In late 2025, the news that Joby Aviation (JOBY 2.54%) and Nvidia were teaming up to develop an autonomous flight capability hit the market by surprise. Given that Joby is pursuing a vertically integrated strategy (designing, manufacturing, owning, and operating its own aircraft as a transportation company) in the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) market, the parallel with Tesla's robotaxi rollout is obvious. Is it set to make Joby the undisputed eVTOL champion?
Joby, Nvidia, and the underappreciated risk in the eVTOL market
The collaboration will involve Joby using Nvidia's computing power via its new IGX Thor Platform, which is under development alongside Joby's Superpilot autonomous flight technology. It's an interesting move that highlights the differences in approaches among Joby, Archer Aviation, and the eVTOL company no one talks about: Boeing's Wisk.
NYSE: JOBY
Key Data Points
Each company has its own strategy. Archer aims to be an eVTOL manufacturer and will sell its aircraft to others. Joby and Wisk, on the other hand, want to run transportation services. The key difference is that Joby, like Archer, is starting with piloted aircraft, while Wisk is focused only on autonomous planes.
Having pilots means that Joby and Archer are significantly ahead in the certification process. Still, if Wisk's autonomous eVTOL gets certified later, they're highly likely to substantially undercut Joby's airtaxis, in the same way that Tesla's robotaxis are likely to be heavily price-competitive with conventional taxis.
Image source: Getty Images.
How Joby is handling risk
The potential threat from Wisk is somewhat mitigated by Joby's ongoing development with Superpilot and, more recently, the Nvidia collaboration. Joby plans to develop autonomous functions (mission management, radar processing, etc.) that will act as a digital copilot to assist a human pilot.
However, Joby plans to use Nvidia's technology platform to continue developing Superpilot so it can ultimately "pursue certifiable autonomy for near-term defense and long-term civil applications as the Federal Aviation Administration advances the capabilities of national airspace," according to a Joby press release.
Image source: Joby Aviation.
What's next for Joby
The company's plan to develop autonomous eVTOLs for the military in the near term makes sense, as it could establish and test its technology ahead of civil adoption. Moreover, the plan to use Superpilot as a digital copilot on civil airtaxis will give the company substantial flight-hour data to improve it ahead of a potential launch. Again, the analogy with Tesla works, as the EV company has billions of miles of data on its full-self-driving (FSD) software from Tesla drivers.
By working with Nvidia, Joby is reducing the risk that Wisk will overtake it in the autonomous market. The company could have piloted airtaxis in service, and possibly even autonomous ones for the military, before Wisk's civil autonomous eVTOL is certified.
Joby's first-mover advantage could prove telling in funding rounds and establishing technology and trust in the marketplace. Consequently, it's an attractive stock for investors looking for eVTOL exposure.
