Ford has invested heavily in upstart EV automaker Rivian in recent years, including a $500 million dollar investment back in 2019, which joins billions more invested by companies including Amazon through multiple fundraising rounds. Earlier this week, Ford Authority reported that both Ford and Amazon had made an additional investment into Rivian in its latest fundraising round, and now, The Blue Oval has revealed that it invested $902 million into the automaker that it booked back in Q1.
Rivian raised a total of $2.5 billion in its most recent fundraising round, which brings its total to $10.5 billion. CEO R.J. Scaringe recently said that this money will allow the automaker to “scale new vehicle programs, expand our domestic facility footprint, and fuel international product rollout.” Meanwhile, the company is preparing to launch its R1T pickup and R1S SUV this coming September in very limited quantities.
Additionally, revenue will be needed to fund Rivian’s planned second U.S.-based assembly plant, which will join its existing facility in Normal, Illinois. A decision on the location of the new plant is expected in the next couple of months or so, and the automaker expects to break ground as soon as early 2022. Rivian is seeking a 2,000-acre plot of land on which to build the plant, which will also feature 50 GWh of battery cell production and a product and technology center.
As Ford Authority reported earlier this year, Rivian is also aiming to go public as soon as September and is eyeing a $70 billion dollar valuation for its initial public offering (IPO). Ford’s investment into the EV automaker was supposed to spawn a Lincoln SUV built on Rivian’s Skateboard platform, but last year, Ford canceled that project. However, as Ford Authority exclusively reported last October, the relationship between the two companies is still “going great,” and a Ford EV riding on that platform is in the works.
We’ll have much more on Rivian and Ford’s various investments soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Rivian news and ongoing Ford news coverage.
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