Soros buys into Rivian, joining green billionaires investing in electric vehicle makers

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has joined the ranks of billionaires going green, after snapping up a $US2.8 billion stake in electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive Inc.

Soros Fund Management was disclosed on Friday in the US as the electric ute and SUV maker’s new star investor in a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, having bought 20 million shares in the company last quarter of 2021.

The buy-up is not quite in the league of Jeff Bezos, whose online retail giant Amazon has also put considerable funds into the EV maker and holds an 18% stake with more than 160 million shares.

Nor is Soros’ finger exactly on the pulse; both Tesla’s Elon Musk and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet dipped their toes into the EV market more than a decade ago and now seeing foresight paid back in spades.

Tesla achieved the status of most valuable carmaker in the world in 2021 with just four-volume production models, and Warren Buffet’s 10% investment worth $US232 million into China EV giant BYD has now ballooned to $US2 billion.

But it does underline the value that wealthy investors are finding in the electric vehicle transition, even without delving into the Chinese billionaires sitting behind the likes of EV makers Nio (William Li) and Xpeng (He Xiaopeng).

How soon Soros’ new investment will pay off however is the question. Rivian’s value has plummeted 43% to date in 2022, after the EV maker failed to achieve production goals in 2021 and talks to ink a deal with Samsung SDI were cut short.

In February, Amazon reported big gains from its investment in Rivian, as did fellow Rivian investor Ford, Marketwatch reports.

While Rivian’s initial delivery dates were set back by the pandemic, it commenced first deliveries of its off-road adventure electric vehicles towards the end of 2021. In January, it said it had made 1,105 vehicles including the R1T ute, R1S and EDV van, and had delivered 920 in total.

In November, the electric vehicle maker listed on the tech-focused Nasdaq, becoming the world’s sixth most valuable carmaker by market cap in the process.

At the same time as investing in Rivian, Soros Fund Management reduced holdings of Big Tech names including Amazon and Google’s parent, Alphabet.