Joby to Sell $250M in Aircraft, Services to Kazakhstan

Joby Aviation announced November 6 that it had signed a letter of intent to sell $250 million in electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft to Alatau Advance Air Group, AAAG, a Kazakh company that intends to run them as flying taxis. In addition to the air taxi deal, Joby and AAAG have agreed to collaborate on sourcing titanium and rare earth metals from Kazakhstan to make more Joby aircraft.

According to Zhaslan Madiyev, Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, the purchase will boost the development of Alatau City, a city development project led by AAAG in the southern part of the country. According to the Times of Central Asia, Alatau was founded in late 2024 from the combination of four villages near Almaty, Kazakhstan’s most populated city, as a special economic zone and a target for billions of dollars in investment projects.

In a statement, Madiyev cast the Joby deal as one such progress to contribute to the growth of Alatau City.

“Kazakhstan is taking a step into the future of innovative transportation,” Madiyev said. “The purchase of electric eVTOL aircraft will mark an important milestone in the development of smart cities and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. This initiative will contribute to the growth of Alatau City as a unique hub of advanced technologies of the future.”

JoeBen Bevirt, the CEO of Joby, said the company’s dual partnerships with a regional operator and the government of Kazakhstan is part of the company’s plan to commercialize. “We are deploying our proven market-entry playbook in Kazakhstan by partnering with both the government and a strategic regional operator to accelerate our path to commercial operations,” Bevirt said. “Kazakhstan is positioning itself to become a key hub for advanced air mobility and the expansion of Joby’s service into the Central Asia region.”

Sergey Khegay, CEO of Alatau Advance Air Group Ltd., said in a statement his company would deploy the air taxis first in Alatau City, followed by Almaty, about 21 miles away.

“We envision bringing urban air mobility to life in Kazakhstan, beginning with the newly-developed smart city of Alatau and the metropolitan hub of Almaty. Our ambition is to become the region’s first launch customer for eVTOL aircraft, establish a comprehensive testbed and ground infrastructure, and support the Government of Kazakhstan in creating a robust regulatory environment for safe and reliable operations,” Khegay said. “We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with one of the United States’ leading manufacturers of next-generation electric aircraft.”