Rivian has revised its loan agreement with the Department of Energy and now expects to borrow $4.5 billion to build its new plant in Georgia, up from the original $6.6 billion granted under the Biden administration.
The company also announced on Thursday that it will draw down the loan earlier than planned, in early 2027, and expects to increase the total capacity of the Georgia plant from 200,000 to 300,000 vehicles in its initial phase of operation. The higher capacity – a 50% increase over its original plans – will help reduce its unit costs, while also providing significant scope for future capacity expansion in later phases, the company said on Thursday.
Rivian previously said the Georgia plant would have a total capacity of 400,000 vehicles. While the initial phase, which is tied to the DOE loan, has grown, Rivian has not shared what its plans are for the second phase. The original plan was for two phases of 200,000 vehicle capacity at the Georgia site. The company’s plant in Normal, Illinois has a Capacity 215,000 vehicles.
During the earnings call, CFO Claire McDonough did not share what capacity that second phase would be, other than that it was reserved for future expansion.
“The strategic decision we made was to increase the initial phase of production capacity to 300,000 units,” he said on the call. “At our Georgia site, the full initial capacity will be placed on the upper pad of the site. So we have the lower pad, which will still be completely untouched greenfield for future expansion.”
He noted that the significance of this $4.5 billion in funding was to allow Riven to scale its operation to 515,000 units of total capacity. That number is 100,000 below Rivian’s previously reported combined capacity at the two plants.
Part of the factory’s capacity will be used to produce R2 robotaxis for Uber. Under a deal struck earlier this year, Uber is making an initial investment of $300 million in Rivian and is expected to purchase 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotoxins ahead of a planned launch in San Francisco and Miami in 2028. That initial payment of $300 million is expected to close in the second quarter, with another $250 million for later in the year investment.
The ride-hailing company has the option to buy up to 40,000 more autonomous R2 SUVs from Rivian starting in 2030. Uber has said it will invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian by 2031 if the automaker hits a series of milestones.
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Rivian broke ground on the Georgia plant late last year and is in the early stages of so-called vertical manufacturing at the site outside Atlanta. The company expects to begin building vehicles by the end of 2028. Until then, Rivian will build the R2 SUV at its current plant in Normal, Illinois.
The company recently began production of the R2, despite the fact that the plant was damaged by a tornado, and Rivian said Thursday that it had made initial deliveries to workers. Deliveries to customers are expected to begin “in the coming weeks, according to Rivian.
The DOE loan modifications come as Rivian disclosed financial results for the first quarter of 2026 on Thursday. The company brought in $1.38 billion in revenue, with $908 million coming from vehicle sales and $473 million from software and services. Rivian’s automotive revenue fell about 2% from the same period last year, partly due to a reduction in regulatory credits.
The company lost $416 million in the quarter, down from $541 million in the same period last year. That net loss shrank thanks, in part, to a $506 million gain in other income related to the Series A capital raising and related spin-off of CEO RJ Scaringe’s new Mind Robotics startup, according to the company.
Rivian saw its operating expenses and R&D costs increase year over year. Rivian’s R&D budget expanded 20% to $458 million as it increased spending on the R2’s pre-production costs as well as software and cloud services related to the development of autonomous vehicle technology.
The combination of these rising costs, plus a small increase in capital expenditures, has driven Rivian’s free cash flow into negative territory. The company reported negative free cash flow of $1 billion, nearly double from last year.
This article has been updated with comments from Rivian’s CFO and previously reported capacity figures.
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