Archer Aviation's Flying Taxis Cleared for Takeoff

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Flying Taxi Cleared for Lift-off

The US Federal Aviation Administration has granted electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) maker Archer Aviation [ACHR] a commercial operations certificate. The Santa Clara, California-based firm is only the second eVTOL maker to receive this certification, after Joby Aviation [JOBY]. Archer is backed by the likes of Stellantis [STLA], Boeing [BA] and United Airlines [UAL]. Its share price is down nearly 50% year-to-date but gained some 3% on the news.

Jensane in the Mainframe

Nvidia [NVDA] CEO Jensen Huang sparked a frenzy of attention at this week’s Computex conference in Taiwan, to such an extent that local media began talking about “Jensanity”. On Wednesday, Huang’s firm surpassed a $3trn valuation, only the third company ever to do so after Apple [AAPL] and Microsoft [MSFT]. Elsewhere, Cathie Wood has said that her ARK Investment Management fund has “a lot of exposure to up and comers” in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, despite trimming Nvidia earlier this year.

Zoox to Test Robotaxi in Texas, Florida

Amazon’s [AMZN] robotaxi unit Zoox is to deploy a test fleet of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders with human safety drivers in Austin and Miami. It will not yet be offering public rides in those cities but may do so after its initial launch in Las Vegas and San Francisco. This comes as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigates 500 Zoox vehicles equipped with autonomous driving technology following two crashes.

Will China Approve Ozempic Generics?

The patent for Novo Nordisk’s [NVO] blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic is about to expire in China. Drugmakers in the country are developing at least 15 generic versions, according to a clinical trial database seen by Reuters, pending a court decision that could strip Ozempic of patent protection. The Danish giant had hoped to see a vaulting demand for Ozempic and weightloss drug Wegovy in China, which has more obese people than anywhere else in the world.  

Meta AI Plans Under Fire in EU

Advocacy group NOYB (none of your business) on Thursday criticised Meta’s [META] plans to use personal data to train its AI models. Changes in Meta’s privacy policy, due to come into force on 26 June, would allow it to use years of personal data to train its AI. The group called on privacy watchdogs across Europe to move to prevent the plans, saying it had launched 11 complaints against Meta.