Rivian has reduced the DOE’s debt to $4.5B for the Georgia plant

Rivian has renewed its loan agreement with the Department of Energy and now hopes to borrow $4.5 billion to build its new factory in Georgia, from initial capital of $6.6 billion issued under the Biden administration.

The company also announced on Thursday that it will draw down the debt sooner than planned, in early 2027, and hopes to increase the total capacity of the Georgia plant from 200,000 to 300,000 vehicles in its first phase of operation. The big increase – a 50% increase compared to its original plans – will help reduce its cost per share, and provide more opportunities for future growth, the company said on Thursday.

Rivian previously said the Georgia plant would have a capacity of 400,000 vehicles. Although the first phase, which is tied to the DOE loan, has increased, Rivian has not shared what its plans are for the second phase. The original plan was for two parts of 200,000 cars at the Georgia facility. The company’s plant in Normal, Illinois has a 215,000 – motor capacity.

During the earnings call, CFO Claire McDonough did not share what the second phase would be, other than to say it was reserved for future expansion.

“The smart decision we made was to increase the original production volume to 300,000 units,” he said on the call. “On our site in Georgia, all the initial energy will be placed above the site. So we have a lower pad, which will not be too green for future expansion.”

He also saw the need for this $4.5 billion investment to allow Riven to expand its operations to 515,000 units of total capacity. This number is 100,000 lower than Rivian’s predicted number for the two factories.

Some of the factory’s capacity will be used for production R2 robot about Uber. Under the agreement made earlier this year, Uber is making an initial investment of $ 300 million in Rivian and is expected to purchase 10,000 autonomous R2 robotaxis ahead of plans in San Francisco and Miami in 2028. The initial payment of $ 300 million is expected to close the second quarter, and another investment of $ 250 million is planned in the future.

The ride-hailing company has the option to buy 40,000 R2 SUVs from Rivian starting in 2030. Uber will say that it will invest $1.25 billion in Rivian through 2031 if the automaker meets a number of conditions.

Rivian broke ground on its Georgia factory late last year and is in the early stages of building what it calls construction at a site outside Atlanta. The company hopes to begin production of the vehicles by the end of 2028. Until then, Rivian will build the R2 SUVs at its current factory in Normal, Illinois.

The company they recently started making R2 although the plant is being damaged by the storm, and Rivian said on Thursday it had given its first workers. Deliveries to customers are expected to begin “in the coming weeks,” according to Rivian.

The DOE credit update comes as Rivian disclosed financial results for the first quarter of 2026 on Thursday. The company generated $1.38 billion in revenue, $908 million coming from car sales and $473 million from software and services. Rivian’s vehicle revenue was down about 2% from the same period last year, due in part to lower regulatory trends.

The company lost $416 million in the quarter, down from a loss of $541 million in the same period last year. The net loss was offset by, in part, a $506 million gain in other earnings related to raising Series A capital and the merger of CEO RJ Scaringe’s Mind Robotics startup, according to the company.

Rivian has seen its operating expenses and R&D expenses grow year over year. Rivian’s R&D budget grew 20% to $458 million as it increased R2 pre-production costs and software and cloud services related to autonomous vehicle technology development.

The combination of these rising costs, combined with a slight decrease in capital spending, was a drag on Rivian’s free flow, which is in negative territory. The company reported free cash flow of $1 billion, nearly double the previous year.

This article has been updated with comments from Rivian’s CFO and previously reported figures.