Apple investing in Rivian?

[Philzer]

So I did a search on these keywords and found nothing, so I'm guessing this subject has not been posted. I noticed several financial oriented media outlets are speculating on the possibility of Apple either investing in or buying Rivian, since they' officially ditched their EV project last week. Just interested in reading what others here think of this idea. I would be ok with it, if Apple invested in and not outright bought Rivian. My thinking is Rivian already has its own cache/identity/brand awareness, that Apple woulld be foolish to mess with. Sort of like the way Toyota lets Subaru maintain its identity and boxer engines. Obviously, Apple's near bottomless pit of money would be huge, when competing against Tesla and others, that's the main benefit. As for marketing, maybe some slogan like "Rivian by Apple". Of course, Apple Carplay as standard would be a given, but Apple would also be wise to also have Android Auto as a standard choice as well, but Apple could add other Apple branded tech, maybe even helping develop Rivian's FSD. Anyway, here's a link to a March 8, 2024 Forbes article on this subject......

https://www.forbes.com/sites/billroberson/2024/03/08/should-apple-buy-rivian/?sh=4e18c739461c

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[Rob Stark]

It is traditional in Japan when companies form a partnership they buy stock in each other.

Subaru purchased Toyota stock and Toyota purchased Subaru stock after they decided to build EVs together.

 

[240vPlug]

Rivian is partnered with Amazon. While its fun to think about apple I don't see that happening. Amazon Alexa is baked into the vehicle. If there is an acquisition I would expect it to be someone who is not a competitor to Amazon. Tesla or GM would be less threatening then Apple.

 

[DuoRivian]

I thought Apple had given up on FSD tech and since Rivian is losing money Apple would not want their profits (at a time of stagnant revenue growth) to be hit. The auto business is a low margin business compared to their current market segments so I think this is unlikely.

 

[COdogman]

I think Apple is wisely staying out of the “car” business so they probably don’t want to build vehicles of any type. I think their main goal for that project was software, whether it was FSD or just in vehicle software. We know they have been working on an expanded version of CarPlay that could basically replace the manufacturer software entirely.

 

[Count Orlok]

I think Apple is wisely staying out of the “car” business so they probably don’t want to build vehicles of any type. I think their main goal for that project was software, whether it was FSD or just in vehicle software. We know they have been working on an expanded version of CarPlay that could basically replace the manufacturer software entirely.

don't you know how to create a car company worth 10 billion dollars? first you create one worth 77 billion dollars and then produce vehicles for a couple years.

 

[RivianMatt]

I think it’s very unlikely that Apple would buy Rivian. As a mature, publicly-traded company, Apple’s stock price is a function of the market‘s perception of Apple’s future earnings. If Rivian were to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple, that perception would take a hit over the short to intermediate term, due to Rivian’s continued start up losses. This would likely hurt Apple‘s stock price for up to a couple of years. This is all exacerbated by current market uncertainties about the EV industry in general. Take a look at Tesla’s stock price. It’s recent 3-month to 1-year history is one of a declining trend. That’s due to the EV market uncertainties. Does Apple want to take that on? I doubt it.

 

[oskeei]

Color of R2 at launch event was a subtle hint?

 

[kylealden]

I'll just note that the speculation appears to have been kicked off by Gene Munster who is one of the most consistently wrong Apple analysts in history. I wouldn't get too excited.

Apple ships when:

1. They believe a step change in technology enables a dramatic shift in the customer experience that opens new markets. They rarely invest in incremental growth.
2. They believe they can control the key components of their technology and production soup-to-nuts.

They clearly thought for some time that this was true for EVs, owing at least to some extent to the broad delusion around full autonomous vehicles over the past ~5 years.

As this delusion has cleared up and the low-margin, high-commodity nature of EVs has come into start relief, I don't think Apple wants to touch it with a ten foot pole.

 

[CharonPDX]

Wild speculation based on absolutely nothing at all other than "Apple cancelled their car project, they may want another car."

 

[oskeei]

Wild speculation. . . maybe

"Absolutely nothing" . . not so much (and I'm not talking about the color of the R2).

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