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Should You Buy Archer Aviation While It's Under $8?

The Motley Fool·01/04/2026 13:50:00
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Key Points

  • Archer Aviation has made some big moves in 2025.

  • The company could start testing flights in key markets as early as next year.

  • Archer is pre-revenue and will likely experience price volatility as it works its way toward FAA-type certification.

Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) is an aviation company selling a vision: A sky of air taxis ("Midnight" aircraft), carrying happy passengers above congested roads, on a 10-minute flight that would have taken an hour or more in the bumper-to-bumper traffic below.

If you've ever sat in traffic like that (say, from New York City to Newark Liberty), you'd appreciate the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) craft that Archer is trying to operate. But if you've been watching this stock in 2025, you might be wondering if it, like the traffic it's trying to alleviate, might be gridlocked.

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Trading at under $8 a share, Archer is down about 22% over the past year. Is this a buying opportunity, or is the market telling you to wait?

An Archer Midnight aircraft test-flying above rolling hills.

Image source: Archer Aviation.

Where Archer stands today

Even as its stock trades lower, Archer Aviation has kept the headlines coming.

In mid-December, it said it was partnering with cities across California, Georgia, Florida, New York, and Texas, to submit proposals for launching air taxi operations.

These submissions are tied to the White House's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), which is designed to safely integrate eVTOLs into the national airspace system. While Archer isn't "in" this program in any formal sense, it has applied and the FAA is expected to make selections in 2026.

Separately, Archer was chosen as the air taxi provider for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. It has also been in talks with Saudi Arabia to deploy air taxi services in the Kingdom.

Still, Archer is pre-revenue, and it doesn't have an FAA-type certification to fly its craft commercially. So, while the stock is trading in the single digits, I would still approach this as a speculative play with plenty of turbulence ahead.

Steven Porrello has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.