Rivian is spending so much money on its autonomy efforts that it no longer expects to hit its long-anticipated profitability goals in 2027, the company said Thursday.
The company said it expects research and development costs to increase as it accelerates efforts to develop self-driving technology, and does not expect to achieve positive EBITDA by next year.
The approval was tucked deep in a filing detailing a new partnership between Rivian and Uber to build a robotaxi version of the upcoming R2 SUV for the ride-hailing giant’s network.
Rivian declined to comment beyond what is detailed in the filing.
Rivian has long told shareholders that it could reach positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) in 2027 if the R2 SUV succeeds and software revenue increases. But the company faces a growing number of hurdles before reaching that goal. The federal EV tax credit has been eliminated, reducing its ability to sell regulatory credits to other automakers, and President Trump’s tariffs have increased costs.
These pressures certainly made it difficult for Rivian to become profitable. At least one analyst, UBS’s Joseph Spack, wrote in February that he didn’t expect the company to reach positive EBITDA for “several years.” In February, Rivian reported total net losses of $27 billion from its founding in 2009 to the end of 2025.
However, the company’s heavy investment in the development of self-driving technology has delayed achieving its positive EBITDA target. Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said Rivian is investing more money into autonomy research and development than anything else right now. The company’s annual report shows it spent $1.7 billion on research and development in 2025, up from $1.6 billion in 2024. The company attributed the spike to “increased engineering, design, development costs, prototyping costs, and software costs to support R2 ramp-up and AI and autonomy initiatives.”
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Rivian has developed its own “large drive model” and has designed its own custom processor and “autonomous computer” to drive its software. The company hopes to start eye-off hands-off driving next year, with the goal of making its electric vehicles capable of “personal L4” driving. This follows the level set by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan that allows self-driving cars to operate in certain areas without human intervention.
Rivian detailed many of these efforts for the first time at its inaugural Autonomy & AI Day event in December. At the event, Scaringe gave investors and press a tour of the company’s Silicon Valley campus and a test drive of what the driver assistance software is currently capable of.
The partnership with Uber announced Thursday is an entirely new initiative on top of everything revealed in December. This includes Uber investing up to $1.25 billion in Rivian and potentially purchasing up to 50,000 R2 SUVs. However, the ride-hailing giant has only committed $300 million to the launch and plans to order only 10,000 R2s initially. Most of the agreements appear to be delayed until around 2030.
The company has many other big expenses ahead. Construction is scheduled to begin on a new factory in Georgia this year, with R2 production starting in just a few months. The company told investors in February that it expected to spend between $1.95 billion and $2.05 billion this year.
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