What's Going On With Rivian Shares Wednesday?

Rivian Automotive, Inc. RIVN stock is moving higher on Wednesday after the company announced a joint venture launch with Volkswagen valued at up to $5.8 billion.

What Happened: The new joint venture, Rivian and VW Group Technology, LLC, aims to utilize the strengths of both companies to design next-generation electrical architecture and best-in-class software technology for both companies’ future electric vehicles.

The venture will be led by Wassym Bensaid from Rivian and Carsten Helbing from Volkswagen. Furthermore, developers and engineers from both companies will join the venture. It will initially be based out of Palo Alto, California with other sites in North America and Europe still in development.

Helbing stated, “We have made a successful start. Over the past few months, we’ve created the framework for bringing together the JV teams and pooling our resources. We are thrilled with the rapid progress we have achieved in the preparatory phase. This has laid the foundation for our future success.”

The two companies aim to lower development costs and accelerate the scaling of new technologies by leveraging their distinct expertise.

Specifically, the joint venture plans to utilize Rivian's existing electrical architecture and software technology to enable the launch of Rivian's R2 in the first half of 2026. Additionally, it will support the expected introduction of Volkswagen’s first models as early as 2027.

See Also: Nvidia Set For Major Surge To $204? Analyst Predicts Post-Q3 Boost Driven By Blackwell GPU Demand, Strong Margins

RIVN Price Action: At the time of writing, Rivian shares are moving 16.4% higher at $12.36, per data from Benzinga Pro.

Image: Courtesy of Rivian Automotive, Inc.