Rivian is reportedly partnering with Apple

Well, there’s also the car, Alex, stay right there because we have another report surrounding A partnership, this time between Apple and Rivian. And Philip. Oh is here on set with us to maybe talk about some of those details. Well, this came out of digit times out of Asia, said there was talk about a potential partnership. Immediately, Steve Kovac with Apple and me with Rivian, we started running this up the tree. Didn’t get any take at all, no take at all. So I don’t put any credence, credence to this, but it does raise the question, is Apple completely done? When it comes to the auto companies, remember they have essentially shut down Project Titan, so they’re not going to plan on building a car. Adam Jonas with Morgan Stanley brings up a great point in a note that he put out today. And he essentially says this. He says although Apple has confirmed it has nixed its Apple Car project, Project Titan, it does not mean there may not be any number of areas where Apple’s broader AI efforts could encompass the automotive value chain. Is it possible that somebody at Rivian in Asia is having a conversation with somebody at Apple? You bet. I would hope they’re doing that. That’s what auto companies are doing with tech companies every single day. So this report by itself, no reason for the stocks to move higher. Though you can bet that when Rivian reports its results after the bell and during the analyst call, RJ Scringe is going to get this question. I was going to say for Rivian’s case as well, if they weren’t, they the one who had the Ford investment that kind of went sour, correct? So I can’t imagine they’re over eager to go partner with another major company. And guess who owns a big chunk of Rivian? Amazon. Oh, right. It’s not like these guys are, you know, out in the wilderness of Illinois and they’re not interacting with tech companies. They are. So it’s just that this report started moving the stocks before the market today. You’ll notice the stocks really haven’t done much since then because it hasn’t been flushed out. There’s there’s no there there, if you will. So the idea of the two working together quote on a car? No, no, no, no uptake there. But the possibility that Rivian might employ or work with Apple on making Apple software a technology. There’s Apple Car Play out there. Yeah, there’s car play for sure. Absolutely. Or other products in the future. Look AI opens up a number of opportunities not just for Rythian but other automakers as well. And you can bet that Apple, while it is not doing Project Titan, it is certainly still in communication with auto companies. I’m curious about Riven as well, as we’ve talked a lot about Tesla struggles lately where there’s just, it seems not enough demand to meet the supply of EVs that we thought there would be this this type of point. But Riven has also still survived the challenge of higher interest rates. And this initial period of a plethora of startups where how does it stand now, competitively speaking, it’s #2 in the US in terms of pure EV companies. The question becomes will they have to raise capital between now and when the next product, the R2 comes out, which they’re going to build in Illinois. And that’s not coming out until well into 26, probably start production late 25, early 26, Then you, you know, then you start looking at, OK, do you have the capital needed? They’ve already said they’re not going to build the plant in Georgia for now. Eventually they plan to. That’s where the R2 was going to be built. So it’s about cash preservation and getting through this period where demand is just not as strong as many people initially thought it would be. Alex, what do you think of the possibility of Apple working in the car business in some way if not to manufacture an automobile? Yeah, I think that their Project Titan, right, the self driving program that they had, if it was worth anything, it would have been sold already. I think it was worth so little that they just decided to shut it down and cut ties with it. Now I could see Rivian seeing the improvements that Tesla’s made in its full self driving and getting on the phone with Apple and being like, hey Apple, that self driving thing, is that working anymore? And Apple being like, well, let’s have a conversation about it. And that to me is as far as this probably got. Now, I do think that Apple and Rivian can combine into like pretty impressive partnership if Apple’s Car Play is more deeply integrated into Rivian cars. And by the way, you know, there’s been all this rumors about maybe Apple one day could have, you know, had a conversation with Elon Musk about acquiring Tesla and never did. Is Rivian a target for Apple in the future with all that cash it has and its need for growth? I think that’s something to keep thinking about.