Joby Aviation, Inc. (JOBY) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Greetings, and welcome to Joby Aviation's First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Teresa Thuruthiyil. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon and evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Joby Aviation's first quarter 2026 financial results conference call. I'm Teresa Thuruthiyil, Joby's Head of Investor Relations. We will begin today with prepared comments from JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Rodrigo Brumana, Chief Financial Officer. For the Q&A portion of today's call, we will also be joined by our Executive Chairman, Paul Sciarra. Please note that our discussion today will include statements regarding future events and financial performance as well as statements of belief, expectation and intent. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. For a more detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the SEC and the safe harbor disclaimer contained in today's shareholder letter. The forward-looking statements included in this call are made only as of the date of this call. And the company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them. Also during the call, we will refer both to GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures is included in our Q1 2026 shareholder letter, which you can find on our Investor Relations website, along with a replay of this call. With all of that said, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to JoeBen.

Thank you, Teresa, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. It's been less than 10 weeks since we last spoke. But despite the short window, I'm pleased to report that it's been another exceptional quarter of progress across all core areas of Joby's business. Perhaps the biggest news of the quarter was the selection of states that will participate in the White House-backed eIPP program. This program paves the way for us to bring our aircraft and service directly to U.S. communities this year ahead of FAA type certification. And to speak frankly, we were awarded this dream slate of opportunities. We were selected as part of 5 applications covering 11 states, including Texas, New York and Florida. Each of the selected programs is now in the process of finalizing an OTA agreement with the FAA and the Department of Transportation. These agreements are flexible R&D contracting mechanisms that enable faster and less restrictive collaboration than traditional federal contracts. They will define the scope, roles and time lines for what happens next, but our work has already begun. In New York, we're progressing with the installation of Joby charging infrastructure at both Eastside heliports. And the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently released a solicitation for a vertiport on the LaGuardia Airport Terminal C parking garage roof. In Texas, we've secured our MRO facility to support operations in the region. And in Florida, we've been working with Orlando International Airport on the development of a dedicated vertiport for air taxis. In other states like North Carolina, Utah, we're planning how to begin autonomous cargo flights using our Superpilot technology. Importantly, we're also already showing that we have the technical and operational maturity required to participate in the program. Alongside flying our first FAA conforming aircraft for TIA this quarter, we conducted a series of demonstration flights in the Bay Area and New York. During those flights, we landed at 2 major international airports, Oakland and JFK. We flew to 3 Manhattan heliports. We operated within Class B airspace, which surrounds our nation's busiest airports. And we demonstrated our ability to charge in a range of different environments. The New York flights, in particular, took our demonstrations to the next level by connecting JFK with the Wall Street Heliport, the West 30th Street Heliport and the East 34th Street Heliport. We not only demonstrated real-life use cases flown by our Blade customers today. We also completed the first ever flight of an eVTOL aircraft between an international airport and a downtown Heliport. And as they say, if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. Whether it's flying past the Statute of Liberty or the Golden Gate Bridge, these flights demonstrated without question that we have the aircraft, the team, the tools and the experience required to make the most of the eIPP program. But that maturity hasn't come overnight. Our first transition flight with this design was way back in 2017. The success you are seeing today is the culmination of years of careful work in developing, testing and producing mature VTOL-capable aircraft. And that maturity will be key to delivering real VTOL passenger operations as part of the eIPP program. But to do that, you also need infrastructure. And I'm pleased to report we're making excellent progress on that front, too. Our New York demos highlighted the incredible value of the landing sites and lounges we gained access to as part of our Blade acquisition, which includes America's 3 busiest heliports. In L.A., we announced a partnership with the Ruben Brothers to bring a vertiport to the iconic towers at Century Plaza. In the Bay Area, we announced a partnership with the SAP Center to develop a vertiport in a key San Jose location. And in Dubai, we celebrated the completion of the first ever purpose-built commercial vertiport located right next to Dubai International Airport. It will serve as the operational hub for our services in the region. These are the first of multiple infrastructure developments and partnerships you'll be hearing about as our recent demonstration flights and eIPP opportunities accelerate conversations with partners around the world. Over the last few years, we have set ourselves apart. Thanks to the maturity of our aircraft design and our progress through certification. But as we scale production to meet the demands of our early markets and the eIPP program, it's clear that our head start on manufacturing will be equally important. The experience we are already building in certifiable production processes, production efficiency, supply chain optimization and inventory management are all going to be just as important as the technical and certification lead we've built over the last few years. By producing more aircraft, we'll be able to serve more markets and more customers, enabling us to access progressively lower unit costs ahead of our peers. To put our ramp into context, we are adding a third shift to our composites layup team and our automated fiber placement team. We're training batches of new technicians each month. And our composites team is already producing 2.5x the volume of parts it was producing this time last year. But it's not just about volume. It's also about quality and to some extent, speed. We aren't building prototype parts anymore. We're building conforming parts for a conforming aircraft. And we're seeing incredible results as we ramp production. As we move from producing composite parts for our first conforming aircraft to our fifth conforming aircraft, we have the time required to produce parts while simultaneously improving quality. Today, we're producing parts for our ninth conforming aircraft. And we continue to do all of this with Toyota at our side. We're embedding the knowledge and experience of the Toyota production system as we go, including practices such as Gemba Walks, where you observe work directly on the factory floor and Obeya rooms that centralize project information to accelerate decision-making and foster collaboration. This kind of day-to-day collaboration and knowledge sharing is invaluable as we ramp production. And we're incredibly fortunate to be learning directly from such an experienced automaker. On certification, we remain focused on the fifth and final stage of the type certification process and are making strong progress. During the quarter, we successfully completed our SR3 audit with the FAA, a milestone years in the making. The audit reviewed our aircraft design and safety requirements, test results and development standards and confirmed that the test results we are producing meet the FAA's expectations for the final phase of certification. This achievement, along with so much of what we've discussed today, is testament to the incredible work our teams have done over the last 5 years. And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Didier for his remarkable contributions. He will be with us through early July and will continue to support us as an adviser after that. As we look ahead, we are promoting a number of our leaders to optimize our organizational efficiency and velocity. Looking more broadly across our product platform. We also completed full transition flights with our turbine electric VTOL aircraft during the quarter, including a 148-mile flight at our max takeoff weight of 2,400 kilograms. As a reminder, this aircraft is built on our standard electric S4 platform and introduces a gas turbine for increased range and payload. Achieving transition is one of the hardest technical challenge faced in the development of this technology. But by using our existing platform, our own core technologies and our experienced team, we've been able to deliver it in record time. That allowed us to demonstrate its maneuverability and endurance to the U.S. Army last month alongside our partner, L3Harris. There are live contract opportunities in this space today with clear capability gaps and strong demand for this type of system. That same operational experience and aircraft maturity is key to the partnership we announced with ASI or Air Space Intelligence last month. ASI has quietly built a reputation as a true leader in airspace modernization with their high fidelity 4D modeling and AI tools. And they are 1 of 3 companies currently competing to provide the software foundation for the FAA's brand-new air traffic control system. While our aircraft was designed to operate comfortably within the current system, we have always believed there are better ways to deliver higher volume eVTOL operations. And we are very excited about the ongoing work to modernize air traffic control led by Secretary Duffy. Alongside ASI, we plan to run real-life demonstrations of how scaled operations can be safely integrated into complex and high-traffic airspace later this year. This work is also an important step towards fully autonomous eVTOL operations. With our Superpilot stack, we already have the technology to do this. What's been missing is an airspace management system that allows for fully digital deconfliction of the airspace. Our work with ASI should help pave the way for this important next step. And if it's successful, it should mean safer, lower-cost aerial transportation for eVTOL and every other aircraft that uses U.S. airspace. We closed out the first quarter with a very strong balance sheet, incredible progress across all areas of our business and the clearest path we've ever had to beginning passenger operations. With our recent New York and San Francisco demos behind us and the eIPP program ahead of us, communities across America aren't just reading about the future of flight or hearing about it on calls like these anymore. They're seeing it in the skies above their own cities. And as I said to our team, when we rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last week, just half a mile from where our aircraft landed an hour later. We are quite literally ringing in the next golden age of flight. Rodrigo, over to you.

Thank you, JoeBen, and good evening, everyone. As JoeBen just described, Q1 was a quarter of steady progress. Last week in New York, I had the privilege of meeting many of you in person, including investors and analysts joining this call today. Together, we witnessed something remarkable. Successful flight demonstrations connecting Wall Street in Midtown to JFK in minutes, real aircraft flying real routes, all made possible through our Blade infrastructure in partnership with the FAA, local government and key infrastructure partners. It was a glimpse of the future. And I could not be more excited to be a part of this team. The moments like that don't happen by accident. They are the result of years of deliberate investment and disciplined execution. And from a finance perspective, my job is to ensure that continues by funding certification, scaling manufacturing and supporting commercial launch, while preserving the financial flexibility to execute. What you saw in New York last week and in the Bay Area the month before is the combination of deliberate investment and disciplined execution, producing tangible progress in the market. Now let me walk you through our first quarter financial results in more detail. We entered 2026 with a strong momentum on the balance sheet. We ended the first quarter with approximately $2.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, including $1.3 billion in net proceeds raised during the quarter from our equity and convertible offerings and warrants exercised by Delta Airlines. Our Q1 use of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, excluding net proceeds from Q1 capital raises, totaled approximately $195 million. This includes $32 million of net purchase cost for our new Ohio manufacturing facility after financing. The gross purchase price was $62 million. And we financed roughly half of that at attractive terms, bringing the net cash impact for the quarter to $32 million. Excluding that onetime purchase, consistent with how we communicated our first half guidance, Q1 cash use was $163 million compared to $157 million in Q4. Additional detail is available in our Q1 shareholder letter. Total property and equipment investment in the quarter was approximately $78 million. Of that, $62 million reflects the gross Ohio purchase with the remaining $16 million supporting facility build-out, tooling and production equipment for our manufacturing ramp. Overall, Q1 spend is in line with our first half 2026 guidance of $340 million to $370 million, excluding the onetime Ohio purchase exactly as previewed and we remain on track within that range. Step back for a moment, the capital deployment you see this quarter reflects the choice to lead, not to follow. We are running a multiyear manufacturing ramp, an active type certification program, a global operations build-out and integration of Blade, all in parallel. Few companies in our industry are in a position to execute all 4 at once. We can because of years of foundational investment. And we can do it sustainably because of the strength of our balance sheet. On a GAAP basis, we reported a Q1 net loss of $110 million, a $12 million improvement compared to the $122 million net loss in Q4. The sequential improvement was driven by a $33 million noncash favorable change in the fair value of warrants and earn-out shares and $4 million in higher interest income, partially offset by a $27 million increase in loss from operations. As a reminder, the fair value revaluation of warrants and earn-out shares is driven primarily by changes in our share price and can introduce meaningful noncash volatility from quarter-to-quarter. Revenue for Q1 was $24 million, which was mostly Blade. Compared to Q4, revenue decreased $7 million, reflecting the absence of the onetime revenue we recognized in Q4 for the flight demonstrations in Japan. Blade performance in Q1 was strong. And we are now heading into the seasonal ramp with Q2 typically building as weather improves to a Q3 peak. Service levels and customer demand remained consistent. And Q1 puts us on a solid trajectory for our full year revenue guidance of $105 million to $115 million. Total operating expenses for Q1 were $258 million compared to $238 million in Q4. The $20 million increase was primarily driven by continued investment to support certification, manufacturing ramp and commercial readiness. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric that we reconcile to net income in our shareholder letter was a loss of $179 million in Q1 compared to a loss of $154 million in Q4. The $24 million sequential change reflects the revenue and expense dynamics I just described. Taken together, the capital deployed in Q1 reflects deliberate investment in the capabilities that set Joby apart, advancing certification, scaling manufacturing in California and Ohio and building the foundation for commercial launch. Q1 was a quarter of steady execution. And as the flights in New York and in the Bay Area demonstrated, our progress is increasingly visible, not just on the certification pathway, but in the skies above our largest cities. We have the balance sheet to leave and the discipline to do it well. Thank you for your continued support. And Operator, please open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question we have is from Kristine Liwag of Morgan Stanley.

JoeBen, Paul, Rodrigo, Teresa, it was really inspiring to see the Joby aircraft land in front of me my own eyes at the West 30th Street vertiport last week. So thank you for that. I guess with the very visible progress of Joby with eIPP, can you talk about what kind of conversations you're having with incremental customers? Because as you guys touched on your prepared remarks, the future is here. All the years of hard work that you've had is really coming to fruition and you have these capabilities occurring now. And so as these kind of firm up in what people could see the true mission of this, can you talk about those customer conversations? And how quickly do you think those potential orders could materialize?

Thank you, Kristine. So first, I think the experience for folks in New York was really indicative. And the excitement was really indicative of the progress that we're making and the opportunities ahead of us. There are so many customers who are really excited about beginning to use our service. I think the next element of that, I think you're referring to is sales of aircraft. And as Paul has talked about a number of times before, that's certainly a lever that we can choose to pull as we desire. There is a huge amount of demand from many international markets. And we may dial that depending upon the market. And then I think the third area where we're really seeing momentum and opportunity to capitalize on the demonstrations we've been doing and the momentum around eIPP is around infrastructure. And I think that the -- really accelerating those infrastructure conversations and getting more and more takeoff and landing locations built out is a strong opportunity. And then I would just -- back to your question about aircraft sales. I might turn it over to Paul to touch on the opportunities on the defense side.

Sure. Thanks for the question, Kristine. Yes, I mean, as we've talked about, we've got a pretty deep pool of sort of potential aircraft sales opportunities outside of the U.S. I mean we've talked specifically about Saudi Arabia, also about Japan with our partnership there. So all of those folks are really looking for the same things that we were able to demonstrate in New York, which is an aircraft that is mature. That can sort of meet the mission. And that is essentially supported by both maintenance and pilot training to make those aircraft sort of useful in their markets. So I think the work that we did in New York is certainly positive for the momentum that we're seeing on the sales side of things.

The next question we have is from James Kirby of JPMorgan.

Just for the eIPP, how are you thinking about sequencing the initial aircraft for the program by both location and operation? Is a decision tree that is based off potential revenue opportunity or maybe where infrastructure is already in place? Or is there a regulatory angle to that? Just kind of initial thoughts. I know it's early, just on how you're looking to scale the eIPP.

Thanks so much, James. So I think it's both of those elements. It's about infrastructure. And you have some states that are really moving very rapidly at deploying additional infrastructure and that's -- we're thrilled about that. And then there's also opportunities like in New York, where we already have existing infrastructure and an existing customer base and being able to bring the acoustic signature, the really remarkable acoustic signature of our aircraft to places that are currently quite impacted by helicopter noise, we think, is a massive opportunity. So we do see substantial demand across these eIPP markets. And we're very excited to be ramping our manufacturing as aggressively as we can to deliver on that opportunity.

The next question we have is from Andres Sheppard of Cantor Fitzgerald.

Congratulations on all the great progress. And I echo those thoughts earlier. It was very exciting to see the aircraft in a natural environment. JoeBen, I guess my question, just to build from the last one is around the eIPP. Curious to get your vision on kind of how you see the program starting and kind of ramping up from there. We know, obviously, it will run for 3 years. We know it will start this summer. We know some of the projects have been selected. There might be a few additional ones. But what we don't know exactly, I guess, is kind of how the program will start. Is it going to be each project at the same time, multiple aircrafts at the same time or kind of rotating. So just curious on kind of how you see the program starting and kind of ramping up and really developing and maturing over these 3 years.

I think our -- the best crystal ball we've got at the moment is that we'll be signing or that agreements will start being signed in Q3. And that as we move into the back half of the year, we'll start to do operations. I would expect operations both for our eVTOL aircraft as well as for our autonomous platforms. And on the eVTOL side, we are, as I mentioned before, ramping manufacturing as aggressively as we can to be able to field as many aircraft into the eIPP markets as we can as we look into the back half of this year and the first half of next year. We'd really like to get those fleets in New York, Florida and Texas built out.

[Operator Instructions] The next question we have is from Savi Syth of Raymond James.

I know you started flying the first kind of conforming aircraft. I was just curious when you think you'll start kind of full credit testing of the aircraft and what things need to transpire to get there?

Thank you so much, Savi. So we are thrilled to have that aircraft in the air. And just as a reminder, this was a monumental lift to build this aircraft with FAA DERs and [ VARs ] intimately involved in the process. Having that aircraft in the air is absolutely fantastic. That's one piece. The second piece is we need all of the conforming test articles to have been built and then tested and then many of those test reports written and submitted. So those are 2 parallel work streams that we're working on. The next step for the FAA -- or for our first conforming aircraft is for Joby pilots to begin doing testing. And in parallel to that, to get FAA pilots into the simulator and get them trained up. So really, you can think of 3 parallel work streams. One is the components and parts getting tested. Two is Joby pilots flying the conforming aircraft and doing all the test points in advance of the FAA pilots doing them. And then third is the FAA pilots getting trained in the simulator.

The next question we have is from Chris Pierce of Needham & Company.

Just looking back to the eIPP and production. I mean it seems like the partners in the states are moving as fast as one could hope. I just want to get a sense of are there any bottlenecks you could potentially see on your side, manufacturing, raw materials, production, even pilots that you need to have at the ready in these locations? I just want to kind of get a sense of what you're doing to kind of head off all potential bottlenecks to get as many aircraft out there as possible.

Yes. Thank you so much, Chris. Great question. And I'd like to echo your shout out to the states and the FAA and the DOT for the absolutely phenomenal work that they're doing on this program. We are working very hard on all 3 elements that you mentioned: one, supply chain; two, ramping manufacturing; and three, we made a very early investment in our flight simulator and having that installed now and preparing that for beginning to train the FAA pilots is really speaks to the Joby team and the incredible foresight. As a reminder, we built that in partnership with CAE. So CAE is the world leader in flight simulators. Joby develops all the flight dynamics and the flight controls that run on that. And CAE provided the hardware. It was an amazing partnership. And we're so excited to start training pilots in it.

[Operator Instructions] The next question we have is from Austin Moeller of Canaccord Genuity.

So just my first question here. What is the status of the production activity time line in Ohio? And do you plan to add shifts there over time as well?

Thanks so much, Austin. The ramp of the team in Ohio is going really, really well. As a reminder, folks, we're doing propeller blade manufacturing there. And we're really pleased with the bring up of that facility. That was the first facility that we purchased in Ohio. We're adding additional components and systems that we're starting to build in that first facility. In addition, as a reminder, we bought an additional 730,000 square foot facility across the street. And that facility is beginning to get the build-out and preparing that facility for our -- beginning to put production processes into that facility. So it's 2 parallel work streams. One, building the workforce and adding more and more capabilities for our team in Ohio. And the second is building out that larger facility. So really, really pleased with the momentum and the maturity that we're seeing out of the team in Ohio.

The next question we have is from Amit Dayal of H.C. Wainwright.

Congrats on all the progress and good to see the flights starting to take place now. With respect to passenger flights, you've indicated potentially this could take place by the end of this year. I think earlier expectations of these might materialize in the Middle East. But with the situation over there, do you think these flights potentially take place here in the U.S.?

Thank you so much, Amit. So it is very exciting for us to now have 2 shots on goal for passenger flights this year, both in Dubai and as well as in our different eIPP markets. And so I think that's looking very strong that we'll see passenger flights later this year. And for me, this is a dream come true. This is something I've been waiting for, for a really, really long time.

At this time, I'll be handing the call over to Teresa. Thank you, Teresa. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Irene, and thanks to all the analysts who asked questions today. Earlier this week, we invited members of our Reddit community to submit questions. We received a bunch of different questions about eIPP, future stops on our Electric Skies tour and conforming aircraft. So let's jump into a couple of them. First question asks, how far along are the other FAA conforming aircraft that are in production? How many are in production? What does the timeline look like for FAA pilot testing? JoeBen, do you want to give us a summary of that one?

Yes. So first, in terms of the number in production, as I said in my prepared remarks, we now have parts for 9 aircraft that are beginning to be built. And we have 5 aircraft that we will be using for TIA flight testing. And all of those are progressing well through our manufacturing operation. So this is indicative of the manufacturing ramp. As I said, we have spooled up our third shift for our composites operation and really seeing great momentum. And just to like put a fine point on it. We are ramping as fast as we can, but with the focus on quality. We really want to drive MCRs, which are nonconformances to 0. We want to be making as many of our parts with 0 defects as we possibly can. The name of the game in aviation manufacturing is making parts with incredible consistency and quality. And it's incredible to have the Toyota team that has a deep expertise and ethos steeped in quality. The Toyota production system is known around the world for the incredible quality and efficiency that it drives in the manufacturing processes and having Toyota shoulder to shoulder with us has been absolutely phenomenal.

JoeBen, thank you. The next question is about eIPP and the question asked. The purpose of eIPP is for AAM companies, cities and regulators to garner useful information earlier in the development process than would have been previously possible. Can you share any useful information Joby or regulators have learned from Joby's New York City and SSA area tours, including any unexpected public reactions?

Yes, thanks. So the key pieces this really showcased and built on the deep relationships that we've built, whether that's with the EDC and the Port Authority in New York, whether that's with the FAA and the DOT. And the Joby team just knocked it out of the park. The operations went flawlessly. And we are so grateful for -- I'm so grateful for the Joby team and for the relationships that we've built and the maturity of our processes and with the regulators. I think the thing that stood out for me the most, and I think was really remarkable about the flights was people getting to hear our aircraft for the first time and specifically not hear our aircraft when it flies by overhead. New York has large numbers of helicopters operating. And the difference in the acoustic profile between a helicopter where you can hear it from a long way away. And our aircraft where it can fly directly overhead and you can't even hear it in a city like New York is really exciting. And we can't wait to bring our aircraft to New York, to Florida, to Texas. And we're so grateful for the DOT and the FAA for the remarkable work that they've done on the eIPP and very grateful for the states and their incredible execution on this program.

Yes, it really was joy to have the community so involved in these flights that we did last week in New York City. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We greatly appreciate your support. Operator, over to you.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. And thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.