Joby agrees to buy Resonant Sciences for $500 million to build defense arm

Why it matters

Bevirt is paying $500 million to give Joby's defense work its own customers, systems and operating structure while protecting the air-taxi certification effort from a widening mission.

Joby Aviation, founded and led by JoeBen Bevirt, agreed on August 11 to buy Resonant Sciences for approximately $500 million, creating a separate defense operation as Joby continues the long process of bringing its electric air taxi into commercial service.

The transaction calls for Joby to pay about $450 million in cash and $50 million in common stock, according to Reuters. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2027. Until then, Resonant Sciences remains an independent business and the purchase remains subject to closing conditions.

If completed, the deal will put Joby's hybrid aircraft, autonomous flight and other defense programs inside Resonant Sciences. Joby's commercial organization will remain centered on its piloted, all-electric air taxi.

"This allows our commercial team to be laser focused on delivering on the air taxi mission," Bevirt told Reuters. Resonant Sciences could also open additional markets by combining its mission systems with Joby's aircraft and autonomy technology, he said.

That division of labor is the strategic core of the acquisition. Bevirt has spent more than a decade trying to turn an electric aircraft into a regulated passenger service. Defense customers buy aircraft and technical capabilities through a different set of procurement, testing and security requirements. Resonant Sciences gives Joby a purpose-built organization for that work without forcing the commercial air-taxi group to serve two markets at once.

Bevirt adds a defense company to a long-running aircraft bet

Bevirt earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of California, Davis, and a master's in mechanical engineering design from Stanford University. Before founding Joby Aviation in 2009, he co-founded laboratory automation company Velocity11 and built the consumer-products business behind the GorillaPod flexible camera tripod.

He used proceeds from those earlier businesses to help finance his aircraft project, pursuing an idea shaped by his childhood in an off-grid community in California's Santa Cruz Mountains. Long trips to school fed his interest in compact aircraft that could shorten local journeys. Joby later worked with NASA on electric-aircraft research, including the LEAPTech and X-57 programs.

The Resonant Sciences purchase extends that original transportation project into a larger aerospace organization. Joby has already added autonomy capabilities and a hybrid aircraft program. Resonant Sciences adds a different layer: radio-frequency technology, radar, advanced apertures, integrated electronics and mission systems designed for national-security customers. Bevirt described those systems as helping aircraft see, communicate and operate in difficult environments.

Resonant brings a defense organization built for faster delivery

J. Micah North, Resonant Sciences' president, CEO and co-founder, helped start the Dayton, Ohio company with five other founders in 2015. Resonant Sciences says its founding group was frustrated by defense projects that moved through lengthy development cycles and reached users after operational needs had changed.

The founders adopted a model based on delivering an initial solution quickly and improving it through subsequent iterations. That approach has produced a business with more than 250 employees across six operating locations and over 200,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing space, according to Resonant Sciences. Those employment and facility figures are company-reported.

After closing, Resonant Sciences will become Joby's dedicated defense business. Reuters reported that the combined operation will have about 1 million square feet of manufacturing, integration and testing space across the Dayton region.

The deal would give Joby technical staff, facilities and customer relationships in the same region, rather than requiring Bevirt to assemble a defense division around the commercial organization in California.

The cash outlay raises the standard for execution

The proposed acquisition is substantial beside Joby's current operations. Joby reported $24 million in first-quarter revenue, a $110 million net loss and $2.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of March 31. The $450 million cash component equals roughly 18% of that March liquidity balance.

Resonant Sciences' revenue and profitability were not included in the announcement, leaving investors without the financial information needed to evaluate the purchase multiple. Joby shares fell 6.5% in premarket trading on August 11, Reuters reported.

Joby can fund the deal from its balance sheet, but the acquisition adds another capital-intensive operation while aircraft certification and manufacturing continue. In its annual filing, Joby said it had incurred operating losses and negative cash flow since its inception. The filing also identifies certification, production approvals and the timely commercialization of its passenger service as material risks.

Defense work offers Bevirt a second route to put Joby's engineering into service while the commercial program moves through those approvals. Joby's defense strategy includes a hybrid demonstrator developed with L3Harris, intended to provide greater range and payload than the all-electric air taxi.

Competitors are pursuing the same opening. Archer Aviation and Anduril have developed Thunder, an autonomous hybrid-electric VTOL platform whose first flight is planned for 2027. The overlap shows how commercial eVTOL engineering is being repackaged for military missions that can support longer ranges, heavier payloads and government purchasing.

Bevirt's structure gives each side of Joby a clear mandate. Resonant Sciences can pursue defense contracts and integrate mission equipment around Joby's hybrid and autonomous systems. Joby's commercial group can keep working through certification, production and passenger operations. The $500 million bet will be judged on whether that organizational separation produces two focused businesses instead of a larger collection of unfinished aerospace programs.