Joby Aviation Is Spending $450 Million in Cash to Roughly Double Its Revenue

Shares of Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY) trade below $7 as of this writing, near their 52-week low, having lost about two-thirds of their value from a 52-week high of nearly $20. Investors, it seems, may be tired of waiting for electric air taxis to turn into meaningful revenue.

The company, meanwhile, isn't waiting. On Aug. 11, Joby announced an agreement to acquire Resonant Sciences, a defense technology company, for about $500 million -- about $450 million in cash plus $50 million in stock. It's a purchase big enough to roughly double Joby's revenue base.

Half a billion dollars is serious money for a company that still spends far more than it takes in. Here's a closer look at what the deal costs -- and what shareholders get.

Image source: Joby Aviation.

Fast growth in defense

Resonant, based in Dayton, Ohio, builds radio frequency (RF) and mission systems for U.S. national security customers. It also specializes in low-observability technology. In simpler terms, its systems help military aircraft sense their surroundings and avoid detection.

Not only did Resonant generate more than $100 million of revenue over its trailing twelve months, up about 40% year over year, but the business also produces positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). And demand is accelerating. In the first half of 2026, Resonant booked more than three times as much new business as it did a year earlier, and its backlog more than doubled year over year.

Joby's own outlook, raised in August, calls for full-year 2026 revenue of $115 million to $125 million. Resonant's trailing-twelve-month revenue, in other words, is nearly as large as everything Joby expects to book this year.

However, the deal isn't expected to close until the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory reviews. None of Resonant's results are in Joby's numbers yet.

Can Joby afford it?

Joby can afford the deal, I think, at least on today's balance sheet.

Joby's cash and short-term investments stood at about $2.3 billion at the end of June. Management expects to use between $385 million and $415 million of it in the second half of 2026 alone. The $450 million going to Resonant works out to about a fifth of the war chest.

In February, Joby raised about $576 million in net proceeds from a stock offering and another $670 million from an offering of convertible notes. The company, in other words, is spending cash investors handed it months ago, not cash the business generated.

Between the guided second-half cash use and the Resonant payment, about $850 million of the June 30 balance is already spoken for. The $50 million of stock barely registers, adding less than 1% to the share count. However, on the same day it announced the deal, Joby also put a program in place to sell up to $750 million in new stock over time.

Joby stock is still an air taxi bet

Almost none of Joby's revenue today comes from electric air taxis.

Of the $38.6 million the company reported for the second quarter, $36.2 million came from passenger flights booked through Blade (the passenger business Joby acquired in August 2025). Blade's demand peaks in the summer, and the second quarter's $38.6 million was up from about $24 million in the first. And the full-year outlook implies a second half no bigger than the first, not an acceleration.

But the air taxi business itself isn't generating revenue yet. Joby said in its August update that it made its strongest quarterly progress yet in the fifth and final stage of FAA type certification. The company is still targeting its first passenger flights before the end of 2026, with the first flights under a federal pilot program expected in Texas this month.

The price of the deal also looks reasonable next to Joby's own valuation. At a market capitalization of about $6.7 billion, Joby trades at more than 50 times the midpoint of its 2026 revenue outlook. Resonant, by comparison, is being bought for less than 5 times its trailing sales -- a modest price, I'd argue, for a business growing about 40%.

Investors, in short, aren't paying for the revenue Joby has today. They're paying for the air taxi business it hopes to build.

Ultimately, the acquisition strikes me as a sensible use of Joby's cash. It buys a business that could keep growing whether or not air taxis arrive on schedule. But the deal doesn't change what this growth stock is: a bet that electric air taxis become a big business before the cash runs low.

Of course, the certification work isn't finished, and the first paying passengers haven't flown. I would avoid buying shares here. If those passengers arrive on schedule and spending starts to fall, I would consider changing my mind.

Daniel Sparks and his clients do not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.