Trevor Milton is trying to raise $1 billion for AI-powered planes, putting the Nikola founder back in the spotlight with a new aviation pitch nearly a year after his presidential pardon.
The new effort centers on SyberJet Aircraft, a struggling aviation company that Milton and an investment group bought late last year. The plan is not a modest relaunch of an existing business jet. It is a much bigger bet on building aircraft around AI-focused flight technology, with Milton once again pitching an ambitious transportation vision after the collapse of Nikola.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Milton is trying to raise the money for what he describes as AI-powered planes.
TechCrunch’s March 18 report said he wants to build autonomous aircraft and create an entirely new avionics system from the ground up that could help SyberJet develop what he called the “first light jet to focus on artificial-intelligence flight.” That report also said Milton believes the effort could open the door to defense contracts.
A bigger bet on autonomous flight
The reporting suggests Milton has spent months trying to turn SyberJet around while assembling the pieces for a much larger fundraising effort.
TechCrunch reported that this has included bringing in dozens of former Nikola staff, reaching out to potential investors in Saudi Arabia, and spending a few hundred thousand dollars on lobbying. Milton also told the Journal that planes will be “10 times harder than Nikola ever was,” an acknowledgment that aviation is a far steeper technical and regulatory climb than the trucking startup that made him famous.
Raising $1 billion for an aviation program is a major ask even without the baggage of Milton’s past. Doing it for aircraft framed around AI and autonomy adds another layer of skepticism, because aerospace investors and regulators tend to demand far more proof than software markets do. At the same time, the size of the target shows Milton is aiming for something far larger than a quiet return to business aviation.
His past still shapes the pitch
Milton’s history is still part of the story, even if it is no longer the main event. TechCrunch reported in March 2025 that he was pardoned by President Donald Trump after being convicted in 2022 of fraud tied to misleading statements about Nikola. That background is likely to shape how investors, partners, and critics view this latest push.
The bigger question now is whether Milton can turn a headline-grabbing pitch into a credible aviation business. For now, the most current and best-supported development is the fundraising effort itself: a reported $1 billion raise for AI-powered planes through SyberJet. That is enough to make the story noteworthy, even if the harder part, proving the technology and convincing investors, still lies ahead.
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