones.
According to Sgt. Alison Sempsis of the SPD, “All our drones are DJI except for a couple of SkyHero LOKI interior drones. We bought the LOKIs from Aardvark Tactical years ago, but they’re now owned by Axon, so I guess technically we do have a couple of ‘Axon’ drones.
“We did not purchase the drones from Axon.”
Record revenue
Not selling drones to the Scottsdale Police Department hardly hurt Axon’s bottom line.
Axon’s global revenues are on track to top $3 billion.
On May 6, the company reported record quarterly revenue of $807 million, up 34% year-over-year, marking its ninth consecutive quarter of 30%+ growth.
And, according to Simply Wall Street, “Analysts are assuming Axon Enterprise’s revenue will grow by 28.1% annually over the next three years.”
Axon plans to add hundreds of workers when it builds its new, spaceship-themed office.
Axon recently told shareholders it plans to start building its Scottsdale “international campus” by the end of 2026.
Asked for a comment on this story, Josh Isner, Axon’s president, responded, “We are unable to comment on our company financials in a blackout, which occurs the last two weeks of every quarter until we announce earnings.”
In a June 28 story profiling Smith, the Wall Street Journal reported, “the pay package he and his board put together catapulted him to the top of last year’s list of the highest-paid CEOs, with a compensation package valued at $164.4 million.”
“… At the end of 2025, Axon estimated the shares underlying the full award could be worth nearly $386 million.”
And, according to the WSJ profile, “Smith, 56, is pressing forward with a new wave of AI tools that he says will revolutionize modern policing, including one that drafts police reports from body-camera audio and another that can answer policy questions mid-arrest.
“Axon’s revenue from AI products is up more than 700% from last year.”