A Special Guest from Joby Aviation, OpenAI's $110B Fundraise, & the "K-Shaped" Economy

19:24Ryan Naru:And here in the United States, Joby was one of the earliest to try and take advantage of that and incorporate it into a small electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft or an eVTOL. And that electric propulsion enables us to do a lot of things, right? It allows us to be quiet. It allows us to be very, very, very manageable from a maintenance perspective, right? Remove and replace those motors in three and a half hours instead of two weeks, like for a typical helicopter, right? So the price point comes down. And I think that the Trump administration realized that there is a global competitive nature to aerospace, right?

19:58Ryan Naru:It is a significant portion of our GDP. And these are some of the most important exports that we have at our disposal, right? They are part of what brings people together, right? And those technologies also accelerate economies, right? When we're able to get on the plane and be with someone and do that business that's so important or see family that's so key to us, spend holidays together. And so we're seeing a lot of aircraft that are being produced potentially in competitive countries around the world. Trump administration said, hey, we're going to fast forward what it takes to get these aircraft into American skies.

20:32Ryan Naru:They issued the executive order and it called on states and local governments to raise their hand and say, yes, I want to be the first. I want to set the global standard for how these aircraft are operationalized. With those communities now having submitted applications, and we understand that there were over 40 applications, so representation from across the 50 states, some of the applications are actually multiple states getting together and saying, yes, we want to do this across our borders. We have all these communities that have put their applications in. Secretary Duffy is about to make a decision and say, hey, these are the five places that we're going to commit administration resources to operationalizing this first.

21:09Ryan Naru:And the objective really being to, number one, operate with the intention of building improved regulations, improved policy, improved guidance. And then number two, to ensure that as soon as these aircraft are type certified, they're able to be added to operating certificates and be at full tilt right away. So what does that mean for when we're going to see it over Tampa? That's really exciting. So what's going to happen is we're going to see some awards be announced here real soon. Hopefully Florida is right on the top of the list. And what that will mean is within 90 days of the agreement being signed between the state of Florida and the federal government, the supporters of the application, in this case, Joby, will be required to show that they're up and running within 90 days.

21:52Ryan Naru:So we think that that means that the first contracts will be signed in early summer. So before the end of September, maybe October. We're talking about regular operations of some of these aircraft in the state of Florida, right? If that was one of the states that won.

22:07Rich Habits:That's awesome. So what I'm hearing here is that once that's figured out, you got a 90 day shot clock and then these things are in the air. Sounds to me like by the end of 2026, we're going to be seeing some of these Joby Evatols rolling around and I'm going to be looking around like, what's that in the sky? Like, that's awesome.

22:24Ryan Naru:No doubt. I mean, and I think that for everyone inside Joby, it's a pretty amazing moment too, right? We've been thinking about this aircraft, not just as the vehicle, but the entire operating system, right? The airline, the pilot training, the software that's in the hands of the user who wants to go fly on this aircraft. And so to be able to now bring that complete operational perspective and all the operational readiness that we've built into our organization, into this incredible co-learning opportunity with the federal government and these communities that have raised their hands and said, yes, I want to be a part of this.

22:57Ryan Naru:It's amazing. It's really inspiring. Recently, we flew one of our aircraft from Marina Municipal Airport near Monterey, California, and we flew it all the way up north of Santa Cruz into one of our earliest production facilities. And it was very much like a coming home moment for this aircraft. But for Joby, it was also a moment of being able to show the world we're ready. Like we're able to pick up, fly this aircraft, had a time and place of our choosing, a vertical takeoff and landing, fully piloted. I think we're the only aircraft manufacturer doing this in the country, in this way. And so that makes the applications that we're supporting, we believe, to be those that are probably going to be the most compelling to the administration, right?

23:35Ryan Naru:We're the furthest along in terms of our operational readiness. And so the opportunity for regulatory learnings for the FAA are greatest in those places that we're supporting.

23:44Rich Habits:I appreciate that breakdown, Ryan. And as someone who is a member of the public, right, the first thing I think about here is safety. I mean, when it comes to Ubers and Lyfts and things like, yeah, they got their safety things as it relates to something scary happening in the car, but we all know how cars work and stuff. But like, this is a new mode of transportation sort of. And so how does this pilot program demonstrate that these Evatols are safe for the everyday person?

24:11Ryan Naru:That's a great point, right? So I think a lot of the early flying that you're going to see are going to be without passengers, right? We're going to be doing those kinds of missions that inspire the confidence of the public, inspire the confidence of the regulator, and will be essentially coupled to the ongoing type certification efforts that we're doing at home to make sure that all of the data that supports the novelty, right, of this design so that we can bring it into everyday service is delivered. For Joby in particular, right, the other thing that makes us a little bit different than others is while the aircraft looks different, as it flies in the airspace, it is very much similar to a helicopter, right?

24:48Ryan Naru:So today's air traffic controller guidance has actually already been updated to support our aircraft. So they say for airplanes, do this. For helicopters, do this. We're very neatly and already in the helicopter bucket of the guidance. We're a piloted aircraft. There's no remote supervision. It's not a drone, right? There's always a commercial pilot on board. And so because of that, you know, for the air traffic controller, this is going to be very essentially familiar, very transparent on what they're going to be expected to do. And we're already doing that today. Actually, we're flying into controlled airports.

25:21Ryan Naru:We've got a number of missions that we're already planning to fly into controlled airports across the country. So we're excited to see that play out for the rest of the year. And, you know, I think when it comes to safety, I'm also really excited about what electric propulsion brings to the picture, right? So it used to be that with helicopters, you only often have a single engine, a lot of critical parts. Everyone knows, like, if you lose your tail rotor, that's a really bad day, right? And with a distributed propulsion aircraft, you can actually build in enormous amounts of redundancy into the aircraft such that if a propulsion station failed, if a critical component failed for whatever reason, you're already always going to be in a powered, controlled, continued safe flight and landing situation.

26:02Ryan Naru:And that's really exciting, right? It's exciting to have the tools as an engineer to actually think about these problems in new ways, right? Instead of investing all of this energy into making that one part not fail, well, now we can give that one part four or five different backups. And that's really, really, really exciting as an engineer. So my next question is, and I could do this for hours with you, Ryan, so we appreciate you stopping by on short notice, is what's next for Joby? And explain to our audience, how are you thinking about announcing this progress in this pilot program? And what's the roadmap for this countrywide use, let's say down the road, two, three, four years, whenever you're fully at scale?

26:45Ryan Naru:Walk our audience through who's going to be using these. How do you become a pilot? Who do you see as the best use case? Kind of give us the lay of the land there because this is really interesting to think about what this can do, not just for aviation, but also people that work in major cities for affordability if they want to live outside of the city, etc., etc. Is it going to be like an Uber situation where you can call for a ride and it comes and grabs you every morning at 8, 10 in the morning? Walk us through all of that for what you know so far. No, that's awesome. And, you know, this is a question I really love because I joined this project, this team through Uber Elevate seven years ago.

27:25Ryan Naru:And so I did two years with Uber and then five years now with Joby once Joby brought the Uber Elevate team in-house. And what you probably saw just last week in Dubai was that Uber Air provided by Joby is now an official thing. Like this is getting engineered into the Uber app. And, you know, one of the things that comes with designing an eVTOL as a service is you have to think about the user, the passenger, right? That guest who's going to be with you for that time. How do you make this seamless and magical? How do you make that addition of that transfer and that mode feel like nothing at all?

27:58Ryan Naru:And that's why having Uber as a partner, it's really one of our other superpowers, really. Because Uber has been thinking about this for seven years. We did it with helicopters in New York City, right, where we're able to seamlessly connect the first mile to the helicopter service to the last mile. And it all be one trip, one booking. And so when I think about what this service is going to mean to, let's say, folks in New York City, I used to live in Newburgh, New York. So this is near West Point. It's about 60 miles north of the city. And my dad would take the commuter train every day. It's an hour and a half down, an hour and a half back.

28:33Ryan Naru:and all of that, you know, first and last mile energy in between. When you have a five o 'clock meeting in Manhattan, right, you're going to miss out on a lot of things at home. It's just a reality when you're a commuter. And so there's going to be people I foresee in the future who will have this new option accessible to them where they can do both, right? They can stay, be there for that important client discussion, but also make it home in time for those moments that matter. And it may not be their everyday use of transportation, but it's going to be such a critical option that connects our communities in ways that we had never had quite as accessible before.

29:07Ryan Naru:And that's really, really exciting. Like, that's a future I want. I think that's a future that like a lot of my friends and family want. And that's the future that we're trying to build here at Joby.

29:15Rich Habits:That is super exciting. I love that answer, Ryan. Thank you so much, my friend, for joining us on this episode of the Rich Habits Radar. Such short notice. It's so cool. We're just talking about this and you guys are like, yeah, we're doing it. Let's talk about it to your listeners. We're like, yes, please come hang. So, Ryan, can't wait to have you back. Let us know. Obviously, after those 90 days are up, you guys are in the skies. We'll love to have you back. Let us know what's going on with the progress and put us in a couple of these EV tolls. I'd love to be moving around wherever they are in the country.

29:44Rich Habits:Count me in.

29:45Ryan Naru:Robert, we'll have you right on top of the list when we're in Florida. Can't wait to see you come out and see the aircraft in the sky. Yeah, we definitely will have to do an event right at the little airport next door to me here. And we can rock and roll and have some fun here. A lot of great people. and I'm super excited. We've loved the company. We've been talking about it for a long time. So thanks for stopping by.

30:06Rich Habits:Austin, Robert, thank you so much. Cheers. Massive shout out to Ryan and Joby for joining us here on such short notice. It is awesome that we're able to take and just welcome incredibly smart people that are doing real big things in this world on this show and just giving you guys the inside scoop. And I hope you guys appreciate it as much as we enjoy hosting them. And before we jump to our own radar points, Gotta give a shout out to VCX, the public ticker for private tech.

30:33Ryan Naru:For generations, American companies have moved the world forward through their ingenuity and determination. And for generations, everyday Americans could be a part of that journey through perhaps the greatest innovation of all, and that is the U.S. stock market.

30:46Rich Habits:It didn't matter whether you were a factory worker in Detroit or a farmer in Omaha, anyone could own a piece of the great American companies. But now, that unfortunately has changed. Today, our most innovative companies are staying private rather than going public. The result is that everyday Americans are excluded from investing and getting left further and further behind, while a select few reap all the benefits until now.

31:12Ryan Naru:And that's why we're excited to introduce to all of you VCX, the public ticker for private tech. VCX by Fundrise gives everyone the opportunity to invest in the next generation of innovation, including the companies leading the AI revolution, space exploration, defense tech, and much more.

31:31Rich Habits:So visit getvcx.com for more information. That is getvcx.com for more information. carefully consider the investment material before investing including objectives risks charges and expenses this and other information can be found in the funds prospectus at getvcx.com this is a paid sponsorship you know this get vcx stuff robert you know talking about how these companies are waiting longer and longer before they go public leaving the everyday investor behind reminds me a lot of what we've seen with open ai right the retail everyday investor now won't be able to invest in open ai until it's already a trillion dollar valuation now to put that in perspective like let me really help you guys understand this um and why i think it's so important and you can go look this up for any company i'd encourage you to look it up for nvidia and tesla these other names and amazon stuff like that tesla right now elon musk company electric vehicles 400 a share 1.5 trillion dollar valuation they ipo'd at 2 billion dollars which means if you somehow some way were smart enough to jump on that wagon back at the two billion dollar valuation you would have 750 x your money you know who's 750 xing their money today the venture capital firms the select few the mark andresens the ben horowitz these people who are running these big vc firms who are investing in the next generation companies before they're even on the stock market and they're staying private for longer.

33:03Rich Habits:That's why we think VCX by Fundrise is really, really powerful and it's an awesome tool. It's going to allow people to unlock an asset class. So go to getvcx.com and check them out. So Robert, this is my favorite segment of the show where we find our favorite headlines, our own little show and tell, and we come every week and we share with everyone listening what we think is important, what they should have at the top of their list of things to understand for what took place that week. So why don't you kick us off? What are your three big headlines of Robert Croak's universe that got you excited this week?

33:38Ryan Naru:Yeah, you know how I think about markets and how I'm always digging deep on things. And my favorite one this week that I'm going to lead with is McDonald's Big Arch Taste Test video backlash. We all saw the video. It went super viral. And I couldn't wait to see how bad this video was and how viral went, what would that do to affect McDonald's market cap? And based on the data that I could find over the last three, four days, McDonald's stock is down around 5%, which is around$12 billion in market cap lost because of this taste test video gone wrong. And I just think it's crazy to think that that volatility all came from them trying to do a cool video for McDonald's with this new launch of the sandwich.

34:24Ryan Naru:And then we of course saw the Burger King CEO come on and take a big bite, get it all over his face. So I really couldn't wait to check that out. Unfortunately, I was moving so I didn't get to short the stock and take advantage of this video fail, but I was definitely excited to watch it. And I saw that all the meme channels were calling it McPhail, which was pretty funny. So that's number one for me. Number two is the U.S. Copper Index Fund, the CPER, is up 28 % over the past year, outpacing the S &P 500's 15.5 % gain in the past year. So I thought that was really cool. We were obviously very early on copper, even one of our big call-outs earlier this year in one of our episodes.

35:09Ryan Naru:And copper currently, I'm going to read this to get it right, has a structural deficit exceeding 10 million metric tons needed by 2040 as energy transition demand rises 50 % while global mine production peaks by 2030. So I thought this was a really good headline. We were ahead of this. We really love this category and think it's going to do well for years to come. So I wanted to talk about that headline. And last for me, you guys know I have to throw in a mortgage rate. What's happening in the real estate market? Because I love the real estate market. And I always want to keep you guys informed.

35:45Ryan Naru:And mortgage rates just fell to 2022 lows. And so I thought that was interesting. Mortgage rates have begun to slide downward since mid-November. And now sources are reporting loan rates under 6%. We'll see if it stays that way. But Yahoo Finance's weekly survey of lender rates showed 30-year fixed rates as low as 5.5%, and rates were topping out at around 7%. So we'll see where that goes in the coming weeks as the Fed rate has gone up as well. So we'll go from there and keep an eye on this, but I thought everyone should see that rates are still pretty stable. It's still a buyer's market, so keep an eye on that.

36:24Ryan Naru:And always remember to get pre-approved and get ahead of things because you want to try and take advantage of the rates when they are down and lock in a good rate.

36:34Rich Habits:Yeah, speaking of good rates, it reminds me earlier this week, the CEO of Open Door came out saying that if you buy a house from Open Door, they will lend to you at a 4.99 % interest rate. No points, no extra fees, no nothing on a 30-year fixed mortgage. They are going to buy down your rate to 4.99%. Pretty crazy. So yeah, real estate's cooking right now. Real estate's definitely cooking. Before I jump into my own radar points, got to give a shout out to Blossom. As you guys know, Blossom is this beautiful portfolio tracker. You link your brokerage, everything sinks in automatically. They got the clean visuals, clear performance.

37:11Rich Habits:Those dividends get tracked automatically. Their UI is just so, so worth it. And the part that really sold us was the fact that it's not just your portfolios, but you can follow other investors like myself and Robert and look at their verified holdings.

37:27Ryan Naru:Exactly. These aren't screenshots or trust me, bro, portfolios. They're brokerage linked and verified. You can literally see when someone adds a position, trims or holds, including myself and Austin. The best part, it's a community of long-term investors just like us, not these get-rich-quick traders. You start to understand how long-term investors actually behave, what they buy, what they ignore. The transparency is something you don't see on any other platforms. We're both on there. Our portfolios are on there and people can follow along in real time. It's transparency done right.

38:00Rich Habits:So if you want a clean portfolio tracker, genuinely great user experience and a way to learn from other real investors with real money, go check out Blossom. It's free. It's easy to use. And honestly, one of the best investing apps out there. Go search Blossom on the app store, link in the show notes below, or visit blossomsocial.com on your computer. All right, Robert, so the three radar points that I'm bringing to the show and tell this week include the trade courts ordering Trump to issue these tariff refunds, Texas Instruments partnering with NVIDIA to deploy humanoid robots, and Apple's new low-cost Neo MacBook, which I think is actually pretty sweet and a pretty good deal for a lot of you guys listening right now.

38:40Rich Habits:So let's go jump back to the trade courts ordering Trump to issue these tariff refunds. A federal trade court judge has ordered the Trump administration to start issuing refunds for the tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court last month. Thousands of lawsuits, as you guys might remember from a couple weeks ago, we talked about this on a Radar episode. Thousands of lawsuits seeking tariff refunds have been brought by companies, including Costco and FedEx, and many of which were filed before the Supreme Court ruling, which means they're going to be first in line to get and collect, here we go, ready, over$130 billion in tariffs.

39:16Rich Habits:I mean, depending on how much and whatever study you look at, I got the Wharton budget model. It's over here saying that it could be up to$175 billion in tariffs. So all I'm saying, Robert, is where is my tariff refund? Because I guarantee you Costco just took that money and pushed it on over to me. So the next headline, of course, is Texas Instruments partnering with NVIDIA to deploy humanoid robots. This one's interesting. So Texas Instruments, ticker TXN, famous for making mathematical calculators that you probably had in college, is combining their real-time control, sensing, and power portfolios with NVIDIA's advanced robotics computing, Ethernet-based sensing, and simulation technologies to help developers build and deploy humanoid robots.

40:01Rich Habits:So as part of this collaborative partnership, Texas Instruments designed a sensor fusion solution by integrating their MM wave radar technology with NVIDIA's Jetson Thor using the NVIDIA Holoscan sensor bridge to enable low latency, 3D perception, and safety awareness for humanoid robots. Sounds technical. Sounds crazy. Doesn't matter to me. Cool. Glad y 'all figured it out. I certainly couldn't. Texas Instruments plans to showcase the development during the upcoming NVIDIA GTC event, which is going to take place later this month in California. By fusing the camera and radar data, the solution improves object detection, localization.

40:45Rich Habits:By fusing together camera and radar technology, the solution improves object detection, localization, and tracking while reducing false positives for confident real-time decision-making with humanoid robots. So that'd be cool to keep an eye on as well. I love it when NVIDIA comes out with new tech and I get to say, whoa, how cool. I'm so glad I'm an investor. Speaking of being an investor, I'm also an investor in Apple and I got to get excited as they unveiled all of these cool new products, including their newest low-cost Neo MacBook. Apple unveiled this highly anticipated new low-cost MacBook Neo earlier this week on Wednesday.

41:22Rich Habits:It's a 13-inch, 2.7-pound MacBook. It's powered by the A18 Pro processor, which actually is an iPhone 16 chip. So they took an iPhone 16 chip and they put it in a laptop. It's going to come in four colors, silver, indigo, blush, and citrus, and sports a side-firing speaker system. It's got 16 hours of battery life and two USB-C ports. The new addition to the MacBook lineup also contains a 1080p webcam, headphone jack and some higher end models will have the touch id as well coming in at a whopping four hundred and ninety nine dollars when you're a student and you take advantage of that hundred dollar discount so five ninety nine for everyone else this computer in my opinion is a perfect perfect computer for an everyday student who's trying to do some web browsing trying to take those tests trying to go to class take some notes a lot of you listening right now probably need to go out and buy this computer for yourself for your kids or something going on there i think it's great For me, it's not my thing.

42:21Rich Habits:I do a lot of video editing. I do a lot of stuff on the computer that would tear through this processor chip in a minute. But if you're browsing the web, getting back to emails, taking some notes in class, this is your computer.

42:32Ryan Naru:Great breakdown, Austin. I would say the highlight for me is definitely Texas Instrument and the NVIDIA partnership. We've been very early and very outspoken about how much we believe in the humanoid robotics category as an investing sector. Also, I want to add, though, I think it's a great move by Apple to introduce this Neo MacBook, this low-cost version, because times are tough. We talked about the K-shaped economy. People still need laptops. People need computers. Students need computers. And this is a great entry-level way for Apple to gain some market share back. So I think that's a good idea as well.

43:10Ryan Naru:So I think those are really strong call-outs.

43:12Rich Habits:Amazing. Well, as a quick reminder, go to WallStreetFavorites.com. Go see what Wall Street thinks about your own portfolio. feel free to share this episode with a friend. If you learned something, vote in the poll below, leave us a comment on Spotify, what you liked about the episode, what you didn't like. All feedback is warranted and welcome because these episodes are new. We're always trying to make our episodes better for each and every one of you. Thanks everyone. And we'll see you on Monday.

44:18Rich Habits:We'll be right back. every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it guaranteed. One last big number, save up to 40 % your first year. Visit lifelock.com slash podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply.