VW invests an additional €850 million in Rivian

VW had invested the first billion dollars directly upon signing the agreement last year and has since held 8.6 per cent of Rivian. The exact shareholding resulting from this additional billion-dollar investment has not yet been specified. If Rivian continues to meet the agreed milestones, two further instalments from Wolfsburg may follow, totalling up to 3.5 billion dollars, currently around three billion euros. That would make Volkswagen Rivian’s largest single shareholder, replacing Amazon.

The partnership agreed in 2024 between VW and Rivian has an overall volume of 5.8 billion dollars, of which 3.5 billion dollars are to flow via VW’s stake in Rivian. 2.3 billion dollars are earmarked for the joint venture Rivian Volkswagen Technologies, which will develop technologies and software for electric cars together. That way, the German carmaker aims to gain access to Rivian’s software and electronics architecture, to resolve its own software problems in turn.

Officially, the new electronics architecture will be used in both partners’ electric vehicles, although the German carmaker is seen as the main beneficiary. The first VW model featuring Rivian technology will be the ID.1 small electric car in 2027 – the electronics architecture is expected to help achieve the targeted base price of around 20,000 euros. According to reports, production is set to start in Portugal in September 2027.

Rivian met the prerequisite for the current payment when it achieved a gross profit in Q1 2025 after already reaching this in Q4 2024 – the partners had defined two consecutive gross profits as a milestone. According to information from early May, Volkswagen will pay a 33 per cent premium on the average Rivian share price between 15 May and 27 June for the billion-dollar payment. Due to this arrangement, it was not yet clear exactly how many Rivian shares VW would receive for the fixed agreed sum.

While 2.3 billion dollars are earmarked for the joint venture, Rivian can use the proceeds from VW’s agreed share purchases for other projects as well. These include the development of more affordable models below the current R1 line – the R2 has already been unveiled, and a compact R3 has been announced. As Rivian has so far only posted losses overall, the billion-dollar payments from Germany are expected to support the company’s financial stability. For 2025, Rivian anticipates an adjusted EBITDA loss of 1.7 to 1.9 billion dollars.

The current tranche was only tied to the financial milestone of two consecutive gross profits. However, to receive the next billion-dollar payment in 2026, technological milestones must also be achieved. The final payment of a further 500 million euros in 2027 is tied to the series production of the first VW model featuring Rivian technology.

wiwo.de (in German)