Merlin, Inc., an aerospace and defense technology company building the operating system of record for autonomous flight, today announced the closing of its business combination with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. IV, a SPAC led and backed by the management team of Inflection Point Asset Management (Inflection Point). The Business Combination was approved by Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. IV stockholders in a special meeting held on March 12, 2026 and formally closed on March 16, 2026. On March 17, 2026, the combined company will begin trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “MRLN.”

The transaction provides approximately $200 million in gross proceeds, including a fully committed PIPE anchored by Inflection Point, existing Merlin investors, including Baillie Gifford, and several new institutional investors. The capital further strengthens the company’s balance sheet. As a leading defense prime contractor for AI-powered autonomous aviation, the deal values Merlin at $800 million pre-money.

Merlin believes the future of flight is autonomous and with the completion of this transaction, the company is positioned to scale deployment of the Merlin Pilot, an AI-powered autonomous flight system designed from first principles for the purpose of flying any aircraft — military or civilian — from takeoff to touchdown, with or without a human crew on board. Every aircraft equipped with the Merlin Pilot generates data that can make the system smarter. Each new aircraft type, environment, and mission can expand the platform's capabilities - creating compounding advantages that grow with every flight. Autonomy replaces legacy constraints with possibilities across aircraft design, flight economics, mission profiles, and the role of humans. Merlin is built from the ground up to anticipate these possibilities, and to pioneer this autonomous future's certified, regulated and replicable commercial solutions.

“At Merlin, we are rethinking what flight can be. Aviation up to now was defined by the humans who fly aircraft — and so aviation design, engineering, and operations reflected a human focus. Merlin was founded on the insight that, when you challenge that core human-centricity and all its related assumptions, the nature and possibilities of aviation change. We believe those shifts create a massive economic and industrial opportunity,” said Matt George, CEO and founder of Merlin. “We are working with our customers and partners to identify all the ways that assured autonomy can solve real problems and meaningfully improve mission execution and outcomes. We hope our investors will appreciate and understand our methodical approach to innovating and building for the long term.”

“We believe Merlin is building the world’s leading AI-enabled autonomous pilot, with applications capable of transforming national security and civil aviation,” said Michael Blitzer, CEO of Inflection Point. “Today’s public listing strengthens the company’s first-mover advantage, opens new opportunities for partnerships with many of the world’s leading aerospace companies, and provides a platform to consolidate a fragmented, high-growth industry. Merlin is a strategically important asset at an inflection point of growth, and is uniquely positioned to lead the next era of aviation autonomy.”

Inflection Point is an experienced SPAC sponsor that seeks to identify, take public, and scale high-impact and strategically important technology companies. Its prior transactions are Intuitive Machines and USA Rare Earth.

Advisors

TD Cowen acted as exclusive Financial and Capital Markets Advisor to Merlin. TD Cowen, Cantor Fitzgerald and Cohen & Company Capital Markets, a division of Cohen & Company Securities, LLC, served as joint placement agents on the PIPE in connection with the Business Combination. Raymond James and Canaccord Genuity served as Capital Market Advisors to Merlin and Inflection Point, respectively. Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel to Merlin. White & Case LLP served as legal counsel to Inflection Point. Greenberg Traurig, LLP served as legal counsel to TD Cowen, Cantor Fitzgerald, Raymond James and Canaccord Genuity.