ARK Invest Buys 263,693 Joby Aviation Shares Ahead of Tampa Bay Electric Air-Taxi Flight
Why It MattersInstitutional money moving into eVTOL names just before a public flight demonstration shows how heavily the sector's valuations lean on visible progress toward commercial air-taxi service.
Cathie Wood's ARK Invest bought 263,693 shares of Joby Aviation (JOBY) on Thursday, ahead of the company's planned electric air-taxi flight across Tampa Bay, Florida, on Friday. ARKQ acquired 180,133 shares and ARKX added 83,560 shares, a combined purchase worth a potential $1.3 million based on the stock's last close. The purchase followed a multi-million-dollar accumulation since Monday.
On Friday, Joby plans an electric flight demonstration from St. Petersburg across Tampa Bay to Tampa, retracing the route of the world's first scheduled commercial airline service, which began in 1914. Joby noted that the demonstration comes 112 years after the original St. Petersburg–Tampa flight. Wood said on X that ARK Invest would attend the flight from its base in St. Petersburg. She has pointed to the potential of eVTOL aircraft to shorten intercity travel times and eventually make air taxi services affordable enough to compete with conventional taxi rides.
Joby stock traded over 1% lower overnight and is on track for a 6.7% weekly gain, its best week since August. The shares are down 61% year-to-date, and retail sentiment on Stocktwits remained bearish. Joby has been actively involved in the FAA's Electric Powered-lift Integration Program (eIPP). Its second-quarter revenue rose 56% to $39 million, and it will report third-quarter earnings on Nov. 4. The company faces cash burn and commercialization pressure.
