Joby Aviation, Inc. (JOBY) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Greetings, and welcome to the Joby Aviation's Third Quarter 2026 Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Teresa Thuruthiyil, Head of Investor Relations for Joby Aviation. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon and evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Joby Aviation's Third Quarter 2026 financial results conference call. My name is Teresa Thuruthiyil, and I'm Joby's Head of Investor Relations. Joining from near the site of our eIPP flights in Florida, we have a special lineup for you today. We will begin with prepared comments from JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer. We're also joined by Greg Bowles, Joby's Chief Policy Officer; and of course, our Chief Financial Officer, Rodrigo Brumana. 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'll refer both to GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures is included in our Q3 2026 shareholder letter, which you can find on our Investor Relations website, along with a replay of this call. With all of that said, I'll turn the call over to JoeBen.

Thank you, Teresa, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I'm pleased to be reporting another great quarter for Joby. We've made important progress on the fifth and final stage of certification, completing a wide range of credit testing with the FAA. We've significantly increased manufacturing output while improving efficiency, and we've demonstrated our electric air taxi in key early markets across the United States as part of the White House-backed eIPP program. We also completed what we believe to be the first ever fully autonomous flight of a civilian aircraft across the U.S. using our J208 aircraft. And this morning, we announced an expansion of our autonomy-focused contracts with the U.S. Air Force to nearly $37 million. Today, we are joining you from Florida, one of those key early markets where we're in the middle of a week-long flight campaign with our electric air taxi. These flights follow our successful demonstrations in Texas, which marked the launch of the eIPP program. The eIPP program is significant because we believe it will provide an opportunity for mature eVTOL companies like Joby to introduce passenger flight operations ahead of type certification. We celebrated the program's launch at Perot Field in Texas, where we were honored to demonstrate our aircraft's vertical takeoff and landing capability in front of Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy and Senator Ted Cruz. Here in Florida, we just retraced the world's first scheduled commercial airline flight. The historic Jannus flight, as it's known, introduced the world to one of the most dramatic transportation shifts in the history of mankind. 112 years later, we were proud to bring that journey into a new era, taking off vertically from St. Pete and flying nearly silently across the Bay to Tampa, completing the flight with a vertical landing. Vertical takeoff and landing is what opens up the opportunity to bring aviation closer to people and deliver that next great shift in travel. It's where the true value in electric flight lies. We demonstrated that value in both Texas and Florida, landing on a basketball court in a city center, landing between runways at an international airport and demonstrating how we can deliver passengers closer to their destination. It's why we have a program called the eVTOL integration pilot program. And delivering that opportunity requires us to bring together precise vertical flight, efficient wing-borne crews and an acoustic profile that will enable us to operate within communities. At Joby, we have purposefully designed our aircraft from the ground up to deliver on those requirements because they are fundamental to the service we intend to deliver. All of our engineering, manufacturing and certification energy goes into bringing that aircraft to market. Greg will dive into the eIPP program in more detail later on. But as Secretary Duffy said at the launch event in Texas, these eIPP flights are incredibly important because they allow us to generate data that will accelerate the path to certification for eVTOL aircraft. Like Texas, Florida is taking an active role in preparing for this new technology, and we're grateful to the Florida DOT and our local partners as well as Governor Ron DeSantis for joining us at the Tampa flight. We look forward to continuing our work with state leaders as we pursue commercial operations in Florida. As we look ahead to introducing an electric air taxi service, our Blade business continues to demonstrate the strong demand that exists for vertical lift. In the third quarter, Blade flew more than 44,000 passengers, the most in any quarter in its history. Q3 passenger growth was led by our New York Airport service, where passengers increased 61% year-over-year with new airport passengers more than doubling. We also launched service at the F1 race in Austin for the first time this year, selling out of seats and laying a foundation for future operations in Texas. Blade is helping us build the customer relationships and operating experience that we intend to carry into our electric air taxi service. Alongside our aircraft development, we are building the distribution, infrastructure and local partnerships needed to connect city centers with their airports. Bringing those pieces together is central to our strategy for introducing electric passenger flight. Being ready to deploy our electric air taxi, whether that's under the eIPP program here in the U.S. or in Dubai, where the second vertiport in our network is now complete, means developing the manufacturing capacity required to support both our TIA testing and those early operations. Given the significant demand we see across our early markets, we're continuing to scale manufacturing, and I'm pleased to report that we recently released orders to begin the 18th production aircraft to be built on our Marina manufacturing line, which will make it the 23rd of our aircraft to be produced in Marina. Our strategic collaboration with Toyota is playing an important role in our manufacturing growth. Toyota production engineers are working every day alongside Joby teams in California and Ohio, applying production system expertise and holding regular Obeya reviews, Toyota's visual cross-functional approach for tracking progress, servicing issues and rapidly aligning on improvement actions. We have also welcomed Keiji Smokey Kojima, a 30-year Toyota veteran as General Manager of our Marina site, where he leads plant operations spanning composites, airframe assembly, aircraft integration and local production control. Scaling effectively means not only increasing volume but improving efficiency as we go so that every dollar invested goes further. And I'm pleased to report we're making excellent progress on that front, too. From the first to the third quarter of this year, output across our 8 core manufacturing shops increased by 37%, while the proportion of articles with recorded nonconformance fell by 38%. We are building more, and we are building better, strengthening the manufacturing capability that will support certification and commercial operations. While certifying, manufacturing and scaling our commercial air taxi service remains Joby's primary focus, I'm very excited by the significant opportunities presented by the defense sector and our proposed acquisition of Resonant Sciences. We expect the deal to close ahead of our next results call, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, at which point Resonant will become our dedicated defense business under the leadership of Micah North, Resonant's founding CEO. Resonant is based in Dayton, Ohio, where we have already put down roots and they bring remarkably deep expertise in sensing, secure communications, electronic countermeasures and low observability technology. The acquisition will represent a significant expansion of Joby's existing defense business, delivering immediate scale through a rapidly growing and EBITDA positive business supporting active U.S. national security programs. We have been working with Micah and his colleagues for several years already, and I have enormous respect for the way that he and his team solve difficult engineering problems. Like Joby, they bring the people designing the technology close to the people building and testing it. Our shared approach gives me great confidence in what we can accomplish together. Resonant had more than $100 million in trailing 12-month revenue as of July 2026, growing approximately 40% year-over-year, and I'm confident the combination will create a scaled defense growth platform that accelerates our work in autonomy and creates new opportunities for both companies. More than that, the acquisition gives our defense work a clear organizational home at Joby, accelerating our maturity in this important space while allowing our commercial aviation organization to remain laser-focused on bringing our electric air taxis into service. And on that front, I'm pleased to report we continue to deliver sector-leading progress on certifying our air taxi. The flights you've seen us complete in New York, California, Texas and now here in Florida are very visible indicators of our progress, and they're incredibly important for driving regulatory and public support. But certification is the one and only goal that truly matters over the long term. And I'm confident that is where Joby truly sets itself apart. We continue to put in the hard miles writing test plans, building test articles, completing testing and reporting it to the FAA. So much of this hard work ends up summarized into a percentage point on our quarterly certification chart, but that hides the incredible hard work behind the testing as well as its significance. To give you a sense of the maturity of our certification program and the sort of testing that we are focused on, since last time we spoke, we have completed 4 credit testing covering the fuselage, the propeller hubs, the tail, the ruddervators, the tilt actuators and the high-resolution recorder. Meanwhile, the FAA has also approved test reports covering the inboard nacelle, the landing gear and the tail tip nacelle beam. Over the next quarter, we plan 4 credit testing covering a wide range of components and systems, including the propeller blades, propulsion system components, the wing, the energy storage and distribution system, the inboard nacelles, the tail pylon and many more. I appreciate that this is deep engineering territory, but the fact that Joby is so far along in all of this testing for credit with our vertical takeoff and landing aircraft is hugely significant, and it lays the foundation for TIA testing. As component testing continues, there are 2 further milestones to look for before that TIA flight testing begins. First, FAA pilots will come to Joby to train on our aircraft. And second, we'll complete our own flight testing on the relevant aircraft ahead of the FAA. We expect both of those to happen in the first half of next year. We also recently powered on the first of our aircraft that is designated to be used for passenger testing. And I'm pleased to confirm that I look forward to telling you about my first flight on that aircraft during our next quarterly call as well as completing further passenger flights with the aircraft next year. Alongside the opportunity presented by the eIPP program here at home, we're also making progress towards early operations in Dubai. There, we plan to begin operational flight testing across our purpose-built vertiport network later this year with a pilot on board. Both of these opportunities reinforce just how much support there is across the world for the introduction of our vertical lift technology. The flight that Tony Jannus took across Tampa Bay in 1914 brought scheduled air travel to life and changed our world profoundly. I believe we have a similar opportunity to make flight a part of our everyday reality and the progress we're making quarter-on-quarter towards certification and scaling up production gives me confidence that Joby can lead that charge. I'd now like to turn it over to Greg Bowles, our Chief Policy Officer. Greg has been a passionate aviator his whole life, and he joined Joby nearly 8 years ago with the task of preparing the world for the introduction of air taxis. His knowledge of this sector is unparalleled and his advocacy has played a key role in creating the tremendous government tailwinds that are accelerating our entire industry, including the eIPP opportunities that bring us to Florida today. Greg is an aerospace engineer, a commercial airplane and helicopter pilot, a trustee of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and we're so proud to have him on the Joby team. Greg, over to you.

Thanks, JoeBen. 8 years ago, we set out on a mission to transform the way that people move around the planet. We're confident that not only do we design the right aircraft for that mission, but we've built the company around it, and we can capture and unlock the benefits across every part of the business. The revolution in air mobility that will define this next era of transportation depends on the accessibility that only vertical takeoff and landing can make possible. That means beginning your air journey as close to where you want to start and end. While there are over 5,000 of them in the United States, airports are only a small fraction of the infrastructure that will support the full vision of a thriving air taxi network. Today, we lead the world in the path to certification for eVTOL aircraft with the FAA. We carry that same momentum into manufacturing, into flight operations, into infrastructure and across our partnerships and acquisitions. In partnership with Toyota, we're maturing our manufacturing of the aircraft, as JoeBen discussed. And our first conforming eVTOL aircraft is already flying with several more in test and production. We've secured our Part 135 air carrier certificate to operate it. And today, that's up and running. We built the pilot training and the pipeline that lets both existing and new pilots fly it efficiently. And we've done the same thing for maintenance. Along the way, we picked up key infrastructure partners, and we've made strategic acquisitions. Let me walk you through why this week in Florida is an illustration of the tremendous opportunity of what Joby is embarking upon. Thousands of people have come out to see our aircraft here in Florida. These demonstrations are proof of the vision we laid out, and the results are confirmation that Joby is unmatched in this next revolution of air mobility. In September in Texas, we showed that this aircraft is ready for today's airspace, landing between the parallels at DFW, one of the world's busiest airports right in the middle of the day. To celebrate our partnership with Toyota, we brought our aircraft to North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, where we made a steep approach to land in a confined space. In Texas, with the landowner's permission, a basketball court can become a landing site. Thousands of Toyota team members cheered as we showed how truly minimal the support infrastructure for the Joby aircraft can be. In another first, last month, we were able to demonstrate the maturity of Joby's autonomy tech and the amazing potential with our J208 program and the world's first coast-to-coast autonomous flight of a civilian aircraft. We circumnavigated the U.S. across 24 states in all, covering more than 6,500 miles. That autonomy came out of one of our acquisitions and integrating it across the Joby platform has unlocked incredible value. It's clear how important this is for the future of the eVTOL market, but we're especially excited about what this means right now for first responders and defense. I want to deep dive into our incredibly strong progress in certification. As you can see in the shareholder letter, we're on the fifth and final stage of the type certification process, the stage where the work is no longer about planning, but about closing out testing and analysis block by block. Over the quarter, our team has completed a long list of 4 credit testing under what we refer to as Stage 5 FAA certification. Each of those tests earns credit towards type certification, and each one lays the groundwork for TIA, Type Inspection Authorization. TIA is a critical phase where the FAA moves from witnessing bench test and ground test and starts flying the aircraft itself. FAA pilots climb into our conforming eVTOL aircraft and fly for credit flight test. This is the last major step before a type certificate. Historically, every aircraft that's entered into the TIA has eventually received a type certificate. Clearly, we're certifying an entirely new category of aircraft, so there are no guarantees. However, we're extremely excited for the precedent that getting into the TIA flight test represents. We expect to begin the final journey towards type certification in the first half of this coming year. FAA test pilots will begin training. We'll be completing the company flight testing and then the FAA will begin for credit testing under TIA. In my opinion, the most exciting aspect of the eVTOL Integrated Pilot Program is the recent FAA clarification that authorizes these aircraft can be used for commercial operations. Commercial flights under eIPP will be tied to substantial TIA flight testing. And for eVTOL, we're leading the path in that. Just recently, the DOT and the FAA shared excitement about the opportunity for commercial passenger flights with the eVTOL Integrated Pilot Program, or eIPP. And we have further resolution on how that will begin. Under eIPP flights, we'll share flight data with the FAA to aid in the broader oversight and integration of eVTOL. And we anticipate that many of these hours will count towards the functional and reliability testing required for complex aircraft going through type certification. This flight time will also aid in expediting commercial proving runs under Part 135, putting us on track to begin early commercial operations, earn functional and reliability credit and launch full service in key markets. With the acquisition of our Blade passenger service, we've created access to thousands of customers around the country and around the globe. And with transportation partners like Delta and manufacturing partners like Toyota, we're poised to set the standard for air mobility services. Before handing it over to Rodrigo for key financials for the quarter, I want to highlight some of the key developments on the defense side. We're already seeing the opportunity from our technology and our maturity that translates into additional revenue. Earlier today, we announced additional U.S. Air Force funding through AFWERX to accelerate our autonomy technology development and to expand testing in the Pacific, building on our participation in the U.S. REFORPAC exercises and other demonstrations. These extensions build on nearly $20 million in previously awarded contracts under the J208 program and bring our total contract value for Joby autonomy to approximately $37 million, with the ceiling on Joby's operational testing contract raised from $5 million to $50 million. We're more confident than ever that the capabilities and technologies that we're creating at Joby can address important defense needs, and this sector represents a tremendous business opportunity for us. We also announced our plans to acquire the defense company, Resonant Sciences, and I want to share some of the thoughts on the potential for this acquisition to have compounding benefits over the coming years as the defense arm of our company. Resonant has deep expertise in radar and radio environments, including some of the most special aspects of low observability or stealth technology. In addition, RS is an expert in electronic warfare in what I'd call the jammed electronic world. On today's battlefield, the radar, GPS and communication that everyone depends upon are being jammed and spoofed. Resonant's DJAM capabilities let the United States function in that jammed world. Think about how wars used to be thought only during the day because no one could see at night. Then night vision technology came along. Now those with that technology prefer to be in the night. DJAM does the same thing for the electronic battlefield. That same capability matters well beyond defense. Civil aircraft are already running into jammed and spoofed GPS and communications in many parts of the world, and that threat isn't going away. In the future, Resonant Science technology has the potential to protect uncompromised connectivity for Joby's aircraft and for all of civil aviation. From our eVTOL aircraft and its certification to operations, passenger services, infrastructure and defense, Joby is building long-term value and competitive differentiation across multiple markets, working alongside some of the best partners in their respective industries. Rodrigo, over to you, sir.

Thank you, Greg, and good evening, everyone. The excitement here in Florida is energizing. The state is leaning in on vertical infrastructure and on partnerships, and that is exactly the kind of collaboration it takes to bring a new form of transportation to market. To achieve our mission of transforming air travel, we continue to pace our investments against real progress in certification, in manufacturing and in commercial readiness. And we do it with world-class partners who help us bring our aircraft to markets across the globe. Our strong balance sheet with approximately $2.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments gives us the flexibility to pursue those goals. It also comes with a responsibility to invest thoughtfully. We put our money where it moves us closer to commercial operations. What I would like to do now is put numbers to that progress and walk you through how we are deploying capital against it. Let me start with the third quarter financial results. We ended the third quarter with approximately $2.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, which includes approximately $128 million in net proceeds from our at-the-market equity program during the quarter. Our Q3 use of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, excluding those proceeds, totaled approximately $195 million compared to $202 million in the second quarter. The $7 million improvement from the second quarter came from favorable working capital and lower capital spending. Total property and equipment investment was approximately $25 million compared to $29 million last quarter or a $4 million sequential decline in capital spending. Revenue for Q3 was $55 million, primarily from Blade, up $16 million from the prior quarter. Blade delivered a standout quarter with growth across its network and a record September, which is especially impressive considering that last September included the successful Ryder Cup activation. That exceeded our expectations, and it is reflected in the raised guidance I'll walk you through shortly. As a reminder, Q3 is Blade's seasonal peak, so we expect Q4 to step down as it does every year. Blade also gives us a head start, a live passenger operation. Every day, we are learning how to scale with demand, how to please our customers, how to take the best routes and how to run a reliable operation. That is exactly what we will need once our aircraft is certified and enter service alongside partners like Delta and Uber. Total operating expenses for Q3 were $333 million compared to $300 million in Q2. The approximately $34 million increase was primarily driven by $14 million of continued investment to support certification, manufacturing ramp and commercial readiness, $11 million in costs related to support higher revenue and $9 million in other expenses. On a GAAP basis, we reported a Q3 net loss of $212 million, lower compared to $245 million in the prior quarter. Most of the approximately $34 million improvement was driven by a $53 million noncash favorable change in the fair value of warrants, earn-out shares and contingent consideration. This was partially offset by a $17 million increase in loss from operations and a $2 million decrease in interest and other income. As always, keep in mind that fair value revaluation is driven primarily by changes in our share price and can introduce meaningful noncash volatility from quarter-to-quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric that we reconcile to net loss in our shareholder letter was a loss of $208 million in Q3 compared to a loss of $197 million in Q2. The $11 million change quarter-over-quarter reflects the revenue and expense dynamics I described earlier. Stepping back for a moment, the mix of our spending continues to shift toward production and toward preparing for commercial operations. Capital expenditures were $25 million in the quarter and approximately $131 million year-to-date. As we told you in August, with the Ohio and Hollister investments behind us, CapEx is now running below the first half pace, though it remains elevated versus prior years as we build out manufacturing capacity. Last quarter, we described our eIPP investments, which include Part 135 operations, maintenance, training and the systems that turn an aircraft into service. Those investments are now producing flights in Texas and Florida. We continue to see eIPP as complementary to certification. It is a parallel path to build and improve the commercial side of the business, while certification, our primary objective continues on its own track, and we are expanding as we hit milestones, not before. In manufacturing, we're making good progress with Toyota on the shape of our future production through the joint venture we announced earlier this year. In the first half of next year, we expect to share more details of that strategic alliance, along with the closing of the second $250 million tranche of Toyota's investment subject to the remaining closing conditions. Now turning to the remainder of 2026. On revenue, Blade's third quarter was exceptional. We brought our year-to-date total revenue to $118 million, already above the low end of the range we raised in August. With that, we are raising our full year total revenue guidance to $135 million to $140 million, up from the prior $115 million to $125 million. As a reminder, the fourth quarter is seasonally quiet for Blade and weather can affect it. Last year's fourth quarter also included roughly $8 million of onetime demonstration revenue in Japan. So we are being prudent about the rest of the year. On cash, we continue to expect our second half use of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments to be between $385 million and $415 million. Our third quarter cash use of $195 million is right in line with that plan. To close, we have the balance sheet to execute, and we are deploying it against milestones that matter, certification first with manufacturing and eIPP operations advancing in parallel. Blade is proving there is real demand for vertical lift and every day, it gives people their time back while teaching us how to operate ahead of our electric air taxi launch. We are building with partners like Toyota who bring the expertise and the capital to help us scale. And as JoeBen described, the planned acquisition of Resonant Science will give our defense work a dedicated home. So our commercial organization stays focused on one thing, bringing our electric air taxi into service. Thank you for your continued support. And operator, please open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions].

Also as we poll for questions, we are also being joined for Q&A by Paul Sciarra, our Executive Chairman; and Robert Wiesenthal of Blade.

Our first question is from Andres Sheppard with Cantor Fitzgerald.

Congrats on the quarter and all the great progress. I wanted to maybe start with the Resonant acquisition. Wondering if you're able to maybe share a bit more detail on how you're thinking about integration and synergies. And I guess more specifically, with Resonant generating over $100 million in revenue in the last 12 months, should we be assuming the combined companies is approximately -- for revenues to approximately double for next year?

Andres, this is Paul Sciarra. I can take this one. I mean, as we sort of described in the earlier part of the call, there are really 3 pieces to the strategic rationale behind the Resonant acquisition. The first is that its core business is a strong one. We mentioned when we announced the acquisition or the potential acquisition this summer that it was running at $100 million in trailing 12-month revenue, growing at more than 40% sort of year-over-year. We will update those numbers as the acquisition closes. But suffice to say, we feel like the core of the business is really quite strong. I should add that it's also doing that at substantial sort of EBITDA margins, and we think those have an opportunity to increase over time. The second reason is that it really gives us an additional management footprint to sort of tuck some of the defense projects, including our hybrid, hybrid hydrogen and autonomy efforts under. And given Micah and his team's strong relationship with the various branches of government, we think that gives them an opportunity to get more management attention and frankly, better traction with the broader customer base that we're providing. The third is really around technology. So as Greg mentioned at the beginning of the call, they have a number of interesting technologies. And one of them is the work that was mentioned around DJAM. So this is sort of more resilient GPS that we think is critically important for autonomy applications in the government and is increasingly important in the commercial sector. So taking the autonomy stack, the super pilot autonomy stack that we're building, coupling it with that technology, we think, allows us to build potential best-in-class technology for commercial autonomy over time. So -- and I should add the fourth piece is the fact that they've already got an important footprint in Dayton, Ohio, and that gives us an opportunity to leverage that as we think about expanding production in that area as well. So those are really the 4 key pieces around it. Regarding your last piece on the sort of broader guidance, I don't want to get ahead of the math before closing, but we will update that guidance, obviously, when the deal closes.

Got it. Very helpful. I appreciate all that color. Maybe just as a quick follow-up. I'm wondering if you guys can give us a bit of an update on production and commercialization. So on the call, you mentioned you now have 17 aircraft in production. I'm curious if you can maybe help us understand the status for some of these. How many are you targeting for use, for example, for the eIPP? And then finally, possible to get an update on commercialization in UAE or passenger flights in Q4.

Yes. Thank you so much, Andres. The -- as you mentioned, our production is really kicking into full swing. Absolutely thrilled with the efforts the team is putting in there. We've been driving super hard on the efficiency. So that's increasing output. As we highlighted, output is up 37% Q1 to Q3 and the nonconformance rate was down 38%. So really pleased with the progress on efficiency. We've also -- as I highlighted, we've got Toyota deeply involved. We've got Kojima-san, who's running the Marina facility. It's fantastic to have him seconded with us. This is laying the foundation for scaling our strategic alliance with Toyota and really excited about that. We're starting to really hit our stride with building these FAA conforming aircraft, which are key for our TIA efforts. But then as you highlighted, we're also scaling our manufacturing capacity in order to meet the incredible demand that we're seeing on the eIPP side. So overall, I couldn't be more pleased with the progress we're seeing on the manufacturing front.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley.

I really appreciate your update on the progress for the aircraft. But maybe shifting gears to the balance sheet. On cash and short-term investments, you ended the quarter with approximately $2.2 billion in cash and short-term investments. And after factoring in the fourth quarter cash burn that you've updated in your guidance and the roughly $450 million cash consideration for Resonant, that balance would decline to about $1.5 billion. So against this backdrop, how should we think about the cadence of free cash flow in 2027? And what level of cash and liquidity do you believe gives you a buffer to get the aircraft into commercialization mode?

Kristine, Rodrigo here. I'll take that one. I won't put a runway number out beyond what we have filed here. I'll give you the pieces so you can do the math. As we mentioned, $2.2 billion as we closed the quarter is quite strong. And then the known uses, as you say, is the payment for RS, the $450 million, which is going to be early next year and then the implied guidance for Q4. But the known sources here, Toyota 250, we expect to be coming in the first half of the year, subject to closing conditions. And then we also have an ATM capacity right now on use of $620 million, which we have proven that we use opportunistically and methodically. So running -- however, you like here, it takes you well beyond the initial launch of commercial operations, which is under the eIPP banner next year. So we're quite, quite comfortable there. And over time, we can also achieve, I would say, a more evolving capital deployment. As we close the final pieces of the Toyota strategic alliance, the expectation is we're going to be also having contribution for capital deployment there. So we should assume some efficiency over time. And then also the other part of the business is infrastructure. So very proud to have signed a JV with Adams. And as we scale that, we also should see a better capital efficiency in terms of deployment there. So yes, I'll end with that.

Our next question is from Amit Dayal with H.C. Wainwright.

Just to follow up on the question on the cash use. So the next leg for cash use, I guess, is that more towards manufacturing product? Or is it still going towards R&D? Just to maybe help us get an understanding of where the cash usage will be directed towards as you approach commercialization?

Yes. Thanks, Amit. One thing that I want to remind, and I said that on my prepared remarks, is we kind of front-end loaded the CapEx as we wanted to ramp production. You saw the year-to-date CapEx was $131 million. But if you look at the quarter that we just announced now, it was $25 million. So there's a lot of front-end loading in terms of building the capacity or expanding the capacity to produce. So that's one way to think about it. As we produce those aircraft, we're also going to be deploying more not on the CapEx, but also on the expense side of the house. And that will be part of the guidance that we're going to give you guys a little bit premature to share here into 2027. But as we go in the February call, you're going to see more details there. One thing that I also want to remind is we have been quite disciplined here. We have given the cash deployment use guidance and we are well within that. And then again, as a reminder, the balance sheet is quite robust, and then we continue to be very thoughtfully deploying capital.

Our next question is from Chris Pierce with Needham & Company.

I was wondering if you could sort of help us kind of figure out the step-up in Blade passenger growth. Is it just that Blade standalone was sort of constrained prior? Or have you done any price discounting? Is Uber helping with demand in any way? And then, I mean, given all the passenger flight and Joby flying, New York is eIPP state, like is it possible we could see passenger flight in New York your best market in 2027?

Why don't I kick off? It's Rob Wiesenthal from Blade. It was a terrific kind of summer for sure, both in the U.S. and in Europe. There were definitely a lot of special events that happened in the World Cup, bringing a lot of people to the area and creating a lot of friction when there's friction in the traffic and our infrastructure is not meant for the surge capacity of these special events, and that's what makes urban mobility and vertical lift so special. So we definitely enjoy the benefit of that for airport, for Hampton, Southern Europe. It was just great all around. I think the economy in New York definitely helps in addition to all these terrific special events. And I think the kind of growth that we're going to be seeing kind of going forward, we are exploring new routes, new markets. This past year, we launched Westchester. We increased the density of schedule for JFK and for Newark every day turning 2-hour drives into 5-minute flights and getting the price down to the cost of an Uber Black. So the Uber relationship has not started yet in terms of the platform. So none of the growth that you've seen in the past as a result of that. It's all been organic.

Yes. Maybe I'll just hop in on the second part of that. As Rob mentioned, we're really excited about adding the incredible demand funnel from Uber on the Blade service, and the engineering teams are making fantastic progress on that. And then the last piece of your question was on adding Joby Aircraft to the Blade operation in New York, and we're incredibly excited about that opportunity under the eIPP this next year. So just so grateful to Rob and the Blade team for the extraordinary execution this year and I can't wait to carry that in and that phenomenal momentum into 2027 and layering the electric air taxi onto the Blade service.

Our next question is from Austin Moeller with Canaccord Genuity.

So recently, we had talked about potentially the FAA pilots not needing to do all of the tests that they might schedule during TIA. How does this impact the timing of how long you would expect TIA to take from first half of '27? Does like 12 months become 9?

So this is Greg Bowles. I'm going to answer this one. Thanks so much. It's a great in-depth question on how TIA execution typically looks. So you've heard the old adage TIA flight test takes somewhere between 6 and 18 months, depending on the complexity of the project. We, at Joby are trying to do some smart things. We are going to fly multiple aircraft at the same time to try to expedite that work. In my historic experience, before the TIA begins, you don't have a great idea of what the FAA wants to fly and audit themselves. But very quickly, as they begin TIA and get into that flight test, they start to decide that certain aspects of flight they're going to fly and others are going to delegate to the designees that will do the flight test for them. And that's exactly where you really start to lay out the concise exactly how much time is TIA going to take. And this is why we're really excited to get into that phase of flying. And as we've said, like having FAA test pilots come and start the training very shortly is a really exciting time. And I think we -- people are starting to watch the first performing aircraft go through its flying paces day in and day out. So really exciting times here at the company.

Our next question is from James Kirby with JPMorgan.

I'll try to be quick. A question for Greg. There's a competitor in the market who got the FAA to authorize market survey flights. Maybe could you just talk through the approach Joby is doing, why that is different? And maybe the -- any more color there in terms of their approach versus yours? I appreciate it.

Yes, for sure. So market survey is an experimental certificate that's been around for a long time. It has a great purpose and intent. It's meant for you to be able to demonstrate your product to potential customers, potential airlines that may want to go in and place orders or go down that path. We're very confident in the path that we're on. And as we've talked about a whole lot, we've been headed straight towards certification. Now we certainly have put in for an experimental airworthiness certificate for market survey on some of our aircraft, and you'll see some abilities there. But what I'm really excited about is what eIPP offers us with respect to moving passengers under a commercial operation. And so as I mentioned previously, the FAA has now opened an opportunity along with DOT for us once we're into that TIA flight testing and the real envelope and the FAA test pilots are starting to fly and expand the envelope with us, we will be able to start to do those commercial flights under the eIPP program, celebrating in those markets that we've talked about, New York, Florida and Texas that won the eIPP for our eVTOL services. We're on a path to do that. We created a dedicated cert arm that is sprinting towards TIA. So we feel really, really good about how that's evolved. And honestly, the eVTOL integrated pilot program has been a really fortunate consequence for us. I feel like we're in really, really strong shape as a result.

Our next question is from Savi Syth with Raymond James.

Just on the AFWERX expansion of the program there. I know you were doing a lot with the prior program, but I'm guessing autonomy is kind of a greater priority here for them. And so curious kind of what you expect in terms of cadence of that program, if you expect to be a lot more active now with kind of flying there.

Thanks a lot, Savi. This is Paul. I'll pick this one up. Yes, we're very excited about the new contract and in large part because it really gear shifts the work that our autonomy is doing with the DoD from demonstration and development to essential sort of deployment as we think about kind of like the next few quarters. So that was the real prompt for the contract extension. And it allows us to not just do demonstrations, but essentially sort of put them into service with some of these customers. And as you noted, there is an increasing interest across both Air Force and a number of branches of defense for autonomy systems. And we think we've got an opportunity to prove ours out as one of the best-in-class.

Terrific. Thank you, operator, and thanks to all the analysts who asked questions today. As is our custom, we solicited questions earlier this week from members of our community. We have time for one more today. So I have a question from a Joby shareholder who's asking. When can we anticipate seeing Joby get full certification? And when can we see Joby start servicing our cities?

Thank you very much. As we highlighted during the prepared remarks and as Greg reviewed, we have been making spectacular progress on for credit testing. We've invested deeply in vertical integration on the testing side, and that is paying massive dividends. In addition, Greg talked about the fantastic prep work that our flight test team is doing for getting FAA pilots on board and beginning TIA flight testing. This is like game time for us, and it's so much fun to see the momentum on that front. Additionally, I flagged that I'm super excited to be getting on and flying as a passenger over the next few months. This is something I've been dreaming about for -- since I was a little boy and since a dream come true for me. And then we also touched on the work we're doing on our production ramp, and that is absolutely essential to actually deploying this in cities. We've highlighted the fantastic momentum we're seeing on the Blade side and what that does to prepare the operational cadence. And then as we've highlighted with the flights in Texas and now here in Florida, we are seeing phenomenal momentum on building out the infrastructure. Today, we flew for the very first time, inaugurated a new vertiport built by Orlando and FDOT. And this is an indication of the fantastic momentum we're seeing from both communities and from real estate developers across the country that are so excited about what this new mode of transportation can deliver in terms of quality of life and time savings for people across the country. So absolutely thrilled. Joby is hitting on all cylinders and so, so grateful to the incredible team and all of our partners.

Thank you, JoeBen, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to seeing more of you soon and greatly appreciate your support.

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.