Uber and Rivian announce $1.25 billion deal for 50,000 robotaxis

The Rivian R2 is on display during the 2025 Los Angeles Auto Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center on November 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Josh Lefkowitz | Getty Images

Uber technologies plans to invest up to $1.25 billion in the electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive The companies announced Thursday as part of an agreement to deploy up to 50,000 robotaxis in multiple countries by 2031.

According to a statement from the companies, the collaboration includes the expectation that Uber or its fleet partners will purchase 10,000 autonomous versions of Rivian’s upcoming R2 electric vehicle, with the option to purchase up to 40,000 more robotaxis starting in 2030.

Shares of Rivian jumped in premarket trading on Thursday, rising about 10% before erasing those gains to close the day up 3%, while shares of Uber fell 1%.

The deal is the latest in a resurgence of autonomous vehicle and robotaxis announcements as companies look to capitalize on the multi-trillion-dollar market predicted by investors. Many companies, including Uber, have so far missed their goals for robotaxis.

An initial $300 million investment from Uber to Rivian, which is preparing to begin R2 sales to consumers this spring, is expected soon after the deal is signed, subject to regulatory approval, according to the press release. This investment represents approximately 19.55 million shares of the automaker’s stock, a Rivian spokesperson confirmed.

Four additional tranches of investment will occur by an unspecified date through 2031, subject to the achievement of certain milestones, the automaker said in a public filing Thursday. Uber will also pay certain royalties related to its use of Rivian’s autonomous driving system software, the filing said.

The companies said the R2 robotaxis are expected to be available exclusively through Uber’s ride-sharing and delivery platform in 25 cities across the U.S., Canada and Europe. San Francisco and Miami are planned to be the first cities in 2028, it said.

“We strongly believe in Rivian’s approach – co-designing the vehicle, computing platform and software stack while maintaining full control of production and delivery in the U.S.,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in the press release. “This vertical integration, combined with data from the growing personal vehicle base and experience in managing the complexities of commercial fleets, gives us the confidence to set these ambitious but achievable goals.”

The deal is the latest capital investment for Rivian following a $5.8 billion software deal with a German automaker Volkswagen announced in late 2024. This also marks an expansion of Uber’s robotaxis plans following recent announcements with the electric vehicle maker Clear, Amazon’s Zoox, Chrysler mother Stellar and technology giant Nvidia.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has recently started talking about the company’s robotaxis ambitions, including at the electric vehicle maker’s third-quarter earnings call in November and at its first-ever “Autonomy and AI Day” in December.

Scaringe said Rivian’s upcoming R2 and the technologies supporting it would allow the company to pursue robotaxis, which are currently dominated in the U.S. by Alphabet-backed Waymo.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe speaks at the company’s first Autonomy and AI Day in Palo Alto, California, United States, on December 11, 2025, where he presents developments in self-driving technology.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

Scaringe and other executives said the emergence of new technologies, including artificial intelligence and more powerful semiconductor chips, will allow companies to finally succeed with robotaxis.

“The extent of Rivian’s growing data flywheel coupled with RAP1 [Rivian Autonomy Processor]”, our state-of-the-art internal inference platform and our multimodal perception platform, we are incredibly excited about Rivian’s rapid evolution of autonomy over the next few years,” Scaringe said in Thursday’s press release.

—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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