Rivian’s CEO has explained why he and the company aren’t concerned about U.S. President Donald Trump’s electric vehicle (EV) policies, including the repeal of the $7,500 federal tax credit.
During a conversation with Automotive News at Rivian’s opening of a new Space showroom in San Francisco on Thursday, CEO RJ Scaringe said that the company plans to remain a top competitor pushing U.S. electrification, with or without the tax credit or similar battery production incentives. Scaringe highlighted that the credit would be repealed equally for all automakers under the Trump administration, noting that he didn’t start the electric vehicle (EV) maker even knowing what the future landscape for subsidies might look like.
“I don’t think we’re particularly worried about any of it because whatever happens will be equally applied to all,” Scaringe said during the opening event. “I started the company with the view of making highly compelling products and none of my decision to start Rivian had anything to do with what the policy was going to look like.”
However, the Rivian CEO did signal that legacy automakers could be more likely to fund combustion engine development when considering short-term profitability for the next two to three years, though he says this would be mistake for the industry long-term.
“I think in the end it’s sort of like there’s small speed bumps along the way and it’s on us to respond to whatever that environment is,” the CEO said. “We’re really talking about U.S. leadership in the future of technology as it pertains to transportation. This is not a political thing. It’s not like the left wants to move to electrification. It’s that the future of transportation will be electric.”
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“The challenge with some of these short-term changes, for the world and for the U.S. leadership in technology, is that it will cause some manufacturers to invest less in electrification,” Scaringe notes. “And I think that’s probably good for Rivian from a competitive landscape, but bad for the world. If you’re optimizing purely for profitability in the next 2 to 3 years and you’re a traditional legacy manufacturer, you can see how you can very easily make a spreadsheet case of ‘Let’s double down on combustion or hybrids. I think that is a big miscalculation for the long term.”
The news also comes after Rivian gained a $6.6 billion commitment from the Department of Energy to help fund the construction of its upcoming factory in Georgia in November, officially closing on the loan on January 16. Amidst some speculation that the Trump administration could try to cancel the loan, Scaringe highlights that the agreement should already be set in stone, with the company subject to several conditions.
“We signed a legally binding agreement with the Department of Energy, to be clear,” Scaringe adds. “And, of course, that loan has a whole host of conditions that we negotiated over the last couple years.”
Rivian delivered 51,579 last year, marking a slight increase from 50,122 vehicles in 2023. The company also announced a major partnership and $5 billion investment deal with Volkswagen in June, and recent reports suggest that other manufacturers are also considering similar software supply deals with the EV company.
Meanwhile, Rivian and many other small EV makers are still attempting to turn production into profits, with the manufacturers still reporting substantial losses as they attempt to scale output. Many Tesla followers point out how close to bankruptcy the company came during its Model 3 ramp-up, and CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly echoed details about how difficult production is.
Similarly, however, Musk has also aired concerns about the potential for Rivian, Lucid and other growing EV makers to go bankrupt if they aren’t careful with their finances.
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Tesla rivals Rivian and Lucid receive harsh prediction from Elon Musk
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Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
Elon Musk clapped back at France’s decision to withhold the approval for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised system, projecting a clear and blunt message to French Transport Minister Phillippe Tabarot, after he publicly rejected the technology in its current form.
Tabarot outlines several concerns with Tesla Full Self-Driving in a detailed video statement, where he said, “The safety trade-offs are not yet sufficient to authorize it as it currently stands,” he said. He emphasized that FSD is not a true self-driving system and that the driver remains fully responsible.
Key issues Tabarot also brought up included allowing speeding when surrounding traffic exceeds limits and what he believes are insufficient guarantees of driver attention during complex urban maneuvers such as lane changes, intersections, and roundabouts.
Delaying the approval of FSD in France will cost lives
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
While acknowledging technological progress and France’s support for autonomous innovation, Tabarot stressed that deployment must prioritize road safety. He noted ongoing technical discussions with Tesla, the Netherlands, and other European partners, with further ecosystem meetings planned for the fall.
Musk’s rebuke highlights the human cost of regulatory caution. Tesla’s latest safety reports provide compelling data supporting accelerated adoption. In the most recent 12-month period, vehicles using FSD (Supervised) recorded one major collision per approximately 5.1 million miles driven, dramatically better than the U.S. national average of one crash per 698,000 miles.
Even Tesla vehicles driven manually with active safety features outperform the average by a wide margin. These figures come from billions of real-world miles of telemetry, showing FSD vehicles involved in far fewer incidents than both manual Teslas and the broader U.S. fleet.
Critics argue Tesla’s comparisons require careful scrutiny regarding reporting thresholds and fleet demographics, yet the data consistently positions FSD as a potential lifesaver. With road fatalities remaining a leading cause of death worldwide, Musk contends that proven safer technology should not face prolonged bureaucratic hurdles.
France’s measured approach reflects the broader European regulatory caution, which many, especially Musk, have been critical of in the past. However, as autonomous systems from Tesla and competitors like Waymo demonstrate superior safety in independent studies, pressure is mounting for harmonized approvals.
Musk’s warning carries the belief that every month of delay may equate to avoidable tragedies on European roads.
In a striking revelation that underscores the lucrative crossover between Big Tech and space exploration, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, disclosed a massive $94.1 billion equity stake in SpaceX following the rocket company’s blockbuster initial public offering earlier this year.
The disclosure came in Alphabet’s quarterly filing, marking the first time the long-held private investment has been publicly valued at market prices. Google was an early backer, investing alongside Fidelity in 2015 with roughly $500-900 million at a time when SpaceX was valued around $12 billion.
That bet has delivered extraordinary returns, roughly a hundredfold, transforming a strategic play on satellite internet and launch capabilities into one of Alphabet’s largest assets.
Google, $GOOGL, has said they hold $94 billion in SpaceX, $SPCX, shares after IPO.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) July 23, 2026
Of the total holding, approximately $80 billion remains subject to short-term post-IPO lockup restrictions, preventing near-term sales. An additional $14.1 billion faces longer-term restrictions, extending into the third quarter of 2027. This structure limits immediate liquidity but protects against market volatility as SpaceX transitions into public trading.
The SpaceX position contributed significantly to gains in Alphabet’s broader investment portfolio, which also includes a major stake in AI leader Anthropic. Combined, these holdings helped drive nearly $100 billion in investment gains during the second quarter, providing a substantial boost to net income amid ongoing AI spending pressures.
Analysts view the disclosure as validation of Alphabet’s venture strategy beyond its core search and cloud businesses. The investment aligns with deeper ties, including reported multi-billion-dollar deals for AI computing capacity on SpaceX infrastructure. As SpaceX advances Starship flights, Starlink expansion, and ambitious Mars goals under Elon Musk, Google’s stake positions it to benefit from the commercialization of space.
For Alphabet, the windfall highlights how patient, forward-looking bets in transformative sectors can yield outsized rewards. While lockups temper short-term impact, the holding cements SpaceX as a cornerstone of Alphabet’s diversified portfolio in an era where aerospace, AI, and connectivity increasingly intersect. Investors will watch closely as restrictions lift and SpaceX’s public performance unfolds.
Tesla stock tumbles after earnings, one of its sharpest single-day declines
Elon Musk is not happy about this Tesla Full Self-Driving approval delay
