Boeing just unloaded three subsidiaries to Archer Aviation. Got stock in return. The subsidiaries make electric aircraft components. Boeing builds planes that actually exist.
Archer makes eVTOLs. Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The kind you see in concept videos narrated by guys who think cities will look like Blade Runner by 2027. They have yet to move a single paying passenger from point A to point B. Boeing looked at its balance sheet and decided shares in that company were worth more than three entire operating subsidiaries.
The market loved it. Archer shares surged. Retail traders saw Boeing's name and assumed validation. What they missed is that Boeing also validated the 737 MAX. Twice.
This is the corporate equivalent of trading your childhood baseball card collection for Beanie Babies in 1999. You technically got something. That something will sit in your garage for twenty years while you explain to your kids why you thought it was a good idea.
Archer now owns three Boeing subsidiaries. Boeing owns a piece of Archer. Neither company manufactures a working air taxi. Both will issue press releases about the future of urban mobility. One of them will still be building actual airplanes in five years.
The other will be explaining to shareholders why the future took longer than expected. Again.
But sure, buy the dip. Boeing clearly knows what it's doing. They've never made a strategic miscalculation. Just ask anyone who bought calls on companies that own things Boeing decided it didn't want anymore.
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