Hyperdrive

Rivian’s Electric Truck Gets All the Attention, But Its Fate Is Tied to Amazon

For founder R.J. Scaringe, a 2019 endorsement from Jeff Bezos opened doors that even Elon Musk couldn’t in the early days of Tesla.

How Amazon Is Helping Shape Rivian's IPO
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(This is the second story in a series examining Rivian’s origins and its future. Read the first installment here.)

Jeff Bezos stood before a packed conference room in Washington, D.C., and declared war on climate change. It was September 2019. His secret weapon, tucked deep into a chart-heavy presentation, was a bug-eyed cargo truck built by a startup few people had heard of.