Uber, Rivian announce $1.25 billion deal for 50,000 robotaxis

Uber Technologies It plans to invest up to $1.25 billion in the electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive The companies made the announcement Thursday as part of a deal to deploy 50,000 robotaxis in several countries by 2031.

The tie-up includes prospects for Uber or its fleet partners to purchase 10,000 autonomous versions of Rivian’s upcoming R2 electric vehicle, with an option to purchase 40,000 robotaxis starting in 2030, according to a release from the companies.

Shares of Rivian rose roughly 8% to 10% during premarket trading on Thursday, while Uber’s shares were relatively flat after the announcement.

The deal is the latest in a resurgence of announcements about autonomous vehicles and robotaxis, as companies seek to capitalize on what investors predict will be a multitrillion-dollar market. Many companies, including Uber, have failed to meet their goals in the past when it comes to robotaxis.

An initial $300 million investment from Uber into Rivian, which is preparing to start selling the R2 to customers this spring, is subject to regulatory approval after the deal is signed, according to the release. That investment is equivalent to about 19.55 million shares of the automaker, a Rivian spokeswoman confirmed.

Four other investment tranches will occur subject to hitting certain milestones by unspecified dates through 2031, according to a Thursday public filing by the automaker. Uber is expected to pay certain licensing fees related to the use of Rivian’s autonomous driving system software, the filing said.

R2 robotaxis are expected to be available exclusively through Uber’s ride-hailing and delivery platform in 25 cities across the US, Canada and Europe, the companies said. The first cities are planned to be San Francisco and Miami in 2028, he said.

“We are big believers in Rivian’s approach—designing the vehicle, compute platform and software stack together, with scaled manufacturing in the US and managing end-to-end control of supply,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. “That vertical integration combined with data from their growing customer vehicle base and experience managing the complexities of commercial fleets gives us the conviction to set these ambitious but achievable goals.”

The deal is the latest capital investment for Rivian, following a $5.8 billion software deal announced by German automaker Volkswagen in late 2024. This marks an increase in Uber’s plans for robotaxis following recent announcements with EV manufacturers. Clear, Amazon’s Jukes, parent of Chrysler Stellantis And the tech giant Nvidia.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently started talking about the company’s ambitions for robotaxis, including the EV-maker’s third-quarter results call in November and its first “autonomy and AI day” in December.

Schering said Rivian’s upcoming R2 and the technologies that support it will allow the company to pursue robotaxis, which is currently dominated in the US by Alphabet-backed Waymo.

The emergence of new technologies, including artificial intelligence and more capable semiconductor chips, will allow companies to eventually succeed with robotaxis, Skeringe and other executives said.

“The scale of Rivian’s growing data flywheel, RAP1 (Ravion Autonomy Processor), our state-of-the-art in-house inference platform and our multi-modal perception platform make us incredibly excited for the rapid advancement of Rivian Autonomy over the next two years,” Schaering said in a release Thursday.

– of CNBC Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.