Rivian sacrifices 2027 profit target to push deeper into independence

Rivian no longer expects to meet its long-expected profitability goal in 2027 due to the amount of money it is spending on autonomy efforts, the company revealed Thursday.

The company said it does not expect earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to be positive by next year, as it sees research and development costs rising in line with its accelerating efforts to build its self-driving technology.

This admission was included in depth in a filing detailing Rivian’s new partnership with Uber to build robotaxi versions of its upcoming R2 SUV for the transportation giant’s network.

Rivian declined to comment beyond what was detailed in the file.

Rivian has long told shareholders that it can reach positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) in 2027 as long as it successfully launches the R2 SUV and grows its software revenue. But the company has faced a growing number of hurdles before achieving that goal: The federal tax credit for electric vehicles has been discontinued, its ability to sell regulatory credits to other automakers has diminished, and its costs have risen due to tariffs imposed by President Trump.

Those pressures were certainly making it difficult for Rivian to go black. At least one analyst, UBS’s Joseph Spak, wrote in February that he didn’t expect the company to hit EBITDA “for several years.” Rivian reported in February that it recorded total net losses of $27 billion between its inception in 2009 and the end of 2025.

But it was the company’s heavy investment in developing self-driving technology that delayed the positive EBITDA target. Rivian is spending more on R&D for autonomy than anything else right now, said founder and CEO RJ Scaringe. The company’s annual filing shows it spent $1.7 billion on research and development in 2025, up from $1.6 billion in 2024. The company attributed the jump to “increases in engineering, design and development costs, prototyping costs, and software expenses to support R2 launches and AI and autonomy initiatives.”

Rivian is developing its own “large driving model,” and has designed its own custom processor as well as a “standalone computer” to run this software. It hopes to launch a zero-sight driving system next year, and also aims to make its electric cars capable of “L4 personal” driving, referring to the level set by the Society of Automotive Engineers at which a self-driving vehicle can operate in a specific area without human intervention.

Rivian first detailed many of these efforts in December at its first-ever “Autonomy and AI Day” event, where Scaringe toured investors and press at the company’s Silicon Valley campus, showing off test rides that demonstrated what its driver-assistance software is currently capable of.

The partnership with Uber announced Thursday is a brand new effort 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. But the ride-hailing giant has only committed $300 million to get started, and will initially order just 10,000 R2s from Rivian. Much of the deal appears to have been pushed back to around 2030.

The company has several other major expenses ahead as well. It plans to start construction on a brand new factory in Georgia this year, and is still months away from starting R2 production. The company told investors in February that it expects to spend between $1.95 billion and $2.05 billion this year.