OpenAI is committing $1 billion in subsidized Daybreak access and support to help cyber defenders protect critical infrastructure and fix flaws faster.

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Archer Aviation is acquiring three Boeing subsidiaries focused on autonomous aircraft, airspace management and unmanned systems, a deal that will significantly expand the electric aircraft maker’s business into defense and add more than $200 million in annual revenue.

The companies announced the deal Monday, saying Archer will acquire Wisk Aero, SkyGrid and Insitu. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory and other closing conditions.

The deal brings together Archer’s work on electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, unmanned aircraft and artificial intelligence with Boeing’s investments in autonomous flight and defense technologies.

The transaction represents a major expansion by Archer beyond its core effort to develop electric air taxis. The company said the three Boeing businesses operate across 35 countries and collectively have nearly two million flight hours.

Bingen, Wash.-based Insitu, which develops and manufactures uncrewed aircraft systems for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, is the largest piece of the acquisition from a defense perspective. The profitable unit has manufactured and deployed more than 3,500 unmanned aircraft and supports military customers in 35 countries, according to the companies. Founded in 1994, Insitu was acquired by Boeing in 2008 for about $400 million.

Insitu’s portfolio includes small unmanned aircraft systems, vertical-takeoff-and-landing capabilities and software designed to support military intelligence and surveillance operations. It has offices in the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Wisk was formed in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk Corp. and has since developed autonomous electric aircraft. The company — which raised $450 million from Boeing in 2022 — has designed, built and flown six generations of its eVTOL air taxi systems and conducted more than 1,700 flight tests.

Austin, Texas-based SkyGrid provides software for managing increasingly automated airspace, including systems designed to coordinate aircraft and integrate autonomous vehicles into the broader aviation system.

Archer said it plans to combine those capabilities with its own artificial intelligence platform, known as ZEE, which the company describes as a foundation model for aerospace and defense applications.

“This is a watershed moment for Archer and the future of physical AI in aerospace and defense,” Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein said in a statement. “This is the next big step forward in becoming a diversified platform, rapidly growing our revenue base and bringing scale to our business.”

The transaction also creates a new strategic relationship between Archer and Boeing.

As part of the deal, Boeing will take a stake in Archer and enter into a collaboration and technology-sharing agreement with the company. Boeing will receive class A shares in Archer worth approximately 19.75%. After the transaction closes, Boeing’s shares will amount to a roughly 16.5% ownership stake in Archer, according to The New York Times.

It will also retain access to Wisk’s core autonomous flight technology for use in its current and future commercial and defense aircraft.

“This transaction is a win-win for Boeing and Archer,” Brian Yutko, Boeing’s vice president of Commercial Airplanes Product Development, said in a statement. “It allows Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu to accelerate capability development and time to market while ensuring Boeing capitalizes on its investments in these technologies over the past two decades through continued development in our core businesses.”

For Boeing, the transaction provides a way to retain exposure to the technologies while shifting the three businesses into Archer, where they can be combined with its aircraft and AI efforts.

Archer, based in Silicon Valley, is developing its Midnight electric air taxi which it touts as a “new way to move through cities.” Monday’s deals also increasingly expand Archer’s focus to defense applications and other aircraft technologies.

Shares of Archer soared in Monday trading, up more than 7 percent.

Seattle’s emergence as a hub for companies building the next generation of industrial technology is drawing another high-profile startup.

Los Angeles-based Nominal, whose software helps engineers build, test and validate complex hardware systems, is establishing a permanent Seattle office as it ramps up hiring and looks for a larger home in the region.

The nearly 4-year-old company currently employs 11 people at a downtown Seattle co-working space, and expects to more than double that number by the end of the year.

The company is also relocating Head of Product Stephen Slattery, the former director of technical operations at defense tech giant Anduril Industries, from Los Angeles to Seattle to oversee the new office. Employing about 200 employees globally, Nominal also operates offices in Austin, New York, Washington, D.C., and London.

Seattle’s concentration of tech and aerospace talent, along with proximity to key partners and customers, attracted the fast-growing company.

Nominal CEO Cameron McCord said Seattle is one of only a handful of U.S. markets with a deep concentration of engineers experienced in solving large-scale infrastructure and reliability problems. Seattle’s aerospace heritage also appealed to the company.

“Some of the magic of Nominal is putting them in one room,” McCord told GeekWire.

The company boasts 75 customers, about half of which are in the defense sector. It also sells its software to companies in the energy, robotics and automotive arenas.

The Seattle expansion comes just months after Nominal raised an $80 million venture capital round led by Founders Fund at a $1 billion valuation, part of a growing trend of companies serving industries where artificial intelligence is accelerating innovation in the physical world.

“Nominal exists to help these engineering teams rethink their data supply chain: the end-to-end flow from instrumentation through acquisition, storage, analysis, reporting, and into the decisions that shape the next design,” the company wrote in the funding announcement.

Seattle has increasingly become a landing spot for companies operating at the intersection of AI and the physical world, while some of the region’s fastest-growing homegrown startups — including Overland AI, Carbon Robotics, Brinc and Stoke Space — are helping define the category.

In recent months, defense tech company Anduril has expanded its operations in the Seattle area. AI infrastructure startup Armada — which like Nominal is backed by Founders Fund — and AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI also have opened new offices or expanded engineering centers in the region.

Nominal’s McCord, a former U.S. Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer who previously worked at Anduril, said conversations with former colleagues, including Anduril co-founder and COO Matt Grimm, helped reinforce Seattle’s appeal.

“I’ve been able to get a lot of advice and thoughts from him on what it looks like to properly enter the Seattle market,” said McCord. “Everything from him is incredibly positive on the talent and density.” 

While Nominal has gained traction among defense contractors — McCord said four of the five traditional U.S. defense companies use its software — he said the company increasingly sees opportunities across a number of industries. The energy sector — including nuclear, fusion and batteries— as well as AI data center infrastructure are growing areas of interest for the young company.

The Seattle office will be more than an engineering outpost. McCord said Seattle will become a full cross-functional location, with engineering, sales, customer success, design and other teams represented as it grows.

The company expects the Seattle office to reach roughly 20 to 25 employees by the end of this year and could double again to 40 or 50 employees by the end of 2027. It is currently looking for a permanent office space, likely targeting downtown Seattle.

McCord said the Seattle office will play a key role in Nominal’s growth as it looks to reimagine the unique challenges that industrial companies face in building hardware systems for this new era.

“There’s a huge market opportunity as the world reindustrializes,” he said.

See this interview with McCord by General Catalyst’s Paul Kwan for more on the company: