[Nikola Founder Trevor Milton, Pardoned, Plans to Raise $1 Billion to Bet on AI Autonomous Aircraft] Deep Tide TechFlow reports, on March 19, according to TechCrunch, Trevor Milton, the founder of Nikola who was convicted of fraud and later pardoned by President Trump, is planning to venture into the AI aviation sector. Milton, along with an investment group, acquired the struggling airline SyberJet Aircraft late last year and plans to raise $1 billion to drive its transformation. Reportedly, Milton has recruited dozens of former Nikola employees and is actively seeking funding from potential investors in regions such as Saudi Arabia, while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying efforts. His core goal is to develop an entirely new avionics system from scratch and create "the first lightweight jet centered around AI-powered flight," aiming to break into the defense contract market. Milton admitted that building airplanes is "ten times harder than building Nikola.