Electric aircraft builder sells $1 billion in stock offering

Vermont’s Beta Technologies, which designs and manufactures electric aircraft, made its debut in the public market on Tuesday, selling $1 billion in a high-demand stock offering that exceeded earlier predictions for its size and pricing.

“The market responded incredibly well,” founding CEO Kyle Clark said in a press conference from the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday following the company’s 34 million share offering at $34 a share. 

Clark’s company indicated last month that it intended to offer just 25 million shares in its offering, but eventually issued more shares that started trading just above the projected price due to demand. 

Beta, which employs more than 800 people, filed for an initial public offering in late September. The company has raised over $1.5 billion in private investment and development contracts since its founding in 2017. Clark’s business also recently announced a $300 million equity investment from GE Aerospace, with whom Beta will work to advance hybrid flight technology.

GE Aerospace and Amazon are among the company's largest investors.

The company’s October filing with the SEC contained descriptions of the company’s future products, including several versions of the six-person “ALIA” electric aircraft. Beta is also developing a larger 19-passenger plane.

The company opened a 188,500-square-foot production facility in South Burlington in 2023 and also runs a battery testing site in St. Albans.

Clark said the company had been offered “hundreds of millions of dollars” to move its main operations to Texas, or Arkansas or elsewhere.

“We decided to stay in Vermont for now,” he said.



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