Archer Aviation to acquire three Boeing businesses; Boeing gets 19.75% stake

Steven Porrello, The Motley Fool Wed, August 12, 2026 at 9:35 AM PDT 5 min read

Tickers: ACHR | BA | ARCH.OL | NVDA

After a relatively quiet first half of the year, Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) has accelerated its momentum. The company has announced a series of exciting developments in recent weeks, the most notable involving its longtime partner, aerospace giant Boeing (NYSE: BA).

Archer has agreed to acquire three Boeing businesses — Wisk Aero, Insitu, and SkyGrid — in exchange for newly issued Archer stock. Upon closing, Archer will issue Boeing a stake equal to 19.75% of its Class A shares outstanding immediately before the transaction.

Archer stock surged as much as 25% on the news but has since settled to a roughly 13% gain at the time of this writing. Still, the deal has reinvigorated Archer investors and could become one of the most consequential transactions in the company's short history — particularly for its growing defense business.

Below, we examine why the deal matters, its pros and cons, and whether it makes us more or less bullish on Archer stock.

Boeing Is Giving Archer's Defense Business a Major Boost

Archer is focused on building new aircraft for urban transportation, military, and defense applications. For most of its existence, the company has worked tirelessly to certify its Midnight eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft, which would enable the commercialization of its air taxi business.

Image source: Archer Aviation.

Most people know Archer from its vision of urban air travel, often likened to flying cars (though Midnight is nothing like the hovering cars of Back to the Future: Part II). However, Archer has recently leaned harder into another side of its business — one that could generate much-needed revenue before the air taxi side is cleared for takeoff.

That side is defense. Archer has worked with the U.S. Department of Defense for years, but its current defense business ramped up significantly in late 2024, when Archer and defense technology company Anduril established a strategic partnership. The results of that relationship emerged last month, when the companies unveiled a jointly developed autonomous platform and its military variant, Thunder.

It is no surprise, then, that one of the three Boeing businesses Archer is acquiring is Insitu — a meaningfully profitable military-drone company. Insitu specializes in uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and has manufactured and fielded more than 3,500 of them. The company generates over $200 million in annual revenue — nearly $200 million more than Archer itself generated in 2025 (approximately $300,000).

Archer also acquired Wisk, a separate eVTOL company that has completed more than 1,700 flight tests of its own eVTOLs, and SkyGrid, an air traffic management platform.

Together, these three businesses — combined with Archer's existing air taxi and defense operations — are transforming Archer into a much broader aerospace company, one that could control far more of the technology behind autonomous aviation than previously anticipated.

The Hefty Cost of the Deal: Dilution

For Archer investors, the primary downside of the transaction is dilution. Issuing nearly 20% of the company's Class A shares to Boeing represents a significant cost, and shareholders will need to weigh whether the strategic benefits justify the dilution.