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Billionaire Brad Jacobs is forming a building materials juggernaut—and Apollo just led a $1.2B investment into it

ResiClub expects QXO to accelerate its acquisition strategy in the building materials space.

Author

Lance Lambert
January 05, 2026

Apollo leads $1.2B investment into billionaire Brad Jacobs’ building materials play

Today, it was announced that investment giant Apollo Global Management and other major investors will invest $1.2 billion into QXO—the building products materials giant that billionaire Brad Jacobs is forming.

ResiClub’s takeaway? We expect QXO to start getting more aggressive with its acquisitions in the building materials space.

Back in October 2023, I spoke with Jacobs, and he outlined how he planned to use his tried-and-proven business playbook to build a juggernaut in the building products space.

“I’m going to build a large building products distributor… I’ve started seven companies that all became billion or multi-billion dollar companies… I want the advantage of size, economies of scale. I want to be able to lower costs.”

“There are $20 and $30 billion dollar players already. Builders FirstSource, you got Ferguson. Great companies, real fine companies. But I’m planning to do something larger than that.”

“Primarily through acquisitions [is how I plan to build it]. If you look at my background, the teams I’ve led have done 500 acquisitions. M&A [mergers and acquisitions] is a tool in my tool kit I’ve used quite a bit. I think there’s a lot of room for creative M&A in the building products distribution space. The market is highly fragmented. You have 7,000 distributors here in North America, and almost twice that 13,000 in Europe. Most of them are private.”

Acquisitions in the building materials space have accelerated since billionaire and serial entrepreneur Jacobs entered the market and launched QXO. Some of those acquisitions are being made by QXO; others are by established giants in the industry that seemingly are trying to fend off QXO’s ascent.

March 2025 -> QXO acquisition of Beacon Building Products for $11 billion

June 2025 -> The Home Depot acquisition of Gypsum Management and Supply for $5 billion (QXO was trying to acquire GMS)

August 2025 -> Lowe's to buy Foundation Building Materials for $8.8 billion