Rivian is, by all accounts, a manufacturer and seller of electric vehicles. But in 2025, it was the company’s software and services that helped its annual revenue grow by 8%.
Rivian on Thursday reported $5.38 billion in total revenue in 2025, up from $4.97 billion a year earlier. That rosy picture dims a bit when you look at just its auto revenue, which fell 15% to $3.8 billion in 2025. The decline was fueled by a $134 million drop in regulatory credit sales and lower vehicle deliveries, which were partially offset by higher average sales prices, according to Rivian.
Meanwhile, software and services revenue tripled to $1.55 billion for the year. And the joint venture with Volkswagen Group was behind most of that growth, according to Rivian. The “services” component of this line item, which Rivian does not analyze, includes a variety of items such as vehicle repair, vehicle trade-ins, and maintenance services. The rest, and most of the revenue, comes from software and specifically because of the joint venture with the VW Group.
VW and Rivian have formed a 2024 technology joint venture worth up to $5.8 billion. The joint venture is based on a milestone, and in 2025 Rivian reached the milestone, which meant paying $1 billion in the form of a stock sale. Under the terms of the JV, Rivian will supply the VW Group with existing electrical architecture and software technology.
Rivian received an initial convertible note of $1 billion due in 2024 and another payment of $1 billion in July 2025.
Rivian is expected to continue receiving payments from VW Group until 2027. Rivian is expected to receive an additional $2 billion in capital as part of the joint venture in 2026, CFO Claire McDonough said on the company’s earnings call on Thursday. About $1 billion of that is subject to the successful completion of winter testing, which is underway. The remaining $1 billion is non-recourse debt, which is expected to be collected in October.
And while funds provide a huge gap, Rivian’s financial success in 2026 will depend heavily on the launch of its next EV, the R2.
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Rivian confirmed in its earnings report Thursday that the R2 SUV, which is designed to be cheaper to build and less expensive for customers, will be on the market by June 2026. That “cheaper to build” line item is especially important to Rivian, which has historically lost money on every vehicle it makes.
Rivian has spent years trying to lower its cost of goods sold. And it has made progress with the launch of the second-generation R1T truck and R1S SUV. For example, McDonough said that “in the fourth quarter they were able to deliver $92,000 worth of gears per unit, and that was about a $4,000 per unit improvement over the third quarter.” Rivian gears per unit were $99,000 in Q4 2024.
The company saw its total cost of revenue for cars decrease year-over-year from $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to $898 million in the same quarter of 2025. Specifically, the company’s cost of revenue for software rose steadily throughout 2025.
The R2 SUV, which will initially be launched as a twin-engine model with all-wheel drive, is an opportunity to further reduce costs. The company is expected to release more information about the R2, including final specifications, on March 12.
Rivian’s guidance for 2026 suggests it is holding on to demand for R2 and its ability to increase production. The company said Thursday it expects to deliver between 62,000 and 67,000 vehicles in 2026 — which could represent an increase of up to 59 percent from last year. Rivian delivered 42,247 vehicles in 2025, including the two R1 consumer vehicles and the electric delivery van (EDV).
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe noted that the company expects some growth in EDV sales in 2026. Rivian plans to produce an all-wheel drive version and a larger battery variant of the EDV, for which Amazon is its main customer.
“Both of these help unlock specific use cases within the Amazon network,” Scaringe said. “We’ve been working very closely with Amazon to define these requirements and are excited to launch them.”
The company is not yet signaling profitability — on an adjusted basis. But it offers a significant improvement on that front. Rivian reported a net loss of $3.6 billion in 2025. It expects an adjusted net loss of between $1.8 billion and $2.1 billion for 2026. Rivian also expects capital expenditures to be between $1.95 billion and $2.05 billion this year.
