Electric aircraft rivals Wisk and Archer Aviation have settled their trade secret legal dispute more than two years after the lawsuit was originally filed.
In a somewhat surprise twist — given how bitterly the legal battle had become — the two companies have agreed to collaborate. Archer also agreed to make Wisk its exclusive provider of autonomy technology to be integrated into a future autonomous variant of Archer’s Midnight aircraft, in addition to the collaboration, according to a source familiar with the settlement.
In a separate piece of news that broke Thursday, Archer said it had raised $215 million in new capital from its manufacturing partner Stellantis, Boeing, United Airlines, Ark Investment Management LLC and others, to accelerate its path to commercialization. Boeing’s portion of that new investment is going to support the collaboration between Wisk and Archer on autonomy, the source said.
The exact amount of Boeing’s investment was not disclosed. Boeing has poured hundreds of millions into Wisk, including a $450 million investment in January 2022. Wisk became a fully-owned subsidiary of Boeing this year.
Under the terms of the settlement, Archer also agreed to give Wisk the option to purchase up to 13,176,636 shares of common stock at a price of $0.01 per share. The new agreement settles all previous claims and suits, including Archer’s counter-suit against Wisk seeking $1 billion in damages.
“We are pleased to have reached a mutually agreeable settlement...
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