Image Source: Unsplash
 

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft pioneer Joby Aviation (JOBY) is gaining altitude in premarket trading this morning after announcing a groundbreaking collaboration with Nvidia (NVDA) that positions the eVTOL leader as the exclusive aviation launch partner for the AI chipmaker's new IGX Thor platform. JOBY stock is up nearly 6% after having jumped more than 8% on the news.

The partnership leverages the industrial-grade platform – powered by Nvidia's Blackwell architecture – to accelerate Joby's Superpilot autonomous flight technology. This system aims to enhance safety and performance across military and civil applications by processing vast amounts of real-time data for split-second decisions. 

Gregor Veble Mikić, Joby's flight research lead, emphasized the technology's potential: “The autonomous systems under development at Joby are poised to complement human intelligence by providing speed, precision, and stamina beyond what a person alone is capable of.” He highlighted the need for certified, infallible computations in aviation, drawing parallels to autonomous vehicles but with stricter rigor.
 

The IGX Thor promises to deliver up to 8x more AI compute than its predecessor, with 5,581 FP4 teraflops and 400 GbE connectivity, enabling real-time physical AI at the edge. That might sound like a lot of arcane technical jargon, but think of it as the equivalent to downloading multiple 4K movies in a tiny fraction of a second without any lag.

Powering a Future Revenue Driver
 

For Joby, this means advanced features like autonomous mission management, radar perception processing, sensor fusion, predictive health monitoring, and digital twin modeling that can transform operational safety and efficiency.

As the eVTOL frontrunner toward FAA certification, Joby is developing quiet, all-electric air taxis for urban mobility and defense. The collaboration potentially unlocks near-term defense uses and long-term commercial services. Despite forward-looking risks like market competition, regulatory hurdles, and consumer adoption of eVTOL travel, this tie-up underscores Joby's edge in the estimated $1 trillion air mobility sector.

With JOBY stock trading around $16.60 per share premarket, investors are betting on this AI infusion to propel Joby toward profitability, but a more near-term catalyst could be next week's Q3 earnings report.

More By This Author: