Rivian
Last year Amazon announced a stake in Rivian, an electric cargo truck company, but did not disclose the amount of funding at the time. However, Bloomberg found in the latest SEC disclosure document that as of September 30, Amazon owns $3.8 billion worth of Rivian preferred stock, accounting for about 20% of the company, and its value is higher than the $2.7 billion at the end of 2020.
Amazon has invested in Rivian since 2019, when it participated in a total of 700 million US dollars in financing activities. According to reports, the former alone accounted for more than half of the 440 million US dollars. In the same year, Amazon announced the purchase of 100,000 electric trucks from Rivian to meet their goal of combating extreme weather in 2040. Rivian’s electric truck is reported to have started testing in Los Angeles this year, and it is expected that the first 10,000 vehicles will be delivered by the end of 2022.
Not surprisingly, Rivian’s delivery targets were actually delayed due to the new crown epidemic. According to reports, they have adjusted their production lines to give priority to Amazon. The two models of R1T and R1S for general consumers have their own delays. For example, the R1T, which was originally expected to be launched in 2020, was just launched at the Illinois factory last month (title picture).
