Who Owns Rivian?

Rivian was founded in 2009 by RJ Scaringe, a mechanical engineer with a PhD from MIT's Sloan Automotive Laboratory. Scaringe originally named the company Mainstream Motors and initially explored building a fuel-efficient sports car before pivoting to focus exclusively on electric vehicles. The company was renamed Rivian Automotive in 2011.

For nearly a decade, Rivian operated in stealth mode, quietly developing its electric vehicle platform and technology. In 2015, the company purchased a former Mitsubishi manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois, providing the production capacity needed to build vehicles at scale. Rivian unveiled the R1T electric pickup truck and R1S electric SUV at the 2018 LA Auto Show, generating enormous excitement as the first electric vehicles designed specifically for the adventure and outdoor lifestyle market.

The unveiling attracted major investment, with Amazon leading a $700 million funding round in February 2019, followed by a $500 million investment from Ford Motor Company. Amazon also placed an order for 100,000 custom electric delivery vans, providing Rivian with a significant commercial vehicle contract. By the time of its IPO, Rivian had raised over $10 billion in private funding.

Rivian went public on November 10, 2021, in one of the largest IPOs in U.S. history, raising $11.9 billion and briefly achieving a market capitalization exceeding $150 billion, surpassing established automakers like Volkswagen and GM despite having delivered only a handful of vehicles. Customer deliveries of the R1T began in September 2021, making it the first electric pickup truck to reach consumers, ahead of competitors from Ford and Tesla.

Throughout 2022 to 2025, Rivian scaled production significantly, delivering over 50,000 vehicles in 2023 and continuing to ramp up output. The company announced the more affordable R2 midsize SUV platform, targeting a starting price around $45,000, and broke ground on a second manufacturing facility in Georgia. Rivian also secured a major partnership with Volkswagen Group, which invested up to $5 billion in a joint venture focused on shared electrical architecture and software technology.