Boeing is selling its air taxi startups to Archer Aviation

Boeing has agreed to divest three of its electric vertical takeoff and landing subsidiaries—including the autonomous flight developer Wisk Aero—by selling them to Archer Aviation.

As part of this transactional agreement, the major aerospace corporation will also secure an undisclosed equity stake in Archer. The acquisition additionally encompasses SkyGrid, a specialist firm building air traffic management infrastructure for urban aviation, and Insitu, a developer of high-altitude uncrewed aircraft utilized by the military. This arrangement ensures that both enterprises will actively share proprietary technology, enabling Boeing to continue utilizing advanced autonomous flight systems across its commercial and defense initiatives.

This strategic reorganization is expected to help Boeing redirect its attention and financial assets toward addressing severe hurdles within its core passenger airliner business. The manufacturing giant is currently grappling with an immense backlog of aircraft orders alongside intensive regulatory investigations sparked by several high-profile safety mishaps. Concurrently, the transaction significantly bolsters Archer's efforts to establish a dominant position in the highly competitive electric air taxi market, where it hopes to deploy pilot passenger services in several major metropolitan areas before the end of the year. This deal also marks a major turning point in the relationship between the two aviation companies, which previously resolved a bitter intellectual property lawsuit with an exclusive technology sharing agreement.