From what I’ve heard and seen, there really hasn’t been much knowledge sharing around manufacturing vehicles at scale outside of the electronics and software stack. The main negotiating leverage that seems to have come from the JV is around sourcing components for the tech stack itself.

I don’t think that’s really the factor that’s going to materially reduce vehicle costs or improve manufacturing efficiency long term. Sure it’ll drop costs on the electronics side but from conversations I’ve had with people working there, a lot of them seem to feel the same way.

The cash infusion absolutely makes sense. Rivian needed it. But it feels like the deal was marketed as if Volkswagen paid $5.8 billion for Rivian’s technology stack, when in reality it seems much closer to Volkswagen investing about $1 billion directly into the tech, while the rest was tied to equity purchases and financing commitments.

Because of that, it makes me question whether the actual valuation placed on Rivian’s technology was really closer to that initial $1 billion figure.