Archer Aviation has agreed to acquire Boeing subsidiaries Wisk Aero, Insitu and SkyGrid in a deal that reshapes one of the aerospace industry's most unusual rivalries while expanding Archer beyond the urban air mobility market. Boeing will also become one of Archer's largest shareholders and collaborate with the company on future autonomous aviation technologies.
The transaction combines businesses operating in different segments of advanced aerospace. Archer is developing the Midnight electric air taxi for commercial passenger transport, while Wisk has spent more than a decade designing fully autonomous eVTOL aircraft.
Insitu is an established manufacturer of military unmanned aircraft, including the ScanEagle family used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and SkyGrid develops digital airspace management software intended to support the growing use of autonomous aircraft.
Boeing said the partnership will allow it to continue accessing technologies developed by the three businesses while Archer gains engineering capabilities and products that extend well beyond the electric air taxi market.
The announcement also marks a remarkable turnaround in the relationship between Archer and Wisk.
In 2021, Wisk filed a lawsuit accusing Archer of misappropriating trade secrets after hiring former Wisk engineers. The company alleged that confidential information had been used during the development of Archer's aircraft, while Archer denied the accusations and argued that it had developed its technology independently.
The legal dispute became one of the highest-profile cases in the emerging urban air mobility sector, which at the time was attracting billions of dollars in investment as dozens of startups competed to certify electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
The conflict ended in 2023 when Boeing, Wisk and Archer reached a settlement. Boeing invested in Archer, all litigation was dismissed and Wisk agreed to become the exclusive supplier of autonomous flight technology for future autonomous variants of Archer's aircraft.
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Monday's agreement completes that transformation. Rather than collaborating as separate companies, Wisk will now become part of Archer, while Boeing shifts from owning the autonomous aircraft developer to holding an equity stake in Archer and serving as its long-term industrial partner.
The acquisition also gives Archer an immediate foothold in the defense market through Insitu, whose unmanned aircraft are already in operational service with military customers worldwide. Together with Wisk's autonomy expertise and SkyGrid's airspace management technology, the deal positions Archer as a broader aerospace company spanning commercial advanced air mobility, autonomous aviation and defense systems.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
