Flying-Taxi Maker Archer Accuses Rival Joby of Concealing China Ties

“Archer Aviation, a company that designs electric flying taxis, sued Joby Aviation, alleging that its rival spent years deceiving federal regulators and investors by concealing extensive ties to Chinese suppliers.

 

The suit filed Monday in a California federal court alleges that Joby's actions undermine national security and run contradictory to its branding as an "American-made" air-taxi manufacturer.

 

Joby has spent more than a decade operating a manufacturing subsidiary in Shenzhen, China, and that entity benefited from technology-development grants directly from the Chinese government, according to the suit. The suit alleges that the company fraudulently disguised aerospace imports from that subsidiary by misclassifying the parts as thousands of pounds of socks, napkins, hair clips and other items.

 

Alex Spiro, an attorney for Joby, said the company "doesn't respond to nonsense."

 

"Archer's constant legal issues and flailing business operations have left it no choice but to resort to invented nonsensical theories," Spiro said in a statement. "We will see them in court."

 

Archer alleges that Joby engaged in false advertising in violation of federal law. Archer also alleges that Joby carried out fraudulent business acts that granted it an unfair advantage and are prohibited by California code. The company is seeking injunctive relief and damages.

 

"Historically, the aviation industry has not sourced parts from China," Eric Lentell, Archer's chief legal and strategy officer, said in an interview. "The fact that you're sourcing from China at all is a huge problem."

 

Archer's suit escalates a long-simmering feud between Archer and Joby, as the companies race to bring electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles to market. The vehicles take off similar to helicopters and fly horizontally like traditional planes. Industry officials see them as the next frontier of aviation technology, with the potential to upend urban transit and offer new tools to military strategists. In the industry, they are called eVTOLs.

 

The suit was filed as a counterclaim to a November lawsuit by Joby against Archer. Joby alleged that Archer engaged in corporate espionage by hiring a former employee and that employee downloaded confidential material before his exit. Joby's suit alleged Archer induced the employee to breach confidentiality agreements and used that information to disrupt Joby's business partnerships.

 

In its counterclaim, Archer denied that it had misappropriated trade secrets, induced the employee to breach their contract or interfered with Joby's partnerships. It has filed a motion to dismiss Joby's suit.

 

Joby was founded in 2009 in Santa Cruz, Calif., and its corporate headquarters remains there. The company has built up its operations in the U.S. since that time. In addition to Shenzhen, it also has operations in Germany, Austria and Costa Rica, according to securities filings.

 

Archer, which was established in 2018, has worked to close the gap. Both Joby and Archer went public in 2021 via special-purpose acquisition companies. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Mark Pincus led the SPAC deal that took Joby public, and Moelis & Co. founder Ken Moelis sponsored the SPAC that merged with Archer.

 

The companies are jostling to dominate a passenger air-taxi market that some Wall Street analysts say could reach $1 trillion by 2040.

 

"This is a race for that next great evolution in airspace and what that evolution is going to be," Lentell said.

 

The Trump administration has sought to accelerate the development of eVTOLs as part of its geopolitical competition with China. In that effort, the administration has pushed companies to curb their reliance on foreign supply chains. Joby and Archer have contracts worth tens of millions of dollars with the U.S. Air Force to fund their engineering in exchange for air-taxi deliveries.

 

In February, Joby announced plans to launch commercial flights in Dubai by the end of the year, allowing passengers to book air taxis through the Uber app. Archer has formed a partnership with a real-estate tycoon to develop an air-taxi network in South Florida, and it will serve as the official air-taxi provider for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

 

On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration selected Joby and Archer to participate in several pilot projects allowing eVTOL tests in partnership with state and local authorities. The proposed projects include passenger flights in Manhattan, regional flights in Texas and cargo delivery in Florida.

 

Archer argues that Joby should be disqualified from the FAA's pilot program and that additional scrutiny should be given to the company's existing federal partnerships.

 

To evade oversight from regulators, Joby scrubbed its website of evidence of its Chinese subsidiary, Archer said in its suit.

 

The company also hid its reliance on a battery supplier that Archer believes has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to the suit.

 

Mentions of Joby's relationship with the battery supplier have been omitted from public disclosures, the suit alleged.” [1]

 

1. Flying-Taxi Maker Archer Accuses Rival Joby of Concealing China Ties. Kuo, Christopher.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Mar 2026: B1.