Economic Liberties Calls for Investigation of QXO-TopBuild Building Materials Merger

May 1, 2026 Press Release

Washington, D.C. — Following news of the proposed $17 billion acquisition of TopBuild Corp., the largest distributor and installer of insulation and related building products in North America,  by QXO, one of the largest building materials distributors in the country, the American Economic Liberties Project is calling on the Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general, including Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, to investigate this anticompetitive acquisition.

“This deal is a textbook roll-up that would let a single buyer use sheer scale to further exacerbate housing affordability and squeeze out smaller players,” said Laurel Kilgour, Research Manager at the American Economic Liberties Project. “When dominant firms can demand bigger rebates and better terms simply for being bigger, it’s not efficiency. It’s leverage that gets passed through the supply chain as fewer choices and higher costs for builders and ultimately working Americans. With construction input prices already up sharply since the pandemic, antitrust enforcers should be deeply skeptical of a merger that accelerates consolidation and tilts the market even further toward a handful of powerful intermediaries.”

QXO’s proposed acquisition of Florida-based TopBuild marks the Connecticut building products distributor’s largest deal yet, setting it on course to become the nation’s leading firm in insulation and waterproofing, as well as second in roofing. QXO CEO Brad Jacobs framed the acquisition as a play for great negotiating leverage over suppliers: “We will get, because we deserve, a better price from the manufacturers. Bigger customers get bigger discounts, bigger rebates than the smaller ones.”

QXO launched in 2023 with the stated aim to grow in part through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with the company recently acquiring Beacon Roofing Supply and Kodiak Building Partners in multi-billion dollar deals. 2025 was the top year for M&A in the building materials industry in the past decade, marked by a spike in mega-deals, likely portending intense future consolidation, according to analysts.

Read “Capital Crunch: How the Fall of Local Finance and the Rise of Shareholder Primacy Warped Single-Family Homebuilding in America — And What to Do About It,” here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.