Rivian's stock pops as the EV maker becomes the latest to partner with Uber

By Emily Bary and William Gavin

Uber plans to invest as much as $1.25 billion in the EV maker as they work together on robotaxis

"We're big believers in Rivian's approach," Uber's CEO said in a release.

Uber Technologies has been aggressively partnering with players across the automotive-technology and electric-vehicle industries, and now it has a new deal with Rivian Automotive.

The companies announced Thursday that Uber (UBER) or its partners are expected to order 10,000 autonomous Rivian (RIVN) R2 robotaxis in the initial stage of the partnership. There's also the option for those players to order up to 40,000 additional robotaxis in 2030.

Furthermore, Uber plans to invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian through 2031. The first investment will be $300 million upon the official signing of the deal.

See also: Rivian is fulfilling its promise to launch a $45,000 EV, but there's a catch

"We're big believers in Rivian's approach - designing the vehicle, compute platform, and software stack together, while maintaining end-to-end control of scaled manufacturing and supply in the U.S.," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a release.

Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe added that the arrangement "will help accelerate our path to level 4 autonomy to create one of the safest and most convenient autonomous platforms in the world."

Level 4 autonomous vehicles operate independently of a human driver and may not even have a steering wheel or pedals. Many cars on the road are equipped with Level 2 technology, which requires driver supervision.

After jumping more than 9% in Thursday morning trading, Rivian's shares lost some steam and closed the day up 3.8%.

Uber has built great scale with its ride-hailing business, but there has been concern on Wall Street that robotaxis could eat into that market. Uber riders hail cars that are driven by humans. But companies like Tesla (TSLA), Alphabet's (GOOGL) (GOOG) Google and Amazon.com (AMZN) are in the early stages of pushing robotaxi services.

Google's Waymo is widely considered to be in the lead.

Don't miss: Here's how Amazon just stepped up its robotaxi competition with Tesla and Google

Uber is striking a number of partnerships as it looks to a more autonomous future. The company announced a deal with Nvidia (NVDA) earlier this week and one with Amazon's Zoox business last week.

Meanwhile, Rivian is in the midst of an expensive push to expand its vehicle offerings. The company recently announced pricing details for its R2, which is intended to be cheaper than its other offerings.

Rivian also has to spend to stay competitive in the robotaxi race. Last December, the company revealed its road map, including plans to develop its first in-house processors and eventually launch a hands-off, eyes-off driving feature.

"2026 is a transition year in its bridge to profitability," Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco wrote in a recent note to clients.

-Emily Bary -William Gavin

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03-19-26 1817ET