According to foreign media reports, Volkswagen has made additional investments in its US partner Rivian. As Rivian reached the contractual target, the second payment of 850 million euros (about $1 billion) was paid as scheduled on June 30.
After achieving positive gross margin for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2024, Rivian returned to profitability in the first quarter of 2025, thus reaching the agreed milestone of “two consecutive quarters of profitability” and meeting the current payment terms. According to information disclosed in early May, Volkswagen will pay the $1 billion investment at a 33% premium to the average price of Rivian shares between May 15 and June 27.
The current stage of capital injection is only linked to the financial indicator of “profitability for two consecutive quarters”. The next $1 billion injection in 2026 will require Rivian to achieve technical milestones at the same time. The final payment of 500 million euros will be paid in 2027, on the condition that the first Volkswagen model equipped with Rivian technology is mass-produced.
Image credit: Rivian
The Volkswagen Group had injected $1 billion directly into Rivian when it signed the agreement last year, acquiring an 8.6% stake in the latter. The specific equity ratio corresponding to the additional $1 billion investment has not been disclosed. If Rivian continues to achieve the established milestones, Volkswagen may make additional investments in two more phases, totaling up to 3 billion euros (about $3.5 billion). This move will allow Volkswagen to surpass Amazon to become Rivian’s largest single shareholder.
The total scale of the strategic cooperation between Volkswagen and Rivian in 2024 is $5.8 billion, of which $3.5 billion will be realized through Volkswagen’s equity investment in Rivian, and the remaining $2.3 billion will be injected into the joint venture between the two parties, “Rivian-Volkswagen Technologies” (Rivian Volkswagen Technologies), to jointly develop the core technology and software system of electric vehicles. Through this partnership, Volkswagen aims to acquire Rivian’s software and electronic architecture technologies to solve its long-standing software shortcomings.
The new electronic architecture developed by Volkswagen and Rivian will be applied to both electric models, but the industry generally believes that Volkswagen will be the main beneficiary. The first Volkswagen model equipped with Rivian technology will be the ID.1 compact electric vehicle launched in 2027, and the electronic architecture is expected to help Volkswagen achieve its base price target of about 20,000 euros. Mass production is reportedly scheduled to start in Portugal in September 2027.
