NEW YORK, June 9, 2026, 13:02 EDT
- Archer Aviation dropped around 9% Tuesday, trailing a down U.S. market.
- ARK Invest unloaded over 2.2 million Archer shares on Monday, Investor’s Business Daily reported.
- Investors backed away from speculative growth stocks, and air-taxi names like Joby Aviation and Vertical Aerospace fell too.
Archer Aviation Inc. shares fell hard Tuesday after ARK Invest, run by Cathie Wood, reduced its position in the electric air-taxi company. The move hit a stock that was already under strain as high-growth names continued to slide.
Shares dropped 9.1% to $5.21 in early afternoon. The stock opened at $5.77 and sank as low as $5.20, according to market data. Volume topped 31 million shares.
Why does this matter? Archer still trades on news, not profit. The company is working to certify and bring eVTOL aircraft—battery-powered air taxis that take off vertically—to market. Investors keep asking for more revenue details and stricter cost controls.
ARK moved out 2,222,392 Archer shares from its ARK Innovation, ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics and ARK Space & Defense Innovation funds on Monday, a deal worth roughly $12.7 million, according to Investor’s Business Daily. Archer, Joby Aviation and Vertical Aerospace shares all slipped Tuesday.
Markets were weaker as tech and AI stocks dropped, pulling the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to their lowest in over a month. “Tech stocks are typically the most rate sensitive,” Jordan Rizzuto, CIO at GammaRoad Capital Partners, said to Reuters. Reuters
Other air-taxi stocks were down. Joby Aviation slipped 7.2% to $9.00, and Vertical Aerospace lost 6.0% to $2.04. Earlier, Vertical said its latest full-scale prototype finished its first piloted flight in the UK. CEO Stuart Simpson said a bigger test fleet should “validate the aircraft more quickly, reduce risk.” Business Wire
Certification remains the key issue for Archer in the short term. The company in May said it was the first eVTOL firm to finish Phase 3 of the FAA’s four-step Type Certification process, the regulatory sign-off that the design passes safety checks. Founder and CEO Adam Goldstein called it “another banner quarter” for Archer and pointed to “record FAA certification progress.” Archer Aviation
Archer Aviation wrapped up Q1 with about $1.8 billion in liquidity, but the company posted a net loss of $217.7 million and burned $149.1 million in operating cash in the quarter. Funding and execution remain key issues for the stock.
But there’s a clear risk for Archer. If the FAA certification timeline slips, or U.S. launch plans get pushed back, and cash burn doesn’t slow, Archer might need to shore up its finances while the stock stays at risk from rate-driven growth selling. If ARK’s ETF rebalancing fades as a driver, the stock may struggle a lot more with a certification delay.
The NYSE’s schedule listed Tuesday as a normal trading day with no holiday or shortened hours. For this group, what comes next looks like it will hinge on either new certification info out of Archer or the latest fund-flow numbers to see if investors keep pulling cash from eVTOL stocks.
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