1 Reason to Buy Rivian Like There's No Tomorrow. Hint: It's Not the R2

Key Points
Investors focusing on Rivian's R2 launch might be missing the bigger picture.
Rivian's partnerships with Uber and Volkswagen could be a sign of things to come.
Its strategy to build a higher-margin, software-defined vehicle platform could prove lucrative.
- 10 stocks we like better than Rivian Automotive ›
Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ: RIVN) investors knew 2025 was going to be stuck in neutral with no vehicle launches until the highly anticipated R2 hit the streets this year. It may have been especially frustrating for investors to watch Rivian's production and deliveries decline last year, while rival Lucid Group cruised to set eight consecutive quarters of delivery records.
The new year brings plenty of opportunity for Rivian, and here is one primary reason investors can consider the young electric vehicle (EV) maker as a long-term investment.
Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »
The road to autonomy
Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) wants to become a big player in the future of driverless vehicles, and it's certainly putting its money where its mouth is. Uber has over 20 active driverless vehicle partnerships in some capacity, and just this month, it announced yet another with young EV maker Rivian.
Uber's committing up to $1.25 billion in Rivian through 2031, of course subject to the latter achieving autonomous performance milestones. Initially, once the agreement goes through regulatory approval, Uber will inject $300 million into Rivian to kickstart its ambitions to build toward a fully autonomous fleet of Rivian R2 robotaxis.
The companies expect to begin deploying roughly 10,000 robotaxi R2s between San Francisco and Miami in 2028, with expansion to 25 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe by the end of 2031.
While this partnership is great news for Rivian investors, what Uber's CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, had to say in a press release could be just as important:
We're big believers in Rivian's approach -- designing the vehicle, compute platform, and software stack together, while maintaining end-to-end control of scaled manufacturing and supply in the U.S. That vertical integration, combined with data from their growing consumer vehicle base and experience managing the complexities of commercial fleets, gives us conviction to set these ambitious but achievable targets.
The bigger picture
Rivian's partnership with Uber and its driverless ambitions are in a way the appetizer, and Rivian's proprietary hardware, subscription-based software services, and strategic partnerships are the main course. Rivian is strategizing and designing its products to transform the company from a pure hardware/vehicle automaker into a higher-margin software-defined vehicle platform – and that could be lucrative long-term. Remember that Rivian's partnership with Volkswagen Group helped the company achieve positive gross profits.
The driverless technology opportunity is knocking on the door, and Rivian is opening that door. Investors won't have to wait long to get a better chance at grasping its potential. The automaker's third-generation autonomy platform, which management expects to be one of the more powerful combinations of sensors and inference compute in a North American consumer vehicle, will be launched in the R2 late this year.
Should you buy stock in Rivian Automotive right now?
Before you buy stock in Rivian Automotive, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Rivian Automotive wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $532,066!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,087,496!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 926% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2026.
Daniel Miller has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.