Trevor Milton, the pardoned founder of Nikola, plans to raise $1 billion to bet on AI-powered autonomous aircraft.

According to Mars Finance, Trevor Milton, the founder of Nikola who was convicted of fraud and later pardoned by President Trump, is planning to enter the AI aviation field. Milton and an investment group acquired the struggling airline CyberJet Aircraft late last year and plan to raise $1 billion to drive its transformation. It is reported that Milton has recruited dozens of former Nikola employees and is actively seeking funding from potential investors in Saudi Arabia and other regions, while also investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying activities. His core goal is to develop a completely new avionics system from scratch, creating "the first light jet aircraft with AI flight at its core," and thereby opening up the defense contract market. Milton admitted that building an aircraft is "ten times harder than building Nikola."