Boeing's “assets-for-equity” fancy bets on Archer (ACHR.US)'s “low-altitude economy” from a money-burning competition to commercial cashout

The Zhitong Finance App learned that American aerospace manufacturing giant Boeing (BA.US) will sell several of its business divisions that specialize in developing low-altitude flying taxis and drone technology to Archer Aviation Inc (ACHR.US), a leader in the US “low-altitude flight economy”. This means that the US aircraft manufacturer is focusing on its core commercial aircraft and military defense business. After the news came out, Archer Aviation's stock price surged more than 15% at the beginning of the US stock market.

For eVTOL (pure electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) and the “low-altitude economy” as a whole, the more important signal is that industrial competition is upgrading from “who can build an electric city aircraft that can fly” to “who can build a complete low-altitude aviation ecosystem”.

The two companies said in a joint statement on Monday that Archer, headquartered in California, will take over Boeing's Wisk, SkyGrid and InSitu business divisions, which design and manufacture unmanned aircraft and urban air traffic management systems. Archer now has WISK's autonomy, AirSpace Intelligence (a system using artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize flight routes and air traffic flow) and large amounts of in-situ real flight data, and superimposing its own Midnight, drone, and aviation AI platforms, which is equivalent to going from an eVTOL OEM to “Aircraft Autonomy (Aircraft Autonomy) +Airspace OS (Airspace Digitization) The evolution of the “management operating system) +military defense” Physical AI (that is, physical AI) air taxi superplatform.

Boeing integrated Wisk, SkyGrid, and InSitu into Archer in exchange for close to 20% of the shares and continued to retain the right to use core autonomous flight technology. The actual signal released was not “Boeing withdrew from eVTOL,” but rather the low-altitude economy began to shift from a decentralized prototype competition to a platform integration stage integrating autonomous flight, airspace management, machine manufacturing, and defense scenarios.

Boeing “slimmed down” and Archer accelerated expansion!

According to the statement, as part of the deal, Boeing will also acquire part of Archer's shares and reach an important technology sharing arrangement agreement with it. Through this latest agreement, Boeing will continue to retain the right to use Wisk's core autonomous flight technology to apply it to existing and next-generation commercial and military aircraft manufacturing systems.

After years of management mistakes and quality delivery issues, and after these two factors led to the removal of the previous management, Boeing has been committed to reversing the company's overall business situation. Selling the business layout other than the core commercial and military aerospace business is an important reversal. Its biggest competitor, European-based Airbus SE (Airbus SE), also suspended plans to develop so-called “urban flying taxis” last year.

After the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, after a large number of pure electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (that is, eVTOL) companies went public and burned billions of dollars in research and development, Archer is one of the few electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft developers that are still stable, that is, one of the top developers of eVTOL aircraft.

The Trump administration prioritized eVTOL testing in a 2025 executive order on “American drone dominance.” Earlier this year, the US Federal Aviation Administration launched an eVTOL integration pilot program to test advanced air vehicles at eight locations.

Archer's Midnight aircraft are expected to obtain official air taxi regulatory certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration until next year at the earliest.

After the news was announced, Archer's stock price rose 25% in pre-market trading in the US stock market. Boeing's stock price was basically flat; after the opening of the US stock market, the former stock price rose by more than 15%.

In 2023, Boeing became the sole owner of Wisk. Wisk is an urban air taxi startup with a Google research team background. At the time, the century-old aviation giant wanted to use Silicon Valley's technological strength to expand its layout in the field of future air taxi autonomous aircraft.

Archer swallowed Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu, and the low-altitude economy ushered in major industrial integration

This deal is ostensibly a sale of non-core assets by Boeing, but in essence it is closer to an industrial restructuring of “capital withdrawal, technology retention, and equity rebet.” Archer will acquire Boeing's Wisk Aero, SkyGrid, and InSitu: Wisk contributed autonomous flight technology accumulated through six generations of aircraft and more than 1,700 test flights. SkyGrid provides traffic management software for automated airspace, while Insitu has a mature drone and defense business, covering 35 countries and currently generating more than 200 million US dollars in annual revenue; the three companies have a total of nearly 2 million hours of flight experience.

At the same time, Boeing did not completely withdraw, but instead acquired nearly 20% of Archer's shares after the merger, retained the right to use Wisk's core autonomous flight technology, and continued technical cooperation with Archer. For Boeing, this is a transfer of expensive eVTOL R&D risks with a long certification cycle to specialized platforms while continuing to preserve room for future technology and equity growth; for Archer, it is a five-piece puzzle of manned eVTOL+ autonomous flight+drones+airspace management+defense revenue in one go.

For eVTOL and the entire “low-altitude economy” industry chain, the more important signal is that industrial competition is upgrading from “who can build an electric aircraft that can fly” to “who can build a complete low-altitude aviation system”. The bottlenecks to true large-scale commercialization have never been just battery, motor, and aerodynamics design, but also safety redundancy, flight control and sensing, FAA airworthiness certification, autonomous driving, real-time airspace scheduling, ground infrastructure, and traffic management for thousands of aircraft running concurrently.

The US regulatory side has entered the actual operation verification stage: the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) eVTOL Integration Pilot Program has selected 8 projects, covering 26 states, to test urban air taxis, cargo transportation, medical transportation, and autonomous flight. Among them, Archer participated in projects such as New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Florida. This means that the US low-altitude economy is crossing the “prototype display” stage and gradually entering the industrialized verification period of certification—operation—airspace infrastructure—large-scale deployment.

The deal also meant that eVTOL began entering the second phase of “concentration of winners”, rather than the entire industry being bearish on Boeing. After the pandemic, a large number of eVTOL startups relied on capital market financing to finance research and development, but aviation manufacturing had extremely high certification costs, accident liability, manufacturing capital expenses, and operating thresholds, so it is unlikely to eventually accommodate dozens of independent machine manufacturers; Boeing concentrated Wisk, SkyGrid, and InSitu into Archer, and at the same time became close to 20% of strategic shareholders, actually actively promoting the concentration of resources on leading platforms. Companies that may actually receive long-term valuation premiums in the low-altitude economy in the future are no longer just companies that “can fly”, but platform-based enterprises that can simultaneously cross the five barriers of airworthiness certification, large-scale manufacturing, autonomous physical AI flight, airspace digitalization, and dual-use business models.