(Richard Baker/Getty Images)

Joby Aviation takes off after announcing it will buy Blade Air’s passenger business for $125 million

Shares of both companies surged on the news.

8/4/25 8:49AM

Air taxi company Joby Aviation said Monday that it plans to acquire the helicopter ride-share business of rival Blade Air for up to $125 million.

The deal does not include Blade’s primary revenue driver, its organ transport business, which represented about 66% of overall sales in its first quarter this year.

Joby shares were up 18% just after the open, while Blade shares soared 24%.

Blade will remain a public company focused on medical transportation and logistics, and will rebrand as Strata. It will partner with Joby on medical transport.

According to Joby, the deal gives it access to infrastructure across “key urban corridors,” including in New York City, and a “large loyal base of passengers” it plans to transition from helicopters to next-generation electric aircraft.

Air taxi companies like Joby and rival Archer Aviation are having a banner year, raising hundreds millions of dollars from established transportation companies and receiving the favor of the Trump administration. Both companies are also rapidly building out their defense businesses — Joby announced a fresh partnership with L3Harris Technologies last week. Archer CEO Adam Goldstein recently told Sherwood News he believes defense will be the company’s primary business for at least 10 years.

Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

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Another record high for stocks as tech heavyweights put market on their shoulders

All of the gains on Monday are attributable to Nvidia and Apple.

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Chinese EV maker Nio sinks as a surge of orders for its new SUV create a 6-month backlog

Shares of Nio are falling Monday on the bittersweet news that its latest SUV (the ES8, priced to compete with Tesla’s Model Y) is too popular.

According to Chinese media reports, up to 50,000 ES8 orders may have been placed in the vehicle’s first 36 hours, surpassing Nio’s 40,000-vehicle production cap for this year.

Customers now ordering the ES8 won’t receive their vehicle for 24 to 26 weeks, or six months.

Nio CEO William Li said that the ES8’s production capacity will reach 15,000 units by December.

Nio Says ES8 Orders Placed Today Face 6-Month Wait

Customers now ordering the ES8 won’t receive their vehicle for 24 to 26 weeks, or six months.

Nio CEO William Li said that the ES8’s production capacity will reach 15,000 units by December.

Jon Keegan, Nate Becker

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Nvidia jumps on plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of data center expansion

Shares of Nvidia vaulted on the news, as CEO Jensen Huang says the new project would involve 4 million to 5 million GPUs.

J. Edward Moreno

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Moderna rises after RFK Jr. vaccine panel’s less-draconian-than-expected Covid recommendation

While ACIP’s vote means less people may be able to access Moderna’s vaccine than before, it’s less severe than the outright ban some were expecting.

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US toys with making the world’s worst investment

Argentinian government bonds are up big today on reports that the US is considering some sort of a bailout for the chronically messy Latin American economy currently led by Trump-allied right-wing populist Javier Millei.

The country’s foreign minister knocked down previous reports that Argentina was negotiating a $30 billion loan with the US.

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just came out saying that “all options” are being considered to stabilize the country’s currency, which plunged as Millei’s attempt to radically remake the economy with deep spending and tax cuts has shown signs of sputtering amid a series of government corruption scandals. Bessent even went so far as to say Argentina is a “systemically important” US ally, using a term of art that’s often bandied about when bailouts are in the offing.

For the record, lending Argentina US taxpayer money seems a bad idea.

The country has defaulted on foreign loans nine times, giving it one of the world’s worst credit histories. In fact, it’s defaulted three times since 2000, including in 2019, after the last attempt to “reform” the country lured in foreign lenders once again.

Bessent Says ‘All Options’ on Table to Steady Milei’s Argentina