Amazon said Tuesday it received regulatory approval to begin flying a smaller, quieter version of its delivery drone, the latest step in its long-running efforts to get the futuristic program off the ground.

The company unveiled the new drone, called the MK30, in November 2022. It said then that the MK30, in addition to the other changes, would fly through light rain and have twice the range of earlier models.

Amazon said the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval includes permission to fly the MK30 over longer distances and beyond the visual line of sight of pilots. The agency granted a similar waiver for Amazon’s Prime Air program in May, though that was limited to flights in College Station, Texas, one of the cities where it has been conducting tests.

Alongside the FAA approval, Matt McCardle, head of regulatory affairs for Prime Air, said the company is starting to make drone deliveries Tuesday near Phoenix, Arizona. In April, Amazon said it planned to spin up drone operations in Tolleson, a city west of Phoenix, after it shut down an earlier test site in Lockeford, California. The company will dispatch the drones near one of its warehouses in Tolleson as it looks to integrate Prime Air more closely into its existing logistics network and further speed up deliveries.

An FAA spokesperson said the agency granted Amazon permission to conduct beyond visual line of sight deliveries in Tolleson on Oct. 31.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos first unveiled plans for the ambitious service more than a decade ago, remarking at the time that the program could be up and running within five years. Despite Amazon investing billions of dollars into the program, progress has been slow. Prime Air encountered regulatory hurdles, missed deadlines and had layoffs last year, coinciding with widespread cost-cutting efforts by CEO Andy Jassy. The program also lost some key executives, including its primary liaison with the FAA and its founding leader. Amazon hired former Boeing executive David Carbon to run the operation.

It’s also encountered pushback from some residents in the cities where it’s trialing drone deliveries. Residents in College Station complained about the noise levels enough that it prompted the city’s mayor to mention the concerns in a letter to the FAA, CNBC previously reported. In response, Amazon executives told residents the company would identify a new drone delivery launch site by October 2025.

Amazon isn’t the only company trying to crack delivery by drone. It’s competing with Wing, owned by Google parent Alphabet, UPS, Walmart and a host of startups including Zipline and Matternet.

WATCH: How Amazon’s drone delivery program stacks up to competitors

Palantir shares jumped 23% on Tuesday and headed for a record close after the data analytics software maker reported robust third-quarter results and issued uplifting revenue guidance.

The stock reached a high of $51.19, above the prior record of $45.14 reached last week. If the gain holds, it will mark the stock’s biggest jump since Feb. 6, when shares popped 30%.

Revenue climbed 30% to $726 million from a year earlier, topping the $701 million average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share of 10 cents beat the 9-cent average estimate.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a report that “the beat was driven by better-than-anticipated US Government performance,” boosted by demand for artificial intelligence tools.

“Palantir is among a handful of infrastructure software companies that have started to meaningfully monetize generative AI, where its competitive positioning benefits from longtime investment and deep expertise in complex data integration, and particularly its reputation for data security built into its ontology,” the analysts wrote.

Net income of $143.5 million, or 6 cents per share, was up from $71.5 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago. The company called for fourth-quarter revenue of $767 million to $771 million. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had been looking for $741.4 million.

Palantir is targeting more than $687 million in U.S. commercial revenue for the year, implying about 24% of the total.

Bank of America bumped its price target from $50 to $55 and maintained its buy rating.

“We continue to view the adoption of PLTR’s AI-enabled products and reach in its early days, as more companies realize the time, resource, and cost savings possible,” Bank of America analysts wrote in a note to investors. “In our view, Palantir’s moat as the differentiated agnostic AI-enabler is only growing with each new use-case carrying compounding unit economics.”

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

The former head of Meta’s Orion augmented reality glasses initiative has joined OpenAI to lead the startup’s robotics and consumer hardware efforts.

Caitlin “CK” Kalinowski announced her new role Monday in a post on LinkedIn and X, writing, “In my new role, I will initially focus on OpenAI’s robotics work and partnerships to help bring AI into the physical world and unlock its benefits for humanity.”

OpenAI has gained popularity for its viral chatbot, ChatGPT, but the hiring underscores its apparent efforts to move into building and selling hardware. Former Apple exec Jony Ive, who helped design some of Apple’s most iconic products from the iMac to the iPhone, has also partnered with OpenAI to create an AI device.

The announcement came the same day as that of OpenAI’s investment into Physical Intelligence, a robot startup based in San Francisco, which raised $400 million at a $2.4 billion post-money valuation. Other investors included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Thrive Capital, Lux Capital and Bond Capital.

The startup focuses on “bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world,” per its website, and it aims to do this by developing large-scale artificial intelligence models and algorithms to power robots. 

Before the new role at OpenAI, Kalinowski was a hardware executive at Meta for nearly two and a half years leading the company’s creation of Orion, previously codenamed Project Nazare, which it billed as “the most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made.” Meta unveiled its prototype glasses in September.

Before leading the Orion project, Kalinowski worked for more than nine years on virtual reality headsets at Meta-owned Oculus, and before that, nearly six years at Apple helping to design MacBooks, including Pro and Air models.

Kalinowski’s first day on the job at OpenAI is Tuesday, Nov. 5, per a LinkedIn post.