Archer to Acquire Wisk, Insitu, SkyGrid as Boeing Expands Asset Sales

SILICON VALLEY — Archer Aviation has agreed to acquire Boeing subsidiaries Wisk Aero, Insitu, and SkyGrid in an equity transaction that will give Boeing a major Archer stake while moving autonomous aircraft, uncrewed defense systems, and airspace-management software under one owner.

The definitive agreement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission covers all equity interests in the three principal subsidiaries and related entities including Insitu Pacific, Wisk Australia, and Boeing Emirates.

Archer is not simply purchasing rival air-taxi developer Wisk. It is absorbing three businesses with different roles: Wisk's autonomous electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) program, Insitu's operational uncrewed aircraft and defense business, and SkyGrid's digital airspace-integration platform.

The combination also changes Boeing's relationship with those technologies rather than ending it. Boeing will become a large Archer shareholder, can nominate a director while maintaining a required ownership level, and will retain access to specified Wisk technology through a cross-license arrangement.

Boeing Takes Stock and Warrants Instead of a Disclosed Cash Price

At closing, Archer will issue Boeing Class A shares equal to 19.75% of the Archer Class A shares outstanding immediately before closing, subject to adjustments for cash, debt, and transaction expenses at the target companies.

Issuing shares equal to 19.75% of the old share count gives Boeing approximately 16.5% of the enlarged Class A share count before other dilution. That is the origin of the 16.5% figure associated with the transaction; it is not a fixed percentage written directly into the consideration formula.

Boeing will also receive two warrants. Each will cover a number of shares calculated by dividing US$100 million by Archer's five-day volume-weighted average share price immediately before closing. One has a US$13 exercise price and a three-year life after closing; the second has a US$17.88 exercise price and a four-year life. Neither can be exercised during the first 12 months.

The warrants could increase Boeing's economic exposure if Archer's share price makes exercise attractive. They initially prevent Boeing from crossing 19.9% beneficial ownership or voting power through exercise, although the filing says Boeing can waive that limitation.

The filed terms therefore do not provide a single cash purchase price. The transaction's value will depend partly on Archer's share count and market price around closing, target-company balance-sheet adjustments, and the eventual value or exercise of the warrants.

Former Courtroom Rivals Move Under One Owner

Wisk and Archer's relationship has already moved through several distinct phases. Wisk sued Archer in 2021 over alleged trade-secret misappropriation and patent infringement, while Archer brought counterclaims and separate litigation involving Boeing.

The companies settled those disputes in August 2023 and entered an autonomy collaboration. Archer agreed to use Wisk as its exclusive autonomy provider for future aircraft variants, and Boeing invested in Archer.

The acquisition replaces that supplier-and-collaborator relationship with common ownership. If the deal closes, Archer will control the Wisk organization and its technology while Boeing retains licensed access and influence through its equity position and board right.

That does not mean Archer's Midnight and Wisk's Generation 6 aircraft become the same program. Midnight is Archer's piloted four-passenger eVTOL design. Wisk has been pursuing Federal Aviation Administration certification for a four-seat autonomous passenger aircraft intended to operate on defined routes and in controlled environments.

Boeing's 2025 annual report said Wisk flew its Generation 6 aircraft in December 2025 after more than 1,750 tests across the company's development history. Archer and Boeing have not said whether Generation 6 will continue unchanged, be combined with another Archer design, or become primarily a technology platform after closing.

The transaction itself grants no FAA approval. Any aircraft or autonomous operating concept must still complete the applicable certification and operational-authorization work.

Insitu Adds Revenue and Defense Customers

Insitu changes Archer's business more immediately than the two advanced-air-mobility companies alone. The Boeing subsidiary designs and supports uncrewed aircraft used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

The joint transaction announcement filed with the SEC says Insitu has manufactured and fielded more than 3,500 systems and supports customers in 35 countries. Archer describes it as a profitable business generating more than $200 million in annual revenue, based on Insitu's current financials and estimates.

That revenue statement needs careful treatment. Archer did not publish audited target-company statements with the announcement, and Boeing must provide specified audited and unaudited financial information no later than 60 days after closing. Until then, the filing does not show Insitu's exact profit, margin, backlog, or the period underlying the revenue figure.

Strategically, Insitu gives Archer an operating defense business rather than another development-stage aircraft program. It also brings government customers, field support, manufacturing experience, and a large installed base of uncrewed systems.

SkyGrid Connects Aircraft With Airspace Management

SkyGrid supplies the ground-based layer of the combination. Its technology is designed to manage automated aircraft movements and integrate them into shared airspace.

That role becomes more important as Archer expands beyond a single piloted eVTOL. An autonomy stack must control the aircraft, but scalable operations also require traffic coordination, route authorization, fleet supervision, and communication with airspace systems.

Wisk and SkyGrid have already developed concepts for automated flight rules. Bringing both into Archer gives the buyer aircraft, onboard autonomy, and ground-based traffic-management capabilities, although regulators—not the transaction parties—will determine how those systems can be used in civil airspace.

Boeing Continues a Broader Portfolio Narrowing

The agreement extends Boeing's disposal of businesses outside the commercial-aircraft, defense, and core-services areas on which management says it is concentrating investment.

Boeing completed the sale of Jeppesen, ForeFlight, AerData, and OzRunways to Thomas Bravo in November 2025 after agreeing to the U$10.55 billion cash transaction. Boeing recorded a US$9.6 billion gain when that Digital Aviation Solutions divestiture closed.

The Archer transaction differs from that sale. Boeing is not taking a disclosed cash price and walking away. It is exchanging the three subsidiaries for equity and warrants, keeping technology rights, and retaining a governance connection to the combined business.

That structure lets Boeing reduce direct funding and management responsibility for the programs while preserving exposure to their future value. Calling the agreement an abandonment of autonomy would therefore be inaccurate; Boeing is changing how it owns and accesses the technology.

Closing Still Requires Regulatory Clearances

Archer and Boeing expect the transaction to close by the end of 2026. That timetable remains conditional.

The agreement requires expiration or termination of the U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period, certain national-security or foreign-investment approvals, New York Stock Exchange clearance for the consideration shares, and other customary conditions.

The purchase agreement can generally be terminated if closing has not occurred by May 9, 2027. Either company can extend that date by three months if the regulatory condition is the principal remaining obstacle.

After closing, Boeing will be entitled to nominate one Archer director while maintaining the contractual minimum ownership. The companies will also enter reciprocal intellectual-property licenses and transition-service arrangements as Archer separates the businesses from Boeing.

Boeing has separately agreed to purchase as much as US$55 million of Archer stock if Archer conducts a qualifying equity offering of at least US$400 million before the contractual deadline and other conditions are met. That is a conditional forward commitment, not cash Archer receives automatically at closing.

The Integration Test Comes Before the Technology Vision

Archer presents the combination as a single aerospace and defense artificial-intelligence platform. The assets do provide complementary pieces, but the near-term work is more conventional: obtain regulatory approvals, transfer employees and contracts, separate shared Boeing services, preserve customer programs, and decide which aircraft developments receive capital.

The largest unanswered program question is Wisk. Archer gains autonomous-flight technology and a certification effort, but it must explain whether Generation 6 remains a standalone commercial aircraft alongside Midnight or whether the technology will migrate into future Archer products.

For Boeing, the test is whether a large minority stake and license rights preserve enough strategic value after giving up direct ownership. For Archer, the test is whether it can integrate a revenue-generating defense manufacturer and two autonomy businesses without slowing Midnight certification or overextending its cash resources.

The agreement creates a substantially broader company if it closes. It does not, by itself, certify an autonomous air taxi, guarantee the projected financial benefits, or settle which aircraft architecture ultimately reaches commercial service.