Archer Signs Boeing Deal to Add Wisk, Insitu, SkyGrid

The Tip Desk · August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

The air-taxi developer ended the quarter with $1.56 billion of cash and said Insitu alone would add more than $200 million of annual revenue.

Archer Aviation Inc. (ACHR) entered agreements to acquire Boeing’s Wisk Aero, Insitu and SkyGrid, with Boeing taking a strategic equity stake, in a transaction that would add more than $200 million of annual revenue from Insitu alone and recast Archer as a diversified aerospace and defense platform.

The air-taxi developer anticipates closing by year-end, subject to regulatory approvals. After closing, the product portfolio would span piloted air taxis, unmanned aircraft systems in Groups 2 through 5, purpose-built AI for aviation, and the vertical technology stack for autonomous flight.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Adam Goldstein called the quarter an inflection point, citing the planned acquisitions together with the unveiling of Halo, ZEE and ACES as evidence of a multi-platform strategy across air taxis, UAS and AI.

Insitu, a profitable ISR drone manufacturer with more than $200 million in annual revenue across 35 countries, is the near-term revenue source. Insitu has produced more than 4,000 Group 2 and Group 3 aircraft and flown nearly 2 million autonomous flight hours, a dataset key to autonomy development. Wisk, founded in 2010, is being acquired to accelerate the Halo/Thunder platform with autonomy, flight controls and sensor technology; Archer plans to deploy that technology on Halo first and later bring it to the air taxi once the FAA is ready to certify passenger autonomy. SkyGrid, an airspace-management developer since 2018, is positioned alongside ZEE as an air-traffic-management product.

In July, Archer and Anduril unveiled Halo/Thunder, a jointly developed autonomous, hybrid VTOL platform with a shared airframe, hybrid powertrain and configurable payload. Thunder is the missionized defense variant aimed at reconnaissance attack helicopters; Halo is the commercial variant. Goldstein said the combined Group 5 market is massive and that deploying the technology early in defense can feed autonomy and cost benefits back into air taxis.

Archer also announced ZEE, an aviation-specific foundation model built on ADS-B, ATC communications, maps, terrain and weather data, designed to run on-device or server-hosted. ZEE recently demonstrated real-time airport surface trajectory prediction, and testing has begun at Hawthorne Airport, Archer’s planned Los Angeles air-taxi hub.

On the commercial Midnight program, the company completed a piloted round trip between Salinas Municipal Airport and Monterey Regional Airport in July, with each leg taking about nine minutes versus more than 35 minutes by car, in coordination with the FAA. Archer plans to begin flying in the Los Angeles area out of Hawthorne and to commence operations later this year under the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program in Texas. It also launched ACES with BETA Technologies and Macquarie Capital to bring interoperable charging to more than 250 sites across the United States by 2030.

Revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, was $5.0 million, up $3.4 million from the first quarter as Archer expanded operations at Hawthorne. Operating expenses were $284.2 million, up $28.0 million from the prior quarter, which the company attributed to flight testing, certification and production for Midnight, hybrid-aircraft design, and ZEE development. Research and development was $186.0 million and general and administrative expenses were $93.9 million.

Net loss was $263.2 million, or $0.34 a share, compared with $217.7 million, or $0.28 a share, in the first quarter. The $45.5 million increase reflected the $28.0 million rise in operating expenses, an $18.8 million decrease in the non-cash gain on the change in fair value of warrants, and a $2.2 million decrease in interest income, offset by the $3.4 million revenue increase.

Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $177.1 million, on the lower end of the $170 million to $200 million range Archer had given, and a planned $4.6 million increase from the first quarter. For the third quarter of 2026, Archer expects Adjusted EBITDA to be a loss of $170 million to $200 million.

Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $1,560.6 million at June 30, down $215.3 million from the first quarter. The decline was primarily due to $156.4 million used in operating activities, $37.1 million for property and equipment, and $25.0 million for the Hawthorne fixed-base operator acquisition. Goldstein said integration of the Boeing companies is intended not to structurally increase overall cash burn.