Ford Holds A Greater Than Five Percent Stake In Rivian

November 1, 2021 6:29 am

Ford-backed upstart EV automaker Rivian is currently working on going public with an upcoming IPO that’s expected to raise as much as $8 billion, and thanks to its IPO-related filings, we’re learning much more about the company’s operations. That includes the fact that it lost nearly one billion in Q1 of 2021 and around $1.3 billion in Q3 due to significant overhead and labor costs associated with starting production of the company’s very first vehicle, the R1T pickup. Now, we’re also learning that Ford has a greater than five percent stake in Rivian, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

To date, Ford has made numerous investments in the company, including a $500 million dollar one back in 2019 and another $902 million investment earlier this year. Another of Rivian’s largest investors – Amazon – owns a 20 percent stake in the company after investing around $1.3 billion to date, and also has 150 million shares of its preferred stock, which is reportedly worth around $3.8 billion. As Ford Authority previously reported, the retail giant has ordered 100,000 EV delivery vans that are due to be produced by the end of 2021, with many more to follow in the coming years.

In total, Rivian has raised around $10.5 billion through multiple fundraising rounds, which it has needed as the automaker ramps up production. In addition to its Amazon delivery van orders, the company has secured 48,390 preorders for its R1T pickup, which has received universally positive reviews thus far. The R1T recently became the very first all-electric pickup to market, beating out the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning and a host of other forthcoming rivals when the first example rolled off the assembly line last month.

Meanwhile, Ford’s investments in the company were 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 currently in the works, though FoMoCo no longer has a representative on Rivian’s board of directors.

We’ll have more on Rivian soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Rivian news and non-stop Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.