Archer Aviation Acquires Boeing's Autonomous-Flight Assets
Archer Aviation has made a significant move in the aviation industry by acquiring three subsidiaries from Boeing, namely Wisk Aero, Insitu, and SkyGrid. This deal is expected to close by the end of 2026, pending an antitrust review.
In exchange for the acquisition, Boeing will take an equity stake in Archer Aviation and gain a seat on its board. Additionally, the two companies have agreed to a technology-sharing arrangement that will allow Boeing to continue working with Wisk's autonomous-flight technology.
The three subsidiaries being acquired by Archer are quite different from each other. Wisk Aero is focused on developing self-flying air taxis, while Insitu has been providing combat-proven drones to the armed forces of 35 nations. SkyGrid, on the other hand, offers aircraft-agnostic air-traffic software that allows swarms of autonomous aircraft to share the same sky safely.
Insitu's revenue is reportedly over $200 million a year, with operations in 35 countries and nearly two million combined flight hours of data fed into Archer's AI model for aerospace and defense.