Rivian (RIVN) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Thursday, April 30, 2026, at 5 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — RJ Scaringe
• Chief Financial Officer — Claire McDonough
• Chief Operations Officer — Javier Varela

TAKEAWAYS

• Revenue -- Consolidated revenue was $1.4 billion, representing an 11% increase year over year.
• Gross Profit & Margin -- Consolidated gross profit was $119 million, and gross margin was 9%.
• Depreciation & Stock-Based Compensation -- Gross profit included $122 million in depreciation and $27 million in stock-based compensation.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- Adjusted EBITDA loss totaled $472 million in the quarter due to higher operating expenses and investment in R2 and autonomy development.
• Vehicle Production & Deliveries -- Produced 10,236 vehicles and delivered 10,365 vehicles in the quarter.
• Automotive Gross Profit (Segment) -- Automotive gross profit loss was $62 million, compared to $92 million profit in the same quarter last year, predominantly driven by a $100 million decrease in automotive regulatory credit sales and lower production volumes, resulting in a $45 million increase in depreciation and stock-based compensation expenses combined.
• Software & Services Segment -- Segment revenue reached $473 million, up 49% year over year, with $181 million in gross profit; $282 million was attributed to the Volkswagen Group joint venture, along with notable growth in remarketing and parts and service.
• Liquidity -- Ended the quarter with $4.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.
• DOE Loan & Georgia Capacity Expansion -- U.S. Department of Energy loan now totals $4.5 billion for Georgia plant expansion, increasing initial phase production capacity by 50% to 300,000 units annually; management expects to ramp Georgia production in late 2028.
• Ahead Capital Infusion -- In 2026, expects to receive $2.55 billion from strategic partners: $1 billion already from Volkswagen Group, $300 million expected from Uber this quarter (pending conditions), $1 billion nonrecourse Volkswagen Group debt, and $250 million further from Uber tied to robotaxi milestones.
• Capital Expenditure Guidance -- Maintained 2026 CapEx guidance at $1.95 billion-$2.05 billion, allocated to R2, retail and charging network expansion, and initial Georgia plant build-out.
• R2 Platform Economics -- Management confirmed “bill of materials is expected to be approximately half of our R1 platform” and non-BOM COGS are forecast to decrease by more than 50% due to new design and manufacturing efficiencies.
• Production Ramp Targets -- Targets profitably delivering 4,000 vehicles per week at the Normal, Illinois plant; Georgia site capacity will take total to 515,000 units across both facilities.
• Delivery Guidance -- Full-year deliveries projected at 62,000-67,000 vehicles across all platforms; Q2 guidance of 9,000-11,000 vehicles with heavier ramp expected in the back half of the year.
• Autonomy Feature Development -- Development of the Rivian Autonomy Processor (RAP1) and Gen 3 autonomy hardware suite remains on track, with “point-to-point capabilities” rollout for consumer vehicles targeted by year-end and commercial deployments, including Uber-focused robotaxi pilots, beginning late this year in two U.S. cities.

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RISKS

• Claire McDonough stated, “we expect the complexity of a new vehicle launch will negatively impact our Automotive gross profit in the second and third quarters before becoming a benefit for our overall operations in the fourth quarter as we ramp production and deliveries.”
• Management highlighted macro and geopolitical risk factors, including supply chain challenges and international conflicts, “creating added complexity, cost, and uncertainty.”
• RJ Scaringe noted that “The supply chain continues to be an area where there is a lot of unknowns, a lot of variability, and a need for us to be very hands-on and very proactive.”

SUMMARY

Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) initiated saleable R2 production and employee deliveries, marking its entry into the high-volume midsize crossover and SUV segment and laying the foundation for scaled profitability. The company increased the initial production capacity for its upcoming Georgia plant by 50% to 300,000 units with a $4.5 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan, expanding its total planned manufacturing footprint to 515,000 units across Georgia and Illinois. Consolidated revenue grew 11% year over year to $1.4 billion, supported by 10,365 vehicle deliveries and 49% year-over-year growth in Software & Services, largely buoyed by the Volkswagen Group joint venture. Management confirmed the R2 platform’s bill of materials is about half of R1’s and will deliver substantial cost efficiencies. Strategic capital infusions totaling $2.55 billion are expected from Volkswagen Group and Uber in 2026, reinforcing nearly $8 billion in available liquidity for growth and transition to free cash flow positive once the expanded manufacturing base is fully ramped.

• Management reiterated full-year delivery guidance of 62,000-67,000 vehicles and expects Q2 deliveries of 9,000-11,000, with a back-end weighted ramp attributed to the R2 introduction.
• Development of advanced autonomy features, including the in-house RAP1 processor and rollout of point-to-point driving, was confirmed on schedule, with Uber partnership milestones linked to capital tranches and robotaxi deployment in multiple cities by 2028.
• The Software & Services segment generated $473 million of revenue in the first quarter, with approximately 60%, or $82 million, attributable to the joint venture with Volkswagen Group.
• Management stated the Georgia plant’s initial capacity was raised to 300,000 units, and DOE loan financing was resized accordingly, while future site expansion remains possible as market conditions allow.
• Although the tornado at the Normal facility impacted production capabilities this quarter, management emphasized guidance remains unchanged, with restoration efforts underway.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• R2 Platform: Rivian Automotive, Inc.’s midsize vehicle architecture serving as the base for expanded mass-market crossover and SUV offerings, engineered for high-volume cost efficiency.
• DOE Loan: Low-cost capital funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy intended for the build-out and scaling of domestic advanced technology manufacturing plants.
• RAP1: Rivian Autonomy Processor, an in-house developed inference chip designed for artificial intelligence-powered advanced driving features and autonomy.
• Large Driving Model (LDM): Foundation neural network developed by Rivian Automotive, Inc. to enable machine learning-based autonomous driving across varying sensor suites and vehicle architectures.
• EDV: Electric Delivery Van, Rivian Automotive, Inc.’s commercial vehicle platform, most notably supplied under a contract with Amazon.com.

Full Conference Call Transcript

RJ Scaringe: Thanks, Chip. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us for today’s call. Last week, I was thrilled to celebrate the start of saleable R2 production with our team at our plant in Normal, Illinois. It is an exciting milestone in Rivian Automotive, Inc.’s history and the culmination of all the hard work and energy from so many people across the company. As I have said before, I believe the R2 will be a game changer for our customers and will be a key driver of our company’s long-term growth and profitability.

In an American automotive marketplace starved for high-quality EV choice, I believe R2 is an attractively priced option sized for everyday ventures from school pickups to weekend trips that is targeting the very popular five-passenger SUV and crossover segment. With R2, we are taking our design, performance, and technology and bringing it to a significantly broader audience without losing what makes Rivian Automotive, Inc. unmistakably Rivian Automotive, Inc. We have started R2 deliveries to our employees, and I have to say I absolutely love having R2 as my daily driver. I could not be more excited to get this vehicle into the hands of lots of customers starting this spring.

In developing R2, our team relentlessly focused on achieving structural cost reductions while maintaining the desirability of the product. For R2, our bill of materials is expected to be approximately half of our R1 platform. For non-BOM cost of goods sold, we expect to see a reduction of more than 50%, resulting from a focus on design for manufacturing and leveraging fixed cost efficiencies through higher production volumes. This is how we expect to profitably deliver R2 at an accessible price point at scale without compromising the performance and utility customers love about Rivian Automotive, Inc.

Key design changes for R2 include part eliminations and reductions through the introduction of large die castings, a structural battery pack, a new highly efficient drive unit, the evolution of our next-generation electrical architecture that removes miles of copper wire, and the consolidation of our high-voltage electronics into a single enclosure. We are also seeing significant sourcing leverage relative to R1 across a variety of components. Now, as we begin to scale our operations in Normal with R2, we are very excited to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy to grow our manufacturing footprint in Georgia. R2 provides the opportunity to expand the Rivian Automotive, Inc. brand to millions of drivers.

As a result, we made the strategic decision to increase the production capacity for the first phase of our Georgia plant by 50%, bringing it to 300 thousand units of annual production capacity on our midsized vehicle platform. This change is expected to boost cost efficiency while still providing significant room for future expansion in later phases and support thousands of jobs in Georgia as we grow American manufacturing and work to ensure the U.S. retains its leadership in innovation and technology in transportation. We remain on track for the production of our midsized vehicle platform to begin in Georgia in late 2028.

Turning to our technology roadmap, in March, we were excited to announce a new strategic partnership with Uber to accelerate our shared autonomous vehicle goals. In the not too distant future, I believe advanced autonomy capabilities will be a key differentiator for customers and a driver of market share. At the core of our third-generation autonomy hardware is the Rivian Autonomy Processor, or RAP1. The development of our RAP1 chip is on track, and we are progressing well on validation and reliability testing.

Our integrated approach allows our hardware team to rapidly iterate with our software team, and our autonomy feature development is progressing well, and we continue to expect to begin rolling out point-to-point capabilities by the end of the year. Finally, in the coming weeks, we are excited to launch the Rivian Assistant on R1 and R2 vehicles. Rivian Assistant is our new AI-powered voice assistant that is built to be a digital copilot with integration into the vehicle ecosystem and other external apps. In closing, this quarter, our team has executed across many fronts, laying a strong foundation for the years ahead.

As an American automotive technology company, we are building for a future that we believe will be fully electric, autonomous, and AI-defined. With our category-defining brand, launch of R2—our first mass-market vehicle—vertically integrated and extensible technology, and direct-to-consumer sales model, I could not be more excited about the opportunity ahead for our customers and for our business. With that, I will pass the call over to Claire to discuss our financial results.

Claire McDonough: Thanks, RJ, and good afternoon, everyone. As RJ shared, the start of saleable R2 production and initial employee deliveries are a landmark moment for Rivian Automotive, Inc. By building R2 in Normal, we are strategically leveraging our existing manufacturing footprint in Illinois to drive greater fixed cost absorption across our entire vehicle portfolio. As discussed previously, R2 production is starting with a single-shift operation; we expect to scale to two shifts by 2026 as we ramp towards our North Star target of profitably delivering 4 thousand vehicles per week in Normal.

Delivering a strong 2026 exit rate for R2 production and deliveries is a key focus for our team, as we believe it will directly translate into positive automotive gross profit for the business. Turning to the results for the first quarter, as depicted on Slide 11 of the earnings presentation, our consolidated revenue in the first quarter was approximately $1.4 billion, an 11% increase over the same quarter last year. Consolidated gross profit was $119 million; our gross margin was 9%. Gross profit included $122 million of depreciation and $27 million of stock-based compensation expense.

Adjusted EBITDA losses for the first quarter were $472 million, driven by our $119 million of gross profit and increased adjusted operating expenses as we prepare to scale R2 and invest in our autonomy roadmap. In the first quarter, we produced 10,236 vehicles and delivered 10,365 vehicles, which was the primary driver of our $[inaudible] of automotive revenue. Automotive gross profit loss was $62 million compared to $92 million of gross profit for the same quarter last year, primarily driven by the $100 million decrease in sales of automotive regulatory credits and lower production volumes, which resulted in a $45 million increase in [inaudible] and stock-based compensation expense combined.

While current macro and geopolitical factors are creating added complexity, cost, and uncertainty, our team continues to work hard to manage supply chain risk and offset elevated costs. Our Software and Services segment generated $473 million of revenue during the first quarter, a 49% year-over-year increase, with $181 million of gross profit. $82 million, or approximately 60% of Software and Services revenue, was attributable to our joint venture with Volkswagen Group. We also experienced strong growth from remarketing and parts and service. During the quarter, we also recognized a $[inaudible] gain in other income in our financials related to the Series A capital raise and related deconsolidation of MIND Robotics from our financial statements.

We currently own approximately 38% of MIND Robotics on a shares outstanding basis. Looking at our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with approximately $4.8 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. With regard to our funding roadmap, in 2026, we expect to receive a total of $2.55 billion of capital from our strategic partners. To date, we received $1 billion from Volkswagen Group in exchange for equity following successful completion of the winter testing milestone by RV Tech. The testing program spanned several months utilizing reference vehicles from the Volkswagen, Audi, and Scout brands.

Later this quarter, we expect to receive $300 million from Uber in exchange for equity related to the signing of our partnership agreement, subject to certain conditions. And later this year, we expect to receive $1 billion in nonrecourse debt from Volkswagen Group and an additional $250 million from Uber in exchange for equity, subject to the completion of certain milestones and conditions related to robotaxi development. As outlined on Slide 14, this brings total available liquidity and expected capital in 2026 to nearly $8 billion. Additionally, we are very excited to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy to grow our U.S. manufacturing footprint.

The up to $4.5 billion DOE loan, which consists of approximately $4 billion of principal and approximately $500 million of capitalized interest, provides low-cost financing for our 300 thousand-unit capacity greenfield expansion in Georgia, bringing Rivian Automotive, Inc. to meaningful scale. We expect the 515 thousand total units of capacity between our Illinois and Georgia plants will provide Rivian Automotive, Inc. a path to free cash flow positive once fully ramped. We expect to draw on the loan by early 2027, subject to certain conditions. Two weeks ago, our Normal factory sustained damage from a tornado. I am proud of the way our teams have rallied together to get production back up and running as we repair the damages.

Despite the weather impact, our 2026 guidance remains unchanged. We continue to expect full-year deliveries of between 62 thousand and 67 thousand total vehicles across R1, R2, and our commercial vans. We also continue to expect to deliver approximately 9 thousand to 11 thousand in Q2, as we expect the ramp of R2 deliveries will be back-half weighted. While we continue to believe our gross profit will increase year over year, we expect the complexity of a new vehicle launch will negatively impact our Automotive gross profit in the second and third quarters before becoming a benefit for our overall operations in the fourth quarter as we ramp production and deliveries.

As a reminder, we believe this is a transition year for the automotive segment on the path towards long-term profitability as we scale R2. For 2026, we continue to expect an adjusted EBITDA loss of between $2.1 billion to $1.8 billion. While economic and geopolitical conditions, including supply chain and international conflicts, pose risks, we remain steadfast in our plans to invest behind key growth drivers. We continue to progress our autonomy roadmap and the expansion of our sales and service footprint as we scale with R2. We believe these strategic investments will deliver long-term value to our shareholders. Finally, for 2026, we are maintaining our capital expenditure guidance of $1.95 billion to $2.05 billion.

Our CapEx spend primarily relates to finalizing construction and tooling for R2 in Normal, the continued build-out of our sales, service, and charging infrastructure, and kicking off construction of our greenfield plant in Georgia. In closing, I would like to congratulate our teams again for the successful start of saleable R2 production and the strong execution in the first quarter. We continue to believe that R2 and our technology roadmap will be truly transformative for the growth and profitability of our business. I would like to turn the call back over to the operator to open the line for Q&A.

Operator: Thank you. For the Q&A section of today’s session, we will be utilizing the raise hand feature. If you would like to ask a question, click on the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. Once prompted, please unmute yourself and begin with your question. We will now pause a moment to assemble the queue. Thank you. Our first question comes from Shreyas Patil from Wolfe Research.

Shreyas Patil: Hey. Thanks so much. Appreciate you taking the questions. Maybe first, just picking up on a comment you made earlier, Claire. If you could help give us some more color on some of the actions you are taking to mitigate the increase in commodity costs and some of the metals prices that we have seen increase recently, and what has been the magnitude of increase, if you could help frame that?

RJ Scaringe: Well, thanks, Shreyas, for the question. We are spending a lot of time focused on all the changes that are happening from a supply chain point of view. In terms of raw materials and some of the cost of metals, specifically aluminum, this has been a big focus for us. Fortunately, we have grown and evolved our sourcing team over the last handful of years. The supply chain continues to be an area where there is a lot of unknowns, a lot of variability, and a need for us to be very hands-on and very proactive.

We have been proactive in both our relationship with existing suppliers and in making sure we have, particularly in some of these key commodities, alternative sources of supply.

Shreyas Patil: Okay. Great. And then maybe, Claire, just to clarify, I think you had made a comment about how when Normal and the Georgia facility are fully ramped, you would be getting to free cash flow positive. I just want to make sure if I understood correctly. And if that is the case, that could be quite a while from now. So maybe help us understand the trajectory of CapEx—near term, but then also as we think ahead and you start to put more in the ground at Georgia.

Claire McDonough: Sure. Shreyas, the comment that I made on Rivian Automotive, Inc.’s ramp of its Normal facility plus the Georgia facility is what takes Rivian Automotive, Inc. to free cash flow positive in the future. As we talked about in our prepared remarks, importantly, we have the $4.5 billion of capital from the Department of Energy loan, which provides up to 80% loan-to-value against the build-out of our future Georgia facility. While we certainly will see an anticipated increase in our capital expenditures as we approach the start of production in Georgia, we do have significant offsets from a capital roadmap.

And the $4.5 billion is just one component of the full $13.6 billion of total liquidity and expected capital through both the cash that we have on hand on our balance sheet, the added availability of our ABL facility, and the expected capital from our partners with both Volkswagen and Uber that we expect to receive over the coming years as well.

Shreyas Patil: Okay. Great. And maybe just one quick clarification. The DOE loan—has there been any change to that? I think the original amount was $6.6 billion that was available. Just curious if there is a change there.

Claire McDonough: Yes. Included within our financial release today, we provided an update on the Department of Energy loan. We will now have $4.5 billion of loan capacity that will go towards the build-out of our first phase of that capacity expansion in Georgia. We have also increased the capacity of the Georgia site—the initial capacity from 200 thousand units to 300 thousand units. The comment that I made in my prepared remarks is really the importance of the funding roadmap, especially as we think about the Georgia site specifically taking Rivian Automotive, Inc. to meaningful scale in the future.

Shreyas Patil: Okay. Great. Thanks so much.

Operator: Thank you. Next question is from Joseph Spak from UBS. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Joseph Spak: Thank you. Claire, just to pick up on the DOE loan part and to clarify, obviously this first phase is an increase from 200 thousand to 300 thousand. But, and admittedly only skimming the document, it does seem like maybe the total project scope is now capped at 300 thousand versus—I know before it was supposed to be 200 thousand phase one, 200 thousand phase two for 400 thousand. So I want to make sure I understand that. And then if you still see an opportunity over time to grow further in Georgia.

Claire McDonough: Yes. The strategic decision that we took was to increase the initial phase of production capacity to 300 thousand units. On our Georgia site, the full initial capacity will be put on the upper pad at the site. We have the lower pad, which is still going to be entirely untouched greenfield for future expansion.

Joseph Spak: Okay. And that might be funded more organically in the future, not necessarily with the loan—or it is TBD, I guess. But the loan is really only for the 300 thousand. Correct?

Claire McDonough: The loan is for the initial phase. The important piece is we have increased the loan size associated with the initial phase as we have also scaled the production volume as well.

Joseph Spak: Okay. And then on input costs and tariffs—this has come up with a lot of companies thus far. Can you remind us what you have paid in Section 301 tariffs roundabout over the past year? And have you filed for any reimbursement, and was anything booked in the quarter related to any potential reimbursements?

Claire McDonough: We did not book anything this quarter associated with Section 301 tariffs, but we do believe that the recovery of those tariffs is possible in the future. I would contextualize the sizing to be in the tens of millions of dollars of future benefit.

Joseph Spak: Okay. And is that considered at all in your reiterated EBITDA outlook, or would that be upside? I guess it is not significant.

Claire McDonough: I would characterize it as considered within our current outlook.

Joseph Spak: And then lastly, on Uber—you talked about pulling forward raising R&D in 2027. Does any of that work start to seep into 2026? And is there a change to the R&D outlook for this year, or is it really more of a 2027 factor?

Claire McDonough: You will see the pace of acceleration increase in terms of the spend towards autonomy in 2027, but we will certainly see acceleration throughout the course of this year as well. If you look at Q1, our cash R&D expense increased about 22% year over year for the quarter. You could directionally think about that as being more of a year-over-year type run-rate as we look out over the remainder of the year.

Joseph Spak: Thank you. Very helpful. Appreciate it.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Itay Michaeli from TD Cowen. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Itay Michaeli: Great. Thanks, everybody. Just first, going back to the Georgia capacity optimization, curious if it has any impact on your previous long-term financial targets at 25% gross margin. Maybe on that as well, you can share your initial takeaways on R2 demand generation since you launched the trims.

RJ Scaringe: Well, thanks, Itay. The decision to increase the capacity of the first phase of Georgia reflects a level of confidence in our products and our business. Most importantly, we have just started production on R2 out of our existing Normal, Illinois facility. We have had early media events and early customer events, and the level of enthusiasm for the product has been outstanding. Everything from the packaging of the vehicle to the way that it drives, the integration of technology—the overall response has been overwhelmingly positive.

That bodes extremely well for the ramp-up over the course of this year and into next year, and it also sets up a wonderful foundation for us as we think about further capacity on this platform, both for R2 as well as R3 and variants of those vehicles out of the Georgia facility.

Itay Michaeli: Terrific. And then as a follow-up on the Uber announcement, I am curious whether the robotaxis themselves that will go into the Uber network will have the exact same hardware set as the personal vehicles. I ask because if you are going to launch in 2028 in complex domains like San Francisco and Miami, does that not also imply a pretty wide ODD for the personal vehicles if they are both operating on the same hardware?

RJ Scaringe: We talked about this during our autonomy day late last year. It is important to recognize there will be a series of steps we make in terms of progressing towards Level 4. The first, later this year on our consumer vehicles, is launching our point-to-point capability—the ability for the vehicle to drive entirely on its own to an address. I just this week had a great ride with James and the team, and it is exciting to see how much the technology has progressed even since our autonomy day late last year. As we continue into 2027, we will be allowing, in specific areas, eyes-off. That is a Level 3 capability.

Then as we go into 2028, that is when we will have our first deployments of a Level 4 capability in a robotaxi. In the robotaxi variant, there will be some additional sensing on the vehicle, so it will be different than the pure consumer vehicle. But we are planning to have a personal version of Level 4 as well. We think the market for a vehicle that you own being able to completely drive itself—do things like drop you at the airport, go to the grocery store, pick up kids from a sports event—is really high-value creating for Level 4 capability, and we see them in both robotaxi applications and personally owned applications.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Dan Levy from Barclays. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Dan Levy: Thanks for taking the questions. Wanted to first start with R2 and the path to getting to positive gross margin, which I think you said would be by the end of the year. Maybe you could walk through the gating factors. Even with the raw materials, do you still have the confidence you have the right BOM to achieve this? And what milestones do we need to see to make sure that the production ramp is still on track? What are the most limiting factors that you still have to address on this ramp?

RJ Scaringe: We have talked a lot about the cost structure of a vehicle, and a huge component of this is, of course, the bill of materials. The bill of materials, different than the non-BOM COGS, is contractual. These are negotiations that happen across hundreds of suppliers. Very different than when we sourced R1, we went into the R2 sourcing with a lot of momentum and much better supplier leverage. The level of confidence in Rivian Automotive, Inc. as a business and the level of excitement around R2 helped us put together a set of suppliers that are both very enthusiastic, demonstrated through attractive commercial terms. As it stands, the bill of materials for R2 is about half that of R1.

There are, of course, things we cannot predict, like raw material changes and DRAM shortages, but the vast majority of the BOM is very stable, and we have a lot of confidence in achieving the target BOM, which supports the very healthy gross margins we have talked about. Now, with regards to the plant, I will invite Javier to comment on some of the progress that is happening in terms of ramping up over the course of the next several months.

Javier Varela: Thank you, RJ. As you explained some minutes ago, we had last week the celebration of the first saleable builds and deliveries to customers this week. We are very proud of the situation we are achieving now. The industrial process is ready. The people are ready as well. We have been through the right training and build cycles. I would say the plant is prepared, processes are defined, and we are very confident in our capability to deliver. I feel confident as well regarding our team in place. We have brought in a group of seasoned leaders that have done launches in the past and have big experience in that area.

We are also managing the supply chain, making sure every supplier scales with us. We have boots on the ground supporting some key suppliers, and we are doing this with our mindset in supplier relationships—the relationship of transparency and collaboration. Resilient supply chain, agility, and intelligence are key factors for success.

Dan Levy: Great. Thank you. As a follow-up, RJ, I wanted to double-click on the point you gave in the prior question about getting to Level 4. You will have point-to-point at the end of this year, and you will have vehicles with LiDAR end of this year or beginning of next year. It does seem like there is probably a lot of testing that has to happen between when you get those cars with the LiDAR out and when you have a launch.

Help us understand what the testing curve looks like—what you need to do from when you have the cars with the LiDAR to being able to unlock Level 4, because it does seem like there are a lot of miles that have to be driven on that new vehicle.

RJ Scaringe: A really important point is the way the self-driving system is architected. The platform we launched on our Gen 2 R1 vehicles is designed around an end-to-end approach where we are building what we call a large driving model—think of it as a neural net or a foundation model for driving. That model is being fed with all of our Gen 2 R1 vehicles and, of course, our launch R2 vehicles, and ultimately R2 vehicles that include a LiDAR. Very different than previous architectures around self-driving that are rules-based and classically controlled, as you add more perception and as you add more compute, the capability of the model only grows; you do not lose previous knowledge embedded in the model.

I often compare it to learning to drive with bad vision and then getting a pair of glasses—you would not forget your knowledge as a driver; you would just be able to perceive more and become a better driver. Then imagine I could hand you a 10x multiplier to your compute capability—again, you would not forget what you knew before, but you would start to notice new patterns and more nuance. Because of that, the data accumulation has happened already on R1 and will continue with the growth in our car park with R2; it all feeds into our overall LDM, this large driving model.

Even as we think about introducing new sensors like our LiDAR, it is not as if it is first on the vehicle when it is delivered to customers. We have lots of prototypes today running with those sensors. If you are in the Bay Area around Palo Alto, you will probably see Rivian Automotive, Inc. vehicles with additional sensors—part of our ground-truth fleet feeding into the large driving model to accelerate the speed at which that model is learning. The work going into launching a customer-facing version of point-to-point—which today is already driving full point-to-point internally—is really exciting. We want it to be extremely robust at launch.

All that work is accretive to what ultimately will be going into our Level 4 platform.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Andrew Percoco from Morgan Stanley. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Andrew Percoco: Great. Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe just to start on the commercial side, it looks like Amazon made up almost 50% of your auto revenue in the quarter—so a little bit above historical run rates. Can you talk to what you are seeing with that relationship and, maybe outside of Amazon, the level of interest you are seeing in the commercial product since you launched the extended-range version of the commercial vehicle?

RJ Scaringe: Our relationship with Amazon continues to be something that we are very proud of. We have spent a lot of time on this program from its initial kickoff in 2019 through its initial launch and now ramping and deploying. That is everything from building the vehicles to, on Amazon’s side, getting their operations and infrastructure ready to ingest a lot of EVs. What we are now seeing is a reflection of all that cumulative work, allowing the volumes for our van program within Amazon to grow, as you pointed out, meaningfully. We expect that increased demand for our vans to continue.

It is rewarding to see all the vans on the road, and that will continue to ramp up with Amazon. In terms of other customers and applications, Amazon is by a significant degree the largest operator, and they are the ideal lead customer, but there are lots of other opportunities we see. In the immediate term, the focus remains on Amazon and ramping to support them.

Andrew Percoco: That makes sense. And then on the DOE revised loan, I understand the movement in Phase 1 and upsizing that. I am curious why you might not want to use the DOE funding for the eventual Phase 2. Was this initiated on your end, or did they approach you in terms of revising that? Just curious on why not tap that low-cost funding for the eventual Phase 2 whenever that comes about.

Claire McDonough: Thanks, Andrew. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we are really excited to partner with the Department of Energy on Rivian Automotive, Inc.’s $4.5 billion loan, which enables thousands of American jobs and helps establish the U.S.’s strength in technology and manufacturing leadership. The DOE loan is a very cost-efficient form of capital within Rivian Automotive, Inc.’s broader roadmap. Specifically, the importance of this $4.5 billion is funding Rivian Automotive, Inc.’s scaling of its operation up to 515 thousand units of overall capacity and the opportunity with that installed capacity base to be free cash flow positive in the future.

We will continue to be opportunistic as it pertains to our capital roadmap beyond the components that I outlined in the existing $13.6 billion of liquidity and total expected capital we have outlined today.

Andrew Percoco: Great. Thanks for taking the questions.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from George Gianarikas from Canaccord. Please unmute your line and ask a question.

George Gianarikas: Thank you for taking my questions. I know it is early days, but could you please give us any color on R2 order trends and maybe some color on the conversion ratios relative to previous orders?

RJ Scaringe: George, as you said, it is early days for deliveries, but the signals I would look at are the reception around the product—whether from expert automotive journalists, lifestyle journalists, or customers experiencing the vehicle. The overall excitement around what we have put together in terms of content, features, packaging, and the overall value proposition is really resonating. Having spent a lot of time in the car as my daily driver, I could not be more pleased with the results. The teams did remarkable work to make something special. We have had a few journalists say this might be the best vehicle ever made. That is wonderful for the teams to hear and is really encouraging as we ramp the vehicle.

George Gianarikas: Thank you. And just to confirm, the Gen 3 sensor suite was going to be available later this year on the R2. Thanks.

RJ Scaringe: That is correct. The Gen 3 autonomy hardware suite includes our in-house RAP1 platform—our in-house inference platform at 800 TOPS per chip. We have two of those chips in the vehicle, so it is extremely powerful—a roughly 4x increase relative to the NVIDIA-based platform—and the inclusion of LiDAR, along with enhancements across the rest of the perception stack.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Mark Delaney from Goldman Sachs.

Mark Delaney: Good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking the questions. Starting on autonomy, I am hoping you can provide more details on the monetization of Autonomy Plus so far and any data points you can share on that, and what that might mean for growth in the Software and Services business more generally, including if you still think you can grow that segment’s revenue by about 60% this year?

RJ Scaringe: We are encouraged by what we are seeing at the start of having paid Autonomy Plus—it is exceeding our own models. The take rate is higher than we expected, and that bodes well as we grow the feature significantly over the course of this year. The introduction of point-to-point is a major value driver for customers—put in the address in-car and the car will fully drive you there—and then, following that, allowing you to go eyes-off in highway conditions and ultimately everywhere. That means you get your time back.

We are very bullish on the long-term trajectory to monetize our autonomy on the consumer side—for hands-off eyes-on, hands-off eyes-off, and ultimately Level 4 for personal consumption—which we see as a key driver of value in the long term. In terms of what that does for our Software and Services growth, that will start to be something we will see, but it is not something we are going to break out separately.

Mark Delaney: Thanks for that, RJ. And my other question was on demand for the R1. Has Rivian Automotive, Inc. seen any improvement in order rates for R1, maybe in response to the recent increase in gasoline prices? And what might that mean for R1 volumes this year? I think the company had assumed R1 would decline. Is that still your expectation?

RJ Scaringe: We are encouraged by the continued enthusiasm for R1. It continues to be one of the market share leaders in the premium category. In a number of states, it is one of the best-selling premium SUVs—electric or nonelectric. We have talked about that in the past. It is hard to say ultimately what will happen around demand with the impact of gas prices going up. It is a consideration, and we do see that manifest in what people are trading in. We are seeing more trades of gasoline vehicles or vehicles that are less efficient than what we are building, and we do see that on the rise.

But a lot of folks are wondering how long fuel prices are going to stay high like this.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Andres Sheppard-Slinger from Cantor Fitzgerald. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Andres Sheppard-Slinger: Good afternoon, and thank you for taking our questions, and congratulations on the quarter and all the great progress. A lot of our questions have been asked, but, RJ, I want to go back to autonomy. With R2 beginning customer deliveries over the coming weeks and Autonomy Plus now having started this month, how are you thinking about autonomy customer adoption? What type of autonomy penetration rate do you expect for customer-owned vehicles? Do you expect customers will prefer the monthly subscription or the one-time purchase? Any color on your overall vision and expected customer adoption would be helpful.

RJ Scaringe: Andres, we are extremely bullish on the importance of autonomy for customers over the next five years. The rate at which we see customers adopting and selecting Autonomy Plus—and then, ultimately, as the feature set and capability grow, that adoption rate growing with it—will be significant. There is a bigger question from a society point of view: Level 2 is a small appetizer of what you can achieve when you get to higher levels of autonomy where you can take your eyes off the road and truly get your time back without the car asking you to look back at the road or put your hands on the wheel.

As that starts to occur and people experience what it is like to truly have your time back—say, getting a forty-minute commute back in both directions—it will be very sticky and become an important purchase criterion. We believe over the next five years, the rate of progress in autonomy will look very different than the last five, changing customer expectations and how vehicles are purchased. Autonomy will be a critical criterion; customers will be willing to pay for it because they want their time back—to be on their phone, read a book, take a nap—truly getting time back while in the car. As a result, this is an enormous focus area for us.

We are deploying a lot of our R&D dollars towards this category, and we have made long-term investments in the hardware and in the vehicles to support that.

Andres Sheppard-Slinger: That is super helpful. As a quick follow-up for Claire, regarding your delivery guidance for this year, which is unchanged—you reaffirmed some cadence for deliveries in Q2. Can you remind us what unit mix we should expect for the year across R2, R1, and EDVs?

Claire McDonough: Sure. As you think about the composition of the 62 thousand to 67 thousand deliveries, we anticipate R1 combined with the commercial vans to be roughly flat relative to our 2025 delivery results, and then the remainder being comprised of the introduction and ramp of R2, which—as implied by the 9 thousand to 11 thousand of Q2 deliveries—suggests more of a back-half weighted ramp associated with R2 that is implied within our outlook and guidance.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Edison Yu from Deutsche Bank. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Edison Yu: Thanks for taking our questions. I want to come back on robotaxi. Are there any sort of KPIs that you are tracking or that you need to hit for some of the milestones with Uber? In the past, the industry has turned to disengagements or miles between intervention. Any flavor on that would be great.

RJ Scaringe: On the path to deploying in 2028, there are a number of milestones, and some of those tie to the investment unlocks with Uber. The first of those is later this year—we will be deploying vehicles in both San Francisco and Miami with a safety driver. The vehicles will be running, but with the benefit of a safety driver in the vehicle. There is a handful of additional milestones ramping up to ultimately having the vehicles operate fully on their own as part of a service in 2028.

As we get closer to that date, there will be lots of proof points of progress that will manifest on the road—you will see them not only being tested but as part of some of these deployed fleets.

Edison Yu: Understood. And a separate question on autonomy more broadly. There were some reports that you are looking to potentially license some tech to other OEMs. Is that something we could potentially expect this year?

RJ Scaringe: There are two broad categories of technology we think will be very important for growing or maintaining market share in the next several years. The first is shifting away from a domain-based network architecture—where you have a large number of supplier-sourced ECUs that are like little islands of code—towards centralized compute with a zonal architecture. Think of it as consolidating those little computers into a single or small number of large computers that run a common operating system, where the code base can be easily updated without coordinating among dozens of suppliers. That architecture is what is in a Rivian Automotive, Inc. vehicle today and is the basis of our relationship with Volkswagen Group.

The first application of that technology being deployed outside of Rivian Automotive, Inc., as part of our partnership, will be in the ID.1—an EV to be launched in Europe at just over $20 thousand. I cannot wait for people to buy this car and tear it down—I am certain they will be impressed with the elegance of how we executed the network architecture and compute stack topology. The second category is autonomy.

Here, it is not just hardware or just software—it is the two together: our compute platform (the RAP1 in-house inference platform and associated computing platform), along with our perception platform (cameras, radar, LiDAR), and very importantly, the large driving model—the foundation model that defines how to drive a vehicle. This is a flexible architecture to deploy into different vehicle embodiments. We are doing that already within Rivian Automotive, Inc. across R1T, R1S, R2, ultimately our commercial vans, and robotaxi applications, and we see it as very scalable technology that can be deployed in many ways.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Analyst from Bank of America. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Analyst: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Further on the robotaxi strategy—you had the Uber deal announcement. Is the plan to pursue a partnership model for now? Does the deal with Uber have any exclusivity, and how else will you look to tap into this market?

RJ Scaringe: When you think about the robotaxi space as a business—putting aside the technology for a moment and recognizing that the technology for Level 4 in a robotaxi or in a personally owned vehicle is the same—the benefit of deploying first with Uber is density of choice. If you deploy entirely on your own, you have to build enough vehicles such that when a user requests one, it is immediately available. The scale of Uber’s platform and the success they have had in creating a healthy marketplace makes them an ideal partner for launching this technology in R2 to provide robotaxi services. As we have said, that technology will also underpin a consumer, personally owned variant as well.

There will be lots of innovation around business models as we have Level 4. On one end is pure ownership; on the other is pure mobility-as-a-service. There will be models in the middle—sharing within families, neighborhoods, or apartment buildings. It is going to be an exciting time of innovation in how we consume mobility. Recognizing the trillions of miles driven today, the vast majority are in personally owned vehicles. Robotaxi represents a portion of those, but we think many new models will emerge that make up the topology of those miles.

Analyst: Perfect. That is incredibly helpful. Best of luck going forward.

Operator: Thank you. Our final question comes from James Picariello from BNP Paribas. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

James Picariello: Hi. Can you hear me?

Operator: Yes, we can hear you.

James Picariello: Great. I want to ask about the Uber partnership. Can you share any color on the milestones associated with the four tranches of funding regarding the $950 million in additional liquidity? It appears one of the tranches is already expected to hit this year—$250 million.

Claire McDonough: Yes. As RJ had just mentioned, there are a handful of milestones. The milestone that we expect to unlock the initial $250 million this year will be the operation of some Rivian Automotive, Inc. vehicles in San Francisco and Miami with safety drivers later this year. As you think about the subsequent years, consider the ongoing trajectory towards full deployment in a couple of cities in 2028 and then 25 cities by 2031 that would fully unlock the remaining $700 million of capital from Uber.

James Picariello: Excellent. Thank you. And to level set expectations on automotive gross margins for the second and third quarters: this quarter was another strong showcase of momentum toward positive auto gross profit, and this is the last quarter before the R2. Is there anything you could share for the next two quarters regarding the temporary order-of-magnitude impacts we can expect to auto profitability?

Claire McDonough: As we think about Q2 and Q3, we will see the introduction and turn-on of depreciation expense and the new manufacturing team that is producing vehicles. As they ramp up the first shift of operation, we will see some of the complexity associated with lower volumes on the new R2 line. As a result, we anticipate an impact to our Automotive gross profit over Q2 and Q3, before we start to see the overall benefits of the ramp—both on R2’s unit economic profile and, importantly, the fixed cost leverage across the R1 program and EDV program.

In total, we still anticipate exiting 2026 with a trajectory of positive Automotive gross profit, with both R2 as well as total Rivian Automotive, Inc. Automotive gross profit being positive, which is important for us as we go into 2027 and fully ramp R2 capacity in Normal.

Operator: This concludes the Q&A section of the call. I would now like to turn the call back to RJ Scaringe for closing remarks.

RJ Scaringe: Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. Hopefully you can tell we are really looking forward to getting R2s into customer hands. We are very pleased and excited with the product that we have developed and proud of the team for all the great work that went into creating such a special vehicle. Along with that, we are very much focused on the development of our autonomy platform, and we will be starting to see some of the fruit of that significant effort—first with our point-to-point capabilities later this year, and then adding more functionality and capabilities over the course of 2027 and 2028. Thank you for joining this call.

We are excited for all of you to experience an R2 and see them on the roads very soon.

Operator: This concludes today’s call. Thank you for joining us.

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