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Archer CEO Adam Goldstein discusses upcoming US air taxi trials, FAA certification, partnerships, and industry outlook for eVTOL aircraft.
Key Takeaways
- FAA's EIP program is critical for initial air taxi operations and community integration.
- Archer is financially well-positioned to sustain development through certification and launch phases.
- Partnerships with cities and international stakeholders are key to Archer's growth strategy.
- The eVTOL industry is expected to be large but dominated by a few major players.
- Archer is preparing for both commercial air taxi services and defense applications.
Summary
- Archer Aviation, led by CEO Adam Goldstein, is preparing for initial air taxi operations under the FAA's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (EIP).
- The EIP program, initiated by a Trump executive order, aims to position the US as a leader in advanced air mobility.
- Archer has submitted applications with multiple US cities, including Huntington Beach, California, targeting initial launches in 2026.
- The company plans to start flying air taxis in select cities by summer 2026, with a focus on community acceptance and safety validation.
- Archer is the exclusive air taxi partner for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, using Huntington Beach as a strategic launch site.
- The company has a strong financial position with nearly $2 billion cash on hand to support development through certification and launch.
- Archer is also pursuing international opportunities, including a launch in Abu Dhabi and partnerships with UAE sovereign wealth funds.
- The company is developing a defense vertical lift hybrid aircraft in partnership with Anduril, targeting multi-billion dollar defense programs.
- Industry analysts, including Morgan Stanley, predict a multi-trillion dollar market for eVTOL and advanced air mobility, with few dominant players expected.
- Archer aims to replicate a slow, community-focused launch model similar to Whim, prioritizing safety and local acceptance before revenue generation.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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applications to launch initial air taxi operations. The FAA set to review applications submitted during this initial phase of what's called the EIP, the EV tall integration pilot program.
Speaker A
So, some news. Back in December, the eVTOL maker Archer Aviation announced it had partnered with cities across the US to submit multiple applications to launch initial air taxi operations.
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Yeah. Adam's the founder and CEO of Archer Aviation. It's the $5.6 billion market cap EV tall company. He joins us from San Jose, California. You were last on with us in early November. A lot has happened since then. And I want to start
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The FAA is set to review applications submitted during this initial phase of what's called the EIP, the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.
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Well, the EIP program was put in place from uh an executive order from President Trump, which really was to, you know, ensure that America takes a leading position in this new advanced air mobility space. And so as an
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I'm mentioning this because it's important for a conversation with Adam Goldstein. I appreciate that. Right. There's a process to all of this, right?
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will ultimately get named and then ultimately we'll start flying um later this year in the summer time period. So it's not that they're new partnerships, it's we all submitted as an industry um for these individual cities and we
Speaker A
Yeah. Adam's the founder and CEO of Archer Aviation. It's the $5.6 billion market cap eVTOL company. He joins us from San Jose, California. You were last on with us in early November. A lot has happened since then. And I want to start
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Sure. You should think about this as the industries's uh almost like a Whimo moment, right? So, we have to put these aircrafts in the air, get the local communities comfortable with them, prove that they're safe, prove that they're
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with this EIP. You've mentioned in the past plans in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and New York, but we don't know much beyond exclusivity in Huntington Beach, so one part of California. Have any more partnerships emerged at this point?
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looking at some of the biggest cities that make sense the New York cities the Los Angeles those type of cities but also cities that are really leaned in that might have some you know practical type of uh you know situation coming up.
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Well, the EIP program was put in place from an executive order from President Trump, which really was to, you know, ensure that America takes a leading position in this new advanced air mobility space. And so as an
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area, allow us start flying it to know that environment, that airspace really, really well, start to set up all the infrastructure, and then ultimately scale as we get into uh and closer to the Olympics. All right. So, let's talk
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industry, we had to submit the different cities that we wanted to launch into. And those cities are being reviewed and there's discussions being had now on where the ultimate launch will take place. It's expected that five cities
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of view? Because that's certainly important in terms of viability. Yeah. So, if you look at the whole industry, the industry according to pretty much any analyst expected to be very very big. I think Morgan Stanley is probably the most bullish. They have a
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will ultimately get named and then ultimately we'll start flying later this year in the summertime period. So it's not that they're new partnerships, it's we all submitted as an industry for these individual cities and we
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companies in the EV tall industry and it's likely that there's only a few companies that ultimately end up getting to market and ultimately scale to some very very large uh numbers and my guess would be larger than any one individual
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expect that to launch coming up here soon.
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you know economically attractive. So that's really the goal and the game that we're playing. So we have an aircraft we've built that's become very mature.
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Okay. Can you talk a little more about partnerships that you're working on or the structure of them, what they look like, what the opportunities are?
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Very similar to what Whimo did was a slow launch into these cities, gaining the acceptance. So, it's really about proving those points today rather than generating revenue today. The revenue will come. There has been an overwhelming amount of inbound interest
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Sure. You should think about this as the industry's almost like a Whim moment, right? So, we have to put these aircraft in the air, get the local communities comfortable with them, prove that they're safe, prove that they're
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No, I get it. I get it. And I'm looking though, and I I get it why you guys have a free cash flow that's negative um by a lot. But I'm just I guess I'm just trying to understand from a perspective
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quiet, and really show that the tech is here and it's ready. That's really what this is all about—giving everybody comfort so we can have the community acceptance so we can really launch this thing forward. So of course we're
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Sure. So Archer is to in a fortunate position where you know we finished the year with nearly $2 billion of cash on hand. So I think the most in the industry uh you know by by a long shot.
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looking at some of the biggest cities that make sense: the New York cities, the Los Angeles, those types of cities, but also cities that are really leaned in that might have some, you know, practical type of situation coming up.
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very comfortable position today. Um but it's not something that we're sitting back and getting, you know, uh you know, lazy about or getting too excited about.
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So, for example, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, where Archer was named the exclusive air taxi partner, was really in our sights. And so, we did that by partnering with Huntington as a way to really put us close to the
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So if I look at, you know, the EIP starting in 2026 and then I look at the Olympics in 2028, we'll get certified hopefully sometime in between that time period and we have plenty of cash to last us, you know, through that time
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area, allow us to start flying it to know that environment, that airspace really, really well, start to set up all the infrastructure, and then ultimately scale as we get into and closer to the Olympics. All right. So, let's talk
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What happens if you're not certified by the Olympics? Well, we also do have an international strategy um as well. And so we launched last year in Abu Dhabi. We have um a great relationship with the with the UAE. Two of the sovereign wealth funds
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a little bit about finances and money because, you know, we certainly like to do that kind of stuff. Talk to us. The operations are generating, from what we understand, little or no revenue. What would that mean from a cash burn point
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the defense business. And so we announced a partnership with Anderoll. We've been working on new vertical lift aircraft with them designed for defense.
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of view? Because that's certainly important in terms of viability.
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building a new full-scale um uh vertical lift hybrid aircraft that's designed for defense applications um that we do expect a program to get announced into the many many uh billions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars type. We're
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Yeah. So, if you look at the whole industry, the industry according to pretty much any analyst is expected to be very, very big. I think Morgan Stanley is probably the most bullish. They have a multi-trillion dollar valuation on the industry. Now, it's different than autos in the sense that there are only a few players. Like in aviation, you typically have like a Boeing and an Airbus type of situation. So, there's a couple leading
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Hey Adam, you've you've you made a reference earlier in our conversation to sort of the Boeing and Airbus duopoly and and the way those companies of course work is they sell or or you know they sell aircraft to the the airlines
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companies in the eVTOL industry and it's likely that there's only a few companies that ultimately end up getting to market and ultimately scale to some very, very large numbers. My guess would be larger than any one individual
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who do you sell that to? Yeah, we will focus primarily on the sales side of things for the I'll call it um you know the early or or maybe even really for the first decade the early years of this industry and so I
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automaker has been excluding Tesla, which is more of a, you know, a pure AI company in my view. So you have this kind of scenario here where it's all about surviving to get through certification and then scaling into a business that's
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something that's very affordable for us and ultimately over the long term when autonomy comes you know we can really then think about um you know considering you know scaling our own internal airline, we will of course do things
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economically attractive. So that's really the goal and the game that we're playing. So we have an aircraft we've built that's become very mature.
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sell that to? So there's a couple different categories, but you can think about where vertical lift aircraft exists today. So helicopters, where they're used, hospitals, tourism, VIP is one category. And then the new category that we're going to add is really the
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We're taking it through the certification process and ultimately going to launch it. So how are we going to launch that? We start very slowly and methodically. That's what the EIP is about. It's a slow, methodical launch.
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Sign us sign me up. Uh maybe maybe really. Yeah. Yeah. If this is if this thing is approved, all right, I'll get in.
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Very similar to what Whim did was a slow launch into these cities, gaining the acceptance. So, it's really about proving those points today rather than generating revenue today. The revenue will come. There has been an overwhelming amount of inbound interest
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FAA statement, right? We're certifying them at very high levels of safety. So, you know, from a a perception, a consumer perception perspective, you know, if you were willing to take a helicopter, this is just a safer version of that. In fact, you'll be certifying
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from countries all over the world that want these aircraft there. And there's very few OEMs that actually can deliver against that. So, the focus really is about the certification side.
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is certified per unit, what are you thinking? So, our goal is to get the cost of the aircraft down to 2.5 million. we sell them the that that's the target price and when you do the math and translate that
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No, I get it. I get it. And I'm looking though, and I get it why you guys have a free cash flow that's negative by a lot. But I'm just, I guess, I'm just trying to understand from a perspective
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through volume of course um and so that's not going to happen year one that's going to take several years to get there and so we think once you sort of get across the 500 600 700 aircraft units you can get these aircrafts to
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though as everybody's jockeying for position, what is your cash burn and just is it manageable?
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So you're talking maybe like a ride from Midtown to LaGuardia that would cost maybe under $100.
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Sure. So Archer is in a fortunate position where, you know, we finished the year with nearly $2 billion of cash on hand. So I think the most in the industry, you know, by a long shot.
Speaker A
All right. Looking forward to it. Um good stuff. Adam, stay in touch. We love uh getting the updates from you. Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer Aviation, joining us
Topics:Archer AviationAdam GoldsteineVTOLair taxiFAAEIP programadvanced air mobilityLos Angeles 2028 Olympicsurban air mobilitydefense aircraft
