Image Credits:Rivian

Rivian no longer expects to meet a long-expected profitability goal in 2027 because of how much money it is spending on its autonomy efforts, the company disclosed on Thursday.

The company said it does not expect to be EBITDA positive by next year as it sees R&D costs rising in line with its quickening efforts to build out its self-driving technology.

The admission was encased deep in a filing that otherwise detailed Rivian’s new partnership with Uber to build robotaxi versions of its upcoming R2 SUV for the ride-hail giant’s network.

Rivian declined to comment beyond what it detailed in the filing.

Rivian has long told shareholders that it could reach positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) in 2027 as long as it successfully launched the R2 SUV, and increased its software revenue. But the company has faced an increasing number of hurdles before that goal: The federal EV tax credit was discontinued, its ability to sell regulatory credits to other automakers has been diminished, and its costs have risen due President Trump’s tariffs.

Those pressures were certainly making it harder for Rivian to tip into the black. At least one analyst, Joseph Spak from UBS, wrote in February that he didn’t expect the company to reach positive EBITDA for “a number of years.” Rivian reported in February that it has recorded total net losses of $27 billion between its inception in 2009 and the end of 2025.

But it’s the company’s massive investment into developing self-driving technology that has caused it to delay the EBITDA positive goal. Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has said Rivian is spending more on research and development for autonomy than anything else at the moment. The company’s annual filing shows it spent $1.7 billion on R&D in 2025, up from $1.6 billion in 2024. The company attributed that jump to “increases in engineering, design, and development costs, prototyping costs, and software expenses to support our R2 launch and AI and autonomy initiatives.”

Rivian is developing its own “large driving model” and has designed its own custom processor as well as an “autonomy computer” to power that software. It hopes to launch eyes-off, hands-off driving next year and has a goal of making its electric vehicles capable of “personal L4” driving, a nod to the level set by the Society of Automotive Engineers at which an autonomous vehicle can operate in a particular area with no human intervention.

Rivian detailed many of these efforts for the first time in December at its first-ever “Autonomy & AI Day” event, where Scaringe toured investors and press through the company’s Silicon Valley campus, and offered test rides that showed off what its driver-assistance software is currently capable of.

The partnership with Uber announced on Thursday is a whole new effort on top of everything revealed in December. It involves Uber investing up to $1.25 billion in Rivian, and potentially purchasing up to 50,000 R2 SUVs. But the ride-hail giant is only putting in $300 million to start, and will initially only order 10,000 R2s from Rivian. Much of the deal appears to be backloaded to around 2030.

The company has many other major expenses ahead, too. It plans to start building a brand new factory in Georgia this year, and it is months away from beginning production of the R2. The company told investors in February that it expects to spend between $1.95 billion and $2.05 billion this year.