Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Tuesday. Read the complete transcript below.
This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.
The full earnings call is available at https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=M3xWNZoj
Summary
Joby Aviation successfully completed the SR3 audit with the FAA, marking a significant milestone towards final certification.
The company executed full transition flights with their turbine electric VTOL aircraft, demonstrating its capabilities to the US Army.
Joby Aviation ended Q1 with a strong balance sheet, including $2.5 billion in cash and equivalents, and reported a net loss of $110 million.
Strategic partnerships were highlighted, including collaboration with Airspace Intelligence for air traffic control modernization.
The company is ramping up manufacturing efforts, notably in Ohio, and focuses on meeting demand for EVTOL operations.
Management expressed optimism about future passenger operations and highlighted successful demonstrations in New York and San Francisco.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
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 five 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 advisor 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 148 mile flight at our max takeoff weight of 2,400kg. 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 challenges 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 US 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 Airspace 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 one of three 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 US Airspace. We close 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.
Joban
Thank you, Joban and good evening everyone. As Jovan 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 flights, 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 part of this team. But moments like that don't happen by accident. They're 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, total 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 one time 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 to 370 million dollars excluding the one time 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 multi year manufacturing ramp, an active type certification program and a global operations build out and integration of late all in parallel. Few companies in our industry are in a position to execute all four at once. We can because of years of foundational investment and we can do it sustainably because 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 non cash 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 in earn-out shares is driven primarily by changes in our share price and can introduce meaningful non cash 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 one time 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 in customer demand remain consistent and Q1 puts us on a solid trajectory toward our full year revenue guidance of 105 to 115 million dollars. Total operating expenses for Q1 were 258 million dollars compared to 238 million dollars in Q4. The 20 million dollars increase was primarily driven by continued investment to support certification, manufacturing ramp and commercial readiness. Adjusted ebitda, a non GAAP metric that we reconciled 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 separation 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, skilled manufacturing in California and in Ohio, in 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 lead and the discipline to do it. Well, thank you for your continued support and operator. Please open the call for questions.
Christine Luegg (Equity Analyst)
Hey, Jordan. Good afternoon, everyone. Joven, Paul, Rodrigo, Teresa. It was really inspiring to see the Joby aircraft land in front of me in 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?
Jovan
Thank you, Christine. 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's so many books customers who are really excited about beginning to use our service. I think that the next element of that I think you're referring to is sales of aircraft. And as Paul's 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 an 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, Christine. Yeah, I mean, as we've talked about, we've got a. 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.
OPERATOR
The next question we have is from James Kirby of JP Morgan of JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
James Kirby (Equity Analyst)
Hey, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for the time. 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 into the eipp. Thanks so much, James. So I think it's both of those elements. It's about infrastructure.
Jovan
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, we do see, you know, substantial demand across these EIPP markets, and we're very excited to be ramping our manufacturing as aggressively as it can to deliver on that opportunity.
OPERATOR
The next question we have is from Andres Shepherd of Cantor Fitzgerald of Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.
Andres Shepherd (Equity Analyst)
Hey, everyone, good afternoon. Thanks so much for taking our questions and congratulations on all the great progress. And I echo those thoughts earlier. It was very exciting to see the aircraft in a natural environment. Joe. But 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. You know, we know obviously it'll run for three years. We know it'll start this summer. We know some of the projects have been selected. There might be a few additional ones, but 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 three years.
Jovan
Thank you. 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 the 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 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
Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, you. You may press star and then one. The next question we have is Savi Suth of Raymond James of Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Savi Suth
Hey, good afternoon, everyone. I know you started flying the first kind of conforming aircraft. I was just curious, you know, when you think you'll start kind of full credit testing of the aircraft and, you know, what things need to transpire to get there.
Jovan
Thank you so much, Xavi. 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's DARs 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 two parallel work streams that we're working on. The next step for the. For the FAA or for the. 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 three 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.
OPERATOR
The next question we have is from Chris Pearce of Needham and Company of Needham and company. Please go ahead.
Chris Pearce (Equity Analyst)
Hey, just looping back to the EIPP and production. I mean it seems like, you know, 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.
Jovan
Yeah, 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 three 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 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
Ladies and gentlemen, just another reminder, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and then one. The next question we have is from Austin Mohler of Canaccourt Genuity. Please go ahead.
Austin Mohler (Equity Analyst)
Hi, good afternoon. So just my first question here. What is the status of the production activity timeline in Ohio and do you plan to add shifts there over time as well?
Jovan
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 the build out and preparing that facility for our beginning to put production processes into that facility. So it's two 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.
OPERATOR
The next question we have is from Ahmed Dayal of HC Wainwright of HC Wainwright. Please go ahead.
Ahmed Dayal (Equity Analyst)
Thank you guys. Congrats on all the progress and good to see, you know, the flights starting to take place now with respect to, you know, passenger flights, you've indicated potentially, you know, this could take place by the end of this year. I think earlier expectations or these might materialize in the Middle East. But with the situation over there, do you think, you know, these flights potentially take place here in the US now?
Jovan
Thank you so much, Amit. So it is very exciting for us to now have two 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.
OPERATOR
At this time, I'll be handing the call over to Teresa. Thank you, Teresa. Please go ahead.
Teresa
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? Jo Ben, do you want to give us a summary of that one?
Jo Ben
Yeah. So first, in terms of the number in production, as I said in my prepared remarks, we now have parts for nine aircraft that are beginning to be built and we have five 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 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 ncrs, which are non conformances to zero. We want to be making as many of our parts with zero 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.
Teresa
Terrific. Thank you. The next question is about eipp and the questioner asks. The purpose of EIPP is for AAM companies, cities and regulators to garner useful information earlier in the development process and than would have been previously possible. Can you share any useful information Joby or regulators have learned from Joby's New York City and SFA area tours, including any unexpected public reactions?
Jo Ben
Yeah. 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. 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 in their incredible execution on this program.
Teresa
Terrific. Yeah. 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.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
Login to comment