Joby & Nvidia: A Fluttering Ascent?

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Joby Aviation Aircraft

The announcement, late last year, of a collaboration between Joby Aviation and Nvidia – a pairing that smacks faintly of desperation, or perhaps simply of Silicon Valley optimism – caused a minor ripple in the markets. Joby, pursuing the ambitious, and one might say rather hubristic, strategy of vertically integrating the entire eVTOL operation – designing, building, operating, the whole tiresome business – naturally invites comparisons to Tesla. Though, one suspects, the analogy is more flattering to Joby than it deserves. The question, of course, is whether this alliance will lift Joby to dominance, or merely cushion its descent.

The eVTOL Market: A Risky Proposition

The collaboration centres on Joby’s adoption of Nvidia’s IGX Thor Platform, intended to bolster its Superpilot autonomous flight technology. It’s a curious alignment, highlighting the diverging paths of Joby, Archer Aviation, and that spectral presence, Boeing’s Wisk. Each firm appears to be playing a different game, though whether any of them understand the rules remains to be seen.

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Archer, with a commendable pragmatism, intends to manufacture the aircraft and leave the operational headaches to others. Joby and Wisk, however, aspire to run the entire show, a task that requires not merely technical ingenuity, but a degree of administrative fortitude that is increasingly rare. The crucial distinction lies in their approach to autonomy. Joby and Archer are, for the moment, tethered to the necessity of pilots, while Wisk is pursuing the rather more audacious goal of fully autonomous flight.

This reliance on pilots grants Joby and Archer a temporary advantage in the certification process, but it is a fragile one. Should Wisk succeed in bringing a fully autonomous eVTOL to market, they are likely to undercut Joby’s air taxis with ruthless efficiency, much as Tesla intends to do with conventional taxis. One anticipates a rather unseemly scramble for market share.

eVTOL Aircraft in Flight

Mitigating the Inevitable

Joby, to its credit, is attempting to mitigate the threat posed by Wisk through the development of Superpilot and, more recently, the Nvidia collaboration. The intention is to create a ‘digital copilot’ to assist human pilots, a sensible, if rather unglamorous, approach. However, the ultimate goal, naturally, is certifiable autonomy, contingent upon the FAA’s glacial progress in updating national airspace regulations.

The Path Forward

The company’s plan to develop autonomous eVTOLs for the military in the near term is a shrewd move. It allows them to test and refine their technology in a less demanding environment, and provides a valuable revenue stream. Moreover, the use of Superpilot as a digital copilot on civilian air taxis will generate invaluable flight-hour data, a commodity that is, one suspects, more precious than gold. The analogy with Tesla holds: billions of miles of data on full-self-driving software is a considerable advantage.

By aligning with Nvidia, Joby is, at the very least, reducing the risk of being overtaken in the autonomous market. They may well have piloted air taxis in service, and even autonomous ones for the military, before Wisk’s civilian eVTOL is certified. This first-mover advantage could prove crucial in securing funding and establishing trust in the marketplace. Consequently, for investors with a taste for the speculative, Joby presents a mildly attractive proposition, though one should approach it with a healthy degree of cynicism and a well-stocked supply of antacids.

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2026-02-14 09:12