Joby Aviation, the Santa Cruz-based electric air taxi maker, announced Tuesday it will buy Ohio defense technology company Resonant Sciences for about $500 million, a deal meant to give the cash-burning aircraft developer an immediate foothold in the booming military market. Resonant designs and manufactures advanced radio-frequency and mission systems for U.S. national security customers, and it will become Joby's dedicated defense business once the acquisition closes. Joby's shares fell 6.5% in premarket trading on the news.
According to Reuters, Joby expects to fund the purchase with roughly $450 million in cash and $50 million in common stock, and the two companies anticipate the deal closing in the first half of 2027. Joby's commercial aircraft division will stay focused on its electric air taxi ambitions, while Resonant's hybrid aircraft and autonomy technologies get folded into the new standalone defense unit. The move comes as evtol companies increasingly look to the military market for revenue, a shift Reuters ties to rising defense spending amid the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
A Profitable Defense Contractor Joins a Cash-Strapped Air Taxi Maker
Resonant brings something Joby badly needs: actual profit. The Dayton-based company has generated over $100 million in trailing-twelve-month revenue with roughly 40% year-over-year growth, and it operates at high-teens adjusted EBITDA margins, according to Investing.com. Resonant more than tripled its bookings in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier, with that growth anchored by long-cycle contracts with the U.S. government and major defense prime contractors, the outlet reports.
Founded in 2015 and currently under parent company Strix Holdings, Resonant employs about 250 people and will keep operating under Co-Founder and CEO J. Micah North once the acquisition closes, per the same report. The company specializes in radio-frequency systems, sensing, mission systems, and stealth technology. Its footprint includes 105,000 square feet across seven buildings in Dayton, with another 125,000-square-foot facility under construction.
Why Dayton, and Why Now
Combined with Joby's existing 768,000 square feet in Ohio, the acquisition pushes the company's regional footprint to roughly 1 million square feet of manufacturing, integration and testing space in the Dayton area, a figure confirmed in both the Investing.com report and Reuters's account. That expanded presence sits close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, headquarters for the Air Force Materiel Command and Air Force Research Laboratory, according to background cited by Investing.com.
The timing is no accident. Joby reported a net loss of $245.4 million for the second quarter of 2026 on revenue of just $38.6 million, a gap that ePlaneAI says reflects the financial pressure facing electric air taxi developers as commercial launch dates approach, since passenger revenue remains restricted until Joby wins final FAA type certification. Absorbing an already-profitable defense contractor lets Joby isolate its commercial certification work while leaning on Resonant's existing national security contracts, per ePlaneAI's reporting.
A $750 Million Cushion Alongside the Acquisition
Joby did not stop at the acquisition announcement. The company also launched a $750 million at-the-market equity program the same day, managed by Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Allen & Company, and BofA Securities, according to TradingView. SEC filings show the arrangement is meant to provide capital flexibility for general corporate purposes and potential transaction funding — a signal, TradingView notes, of the market's sensitivity to dilution, given the stock's initial premarket drop.
None of this is Joby's first brush with military work. The company expanded its AFWERX Agility Prime contract with the U.S. Air Force to $131 million in April 2023 and delivered its first electric vertical takeoff aircraft to Edwards Air Force Base that September, bringing its cumulative Department of Defense contract potential to $163 million, according to FLYING Magazine. Joby also acquired the autonomy division of Xwing Inc. in June 2024, a unit that had logged over 250 fully autonomous flights and earned the FAA's first project designation for certifying a large uncrewed aerial system, per Joby Aviation's own announcement at the time.
Commercial Certification Still Pending
Joby's air taxi program, meanwhile, remains a work in progress. The company began flight testing its first FAA-conforming aircraft in March, entering Stage 5 — the final phase of FAA type certification — which allows FAA pilots to participate in Type Inspection Authorization flight testing. Joby was roughly 75% complete with the prior Stage 4 phase by mid-2026. That same month, the White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program selected Joby to run early operational trials across ten states, including Texas, New York, Florida, and California, with nonpaying and passenger trial flights planned in Texas later this year.
Toyota Motor Corporation remains Joby's largest shareholder, having committed $500 million in additional funding in October 2024 and closing the first $250 million tranche in May 2025 — bringing its cumulative investment in Joby to $894 million to support manufacturing and certification, according to Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota has collaborated with Joby since 2017. Hoodline has previously covered Joby's billion-dollar funding push to scale its Bay Area factory, its invitation-only Hudson River trials, and its partnership with Travis Kalanick's Atoms to build out vertiports across four states.
