Archer to acquire Wisk, Insitu and SkyGrid as Boeing takes 19.75% stake

Archer Aviation has agreed to acquire Boeing subsidiaries Wisk Aero, Insitu and SkyGrid in a sweeping transaction that will give Boeing an almost 20% holding in Archer and significantly expand the eVTOL developer’s reach into autonomous aviation, defence and airspace management.

The deal brings together three very different Boeing businesses: Wisk’s autonomous passenger eVTOL, Insitu’s combat-proven uncrewed aircraft and SkyGrid’s digital airspace technology.

Boeing will receive Archer shares representing 19.75% of the company’s outstanding Class A stock when the transaction closes, together with the right to appoint one director to Archer’s board. Boeing will also receive two warrants allowing it to purchase up to $200 million in additional Archer stock later.

The transaction remains subject to various conditions, including regulatory requirements under US competition law. It is expected to complete by the end of 2026.

What exactly is Archer buying from Boeing?

Of the three companies involved in the transaction, Wisk is the most instantly recognisable.

The Californian company has spent 16 years developing autonomous electric aircraft and has designed, built and flown six generations of eVTOLs, accumulating more than 1,700 flight tests.

Its current Generation 6 aircraft is being developed as an autonomous, passenger-carrying eVTOL with no pilot on board.

The four-seat aircraft is designed to cruise at 120 knots with a range of around 90 miles including reserves, operating autonomously with human oversight from the ground.

Generation 6 made its first flight in December 2025, with a second aircraft joining the flight-test programme in May 2026 as Wisk works towards what it hopes will become the first certification of an autonomous passenger-carrying aircraft in the US.

Boeing has invested heavily in getting Wisk this far. In January 2022 alone, it committed another $450 million to the company to support development of Generation 6, manufacturing preparations and autonomous flight technology.

But Wisk is only one part of the package.

Insitu brings Archer an established defence UAS business with operations extending far beyond the developmental programmes usually associated with the eVTOL sector.

The Boeing subsidiary manufactures the ScanEagle and Integrator families of uncrewed aircraft and has fielded more than 3,500 UAS. Its aircraft have accumulated more than 1.6 million operational hours and have been used by armed forces in 35 countries.

ScanEagle offers an endurance of 18 hours plus, while the larger Integrator can remain airborne for up to 27.5 hours and carry as much as 50 lb of payload. The systems are used for missions including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, targeting, communications relay and maritime operations.

Crucially for Archer, Insitu is already a profitable business generating more than $200 million in annual revenue, immediately adding an established revenue stream to a company still in the early stages of commercialising its own aircraft.

The third acquisition, SkyGrid, is less visible but could become an important part of Archer’s autonomy strategy.

The Austin-based company develops ground-based digital services and air traffic management technology designed to allow autonomous and highly automated aircraft to operate safely alongside conventional aviation. Its systems combine aeronautical, environmental and surveillance data with automated decision support and traffic management.

SkyGrid has already been working closely with Wisk and Boeing on proposals for Automated Flight Rules, intended to create an operating framework for high-density autonomous aviation beyond the limitations of today’s Visual and Instrument Flight Rules.

Together, Boeing says Wisk, Insitu and SkyGrid bring almost two million combined flight hours of experience to Archer.

Why does Archer want Wisk and its autonomy technology?

The acquisition makes considerably more sense when viewed alongside Archer’s rapid expansion beyond its Midnight air taxi.

Midnight remains Archer’s primary passenger eVTOL and is following a conventional path into service with a pilot on board. Wisk, by contrast, has built its aircraft and certification strategy around autonomous passenger flight from the outset.

Archer and Wisk are also far from strangers.

The companies were once fierce legal rivals, with Wisk suing Archer in 2021 over allegations of trade secret theft and patent infringement.

That dispute ended exactly three years before the acquisition announcement, on 10 August 2023, when Archer, Wisk and Boeing settled their litigation and entered into a new collaboration.

Under that agreement, Archer made Wisk its exclusive supplier of autonomy technology for future variants of Archer aircraft, while Boeing invested in Archer to support the eventual integration of Wisk technology.

Buying Wisk brings technology that Archer had already identified as central to its autonomous future directly inside the company. It also comes just weeks after Archer used Farnborough International Airshow to make clear that its ambitions now stretch well beyond conventional electric air taxis.

At FIA 2026, Archer and Anduril unveiled a new autonomous hybrid-electric VTOL platform designed for both commercial and military missions.

Anduril’s defence version, Thunder, is being developed as a Group 5 autonomous attack rotorcraft, while Archer subsequently unveiled Halo as the commercial version of the same underlying platform. The two aircraft share an airframe, hybrid powertrain and core systems but can carry different payloads according to their missions.

Archer said at Farnborough that the platform drew on eight years of technology development from its commercial eVTOL programme, with Thunder’s first flight planned for 2027.

Adding Wisk, Insitu and SkyGrid considerably broadens the technology and experience available to support that strategy.

Wisk brings years of autonomous passenger aircraft development and work towards civil certification. Insitu brings operational military UAS, defence customers and expertise operating uncrewed aircraft in demanding and contested environments. SkyGrid brings the digital infrastructure intended to allow autonomous aircraft to operate at scale.

Alongside Midnight, Halo and Thunder, the acquisitions point towards an Archer that looks increasingly different from the air taxi company that entered the public markets five years ago.

Archer CEO Adam Goldstein described the transaction as a “watershed moment”, saying it represented the next step in building a more diversified company with greater scale and a growing revenue base.

Is Boeing giving up on advanced air mobility?

For Boeing, transferring Wisk to Archer inevitably raises another question: is one of the world’s biggest aerospace companies abandoning the advanced air mobility market?

The answer is more complicated than a straightforward exit.

Boeing is giving up direct ownership and control of Wisk, along with Insitu and SkyGrid, as it concentrates investment on its core commercial aircraft and defence businesses. The structure of the transaction, however, leaves Boeing heavily exposed to whatever Archer does next.

In addition to its 19.75% Class A stake, potential additional investment through the warrants and board representation, Boeing and Archer are establishing an ongoing collaboration and technology-sharing agreement.

Most significantly, Boeing will retain access to Wisk’s core autonomous flight technology for use in both current and future Boeing commercial and defence aircraft programmes.

Brian Yutko, Boeing vice president of Commercial Airplanes Product Development, called the transaction a “win-win for Boeing and Archer”.

He said the deal would allow Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu to develop and reach the market more quickly, while Boeing continues to benefit from technologies in which it has invested over the past two decades.

Rather than walking away from autonomous aviation altogether, Boeing appears to be changing the way it participates.

The company will no longer carry the direct responsibility of developing and commercialising Wisk’s air taxi, but retains access to its autonomy technology and will become one of the largest strategic shareholders in the company taking Wisk forward.

For Archer, meanwhile, the deal represents a much more fundamental transformation.

If completed, it will bring together a piloted passenger eVTOL, an autonomous passenger aircraft programme, a new generation of hybrid autonomous VTOLs, a mature military drone manufacturer and an airspace automation business under one company.

The result is an Archer that increasingly looks less like an eVTOL start-up and more like a diversified autonomous aerospace and defence manufacturer.