{"id":1537204,"date":"2025-05-21T01:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1537204"},"modified":"2025-05-21T01:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T05:20:00","slug":"short-seller-challenges-jimmy-fallon-to-1m-air-taxi-bet-before-2028-la-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/short-seller-challenges-jimmy-fallon-to-1m-air-taxi-bet-before-2028-la-olympics\/1537204\/","title":{"rendered":"Short Seller Challenges Jimmy Fallon To $1M Air Taxi Bet Before 2028 LA Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Short Seller Challenges Jimmy Fallon To $1M Air Taxi Bet Before 2028 LA Olympics<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Archer Aviation is set to serve as the official air taxi provider<\/a> for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles\u2014a high-profile partnership that has boosted the startup’s public visibility. However, skepticism mounts over whether Archer can deliver a fully operational flying taxi aircraft ahead of the Games.<\/p>\n

Short seller Culper Research has released a scathing report on Archer Aviation, alleging that the startup has “systematically misled, deceived, or outright lied” investors about nearly every significant milestone tied to developing and testing its eVTOL aircraft, Midnight.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

“Archer’s misrepresentations have grown increasingly brazen as it attempts to conceal a far more deep-seated, and \u2013 in the Company’s very own words \u2013 “potentially catastrophic” problem: Midnight’s sham transition flight and underlying instability. In our view, Archer’s continued promotion of near-term commercialization is not only premature, but reckless,”\u00a0Culper wrote in the report.<\/p>\n

Culper claimed\u00a0Midnight was “nowhere close to flying,” and pointed out that\u00a0Archer CEO Adam Goldstein has been more focused on running promotions, such as appearing on\u00a0Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show last Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our sources suggest, however, Archer paid\u00a0millions for the airtime, in addition to Fallon’s recent appearance at an Archer promotional event in NYC,” the short seller wrote, adding, “We reached out to Fallon’s agent who told us that we, too, could have Jimmy show up at our party (to say nothing of his appearance in a promotional video) for about $600,000, plus transportation.”<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, Culper wrote on X, “We are short Archer Aviation – and we’re extending a $1 million wager to Jimmy Fallon, who has earned millions to promote Archer. Jimmy – if you truly believe in Archer, prove it.”<\/p>\n

NEW: We are short Archer Aviation $ACHR<\/a> – and we’re extending a $1 million wager to @jimmyfallon<\/a>, who has earned millions to promote $ACHR<\/a>. Jimmy – if you truly believe in Archer, prove it. Our offer, and our full report now available at https:\/\/t.co\/4MDshx5BeT<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/9u3BA2eFf7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Culper (@CulperResearch) May 20, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Archer shares are down a little more than 1% in late afternoon trading on Tuesday.\u00a0According to data from S3 Partners, about 17% of the company’s floating stock is short.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here is short activity in Archer shares via Bloomberg.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Cathie Wood’s\u00a0Ark Investment Management is among the startup’s top shareholders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

It appears that Midnight is capable of flight\u2014at least to some extent.<\/p>\n

\u2705 Midnight has achieved transition flight!<\/p>\n

Next steps…
\n\ud83d\udca8 Continuing to expand Midnight’s speed and endurance flight envelope
\n\ud83d\uddfa\ufe0f Execute commercial flight plans to demonstrate the aircraft\u2019s operational readiness<\/p>\n

Watch the full, uncut version of the transition flight here:\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/NLh1yw9GR8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Archer (@ArcherAviation) June 27, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

One has to wonder: will Cathie Wood step up to defend Archer against Culper’s damning allegations?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 05\/20\/2025 – 21:20<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/technology\/short-seller-challenges-jimmy-fallon-1m-air-taxi-bet-2028-la-olympics<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short Seller Challenges Jimmy Fallon To $1M Air Taxi Bet Before 2028 LA Olympics Archer Aviation is set to serve as the official air taxi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1537205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1537204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1537204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1537205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1537204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1537204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1537204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}