Cathie Wood Is Buying Joby—JPMorgan Calls It A Top Short

Cathie Wood is doubling down on flying taxis. JPMorgan is betting against them. In a new thematic research report, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) named Joby Aviation Inc (NYSE:JOBY) one of its top short ideas, arguing the stock trades at an aggressive premium despite a long road to certification, commercialization, and profitability.

Meanwhile, Cathie Wood has recently bought the stock through ARK Invest, framing Joby as a core bet on the future of urban air mobility.

The clash sets up one of the market’s most polarizing AI-adjacent trades.

The Bull Case: Disruptive Tech in the Making

Wood has steadily added Joby shares during dips, most recently in Jan. 2026, lifting the stock to a meaningful position in its ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKX). Her thesis is classic ARK: Joby sits at the intersection of autonomous flight, electrification, and platform mobility, with partnerships spanning Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:TM), Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL), and Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER).

Joby’s roadmap is ambitious, though. The company:

• committed to launch commercial operations in Dubai by late 2026
• its first vertiport at Dubai International Airport to be ready by the end of the first quarter
• is installing advanced CAE flight simulators at its Marina, California facility. This is a critical regulatory step for training the first wave of commercial eVTOL pilots
• is scaling manufacturing with a massive 700,000-square-foot Ohio facility to scale to four aircrafts per month by 2027 (from the current two)

The Bear Case: Valuation vs Reality

JPMorgan’s critique is blunt: Joby trades at a premium to aerospace peers and other pre-revenue clean-tech names, despite having not yet scaled operations. The bank argues the current enterprise value implies adoption and margins that industry forecasts don’t support.

For reference, JOBY stock trades at an around 14x price-to-book (P/BV) multiple, relative to Archer Aviation Inc‘s (NYSE:ACHR) 3.5x P/BV multiple. Other competitors such as Eve Holding Inc (NYSE:EVEX) and EHang Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:EH) trade at around 8x and 7x, respectively.

The company remains deeply unprofitable, with heavy cash burn and ongoing dilution risk. Consensus analyst ratings lean Hold/Reduce, with some price targets far below current levels.

Investor Takeaway: Joby is a battleground stock: disruptive dream versus industrial reality. Wood is buying the future. JPMorgan is shorting the timeline.

For investors, the real trade isn’t whether flying taxis arrive—it’s whether the stock is pricing 2035 revenues in 2026.

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