Trevor Milton, Nikola’s disgraced founder, is trying to raise $1 billion to buy AI-powered planes

It’s been almost a year since Trevor Milton, founder of now-bankrupt electric truck startup Nikola Sorry By President Trump. Now the Wall Street Journal has published one of the first deep dives into the topic Milton’s new effort: Trying to build autonomous aircraft.

Milton and an “investment group” purchased a struggling airline called SyberJet Aircraft late last year, and have spent the time since then trying to turn the company around. This includes bringing in “dozens” of former Nikola employees, attracting potential investors from Saudi Arabia, and spending a few hundred thousand dollars on lobbying, according to the report.

He reportedly wants to design an entirely new avionics system from the ground up that would help the company create “the first light aircraft to focus on AI flight,” which could open the door to defense contracts. But Milton, who was He was convicted of fraud in 2022He told the newspaper that he believes the planes will be “10 times more difficult than Nikola has ever been.”