Rivian will resume prep-work on its deliberate Georgia manufacturing unit in August and continues to be seeking to break floor early subsequent yr, in response to emails TechCrunch obtained by way of a public data request.
The restarted effort comes months after the Biden administration’s Division of Vitality authorised a $6.6 billion meant to fund building.
Rivian has invested greater than $80 million within the undertaking as of June 20, 2025, up from $41 million in July 2024, in response to a progress report submitted to the native joint improvement authority included within the emails. The undertaking has created 46 full-time jobs up to now. Rivian will start putting in “deep utilities” in August, with “vertical building” set to start within the first quarter of 2026, in response to the emails.
The corporate can be reaching out to present suppliers to see which of them may need to co-locate close to the Georgia manufacturing unit, the emails present. Rivian additionally requested the state’s financial improvement division for a listing of suppliers already within the area that could possibly assist construct the R2 SUV and R3 hatchback on the manufacturing unit when it opens in 2028.
Amid this push to restart the undertaking, Rivian’s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe met with the state’s governor Brian Kemp on the finish of Might. The corporate’s company affairs director instructed the Governor’s workplace in an electronic mail that the assembly was a “prime precedence” for the corporate.
Peebles Squire, a spokesperson for Rivian, stated the assembly between Scaringe and the Governor was a “common check-in.”
“We mentioned our ongoing work in Georgia and gave common undertaking updates in addition to mentioned methods through which we are able to proceed to have a robust partnership with the state,” he wrote in an electronic mail to TechCrunch. The Governor’s press secretary didn’t reply to requests for remark.
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Rivian first introduced the Georgia manufacturing unit shortly after its IPO in late 2021. The corporate initially deliberate to begin building in 2022 and have automobile manufacturing up and operating by 2024. It promised to speculate $5 billion within the facility and, in Might 2022, Rivian lined up $1.5 billion in state incentives to assist make that occur.
The manufacturing unit shortly confronted native opposition. And the undertaking took a again seat as Rivian labored round provide chain shortages throughout the ramp-up of its R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV at its unique manufacturing unit in Regular, Illinois.
Rivian in the end pushed again the timeline for the Georgia undertaking in favor of increasing the Regular manufacturing unit, for which it nabbed $827 million in incentives from Illinois. The corporate introduced this delay in 2024 when it confirmed off the R2 SUV and R3 hatchback for the primary time.
In late 2024, Rivian introduced it had secured the $6.6 billion mortgage from the Division of Vitality’s Mortgage Applications Workplace. Particularly the mortgage could be coming from the Superior Know-how Automobile Manufacturing program, which is similar effort that helped Tesla navigate the Nice Recession greater than a decade in the past.
That mortgage settlement was finalized just some days earlier than Donald Trump was sworn in for his second time period, and by that time the deal had already turn out to be a goal of among the individuals within the new president’s orbit. Vivek Ramaswamy, who at one level was speculated to co-lead Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity, stated he needed to look into clawing again the mortgage.
After Trump took workplace, his administration froze every kind of spending. A few of these freezes had been reversed by decrease district courts, whereas others have remained in place because the Supreme Court docket has largely allowed the president to function extra freely.
In February, because the administration was shotgun-blasting these spending freezes throughout the federal government, Governor Kemp instructed a neighborhood information station he wasn’t certain of the standing of the mortgage.
(Squire, within the electronic mail, stated Rivian continues to work “with DOE and the administration to convey hundreds of high quality, good paying jobs again to the US. Electrical autos are a world strategic trade, and the U.S. ought to keep its management function in new applied sciences.”)
Just some weeks later in March, the emails present, Rivian started coordinating with the Governor’s workers for a face-to-face between Kemp and Scaringe. Initially slated to happen on April 9, the assembly needed to be rescheduled as a result of the Rivian CEO had a “private battle come up.”
Andrew Capezzuto, the company affairs director for Rivian, stated the assembly was “a prime precedence” in an apologetic electronic mail in regards to the rescheduling.
As Capezzuto hashed out a brand new time for Scaringe and Kemp to satisfy, he was additionally in common contact with Georgia’s financial improvement division (GCED), the emails present.
“[W]e are keen on selecting again up on provider conversations,” he instructed that staff on April 8.
“I imagine some time again GDEcD had ready an outline of present suppliers inside Georgia and the larger South East area. Would it not be doable to mud that checklist off in order that we are able to see what suppliers and components are already out there? We want to use that checklist to judge the present provider base and decide whether or not we are able to leverage any present suppliers. That may then additionally assist us decide which suppliers we’d like to contemplate find [sic] in Georgia to assist the SSN facility.”
In an electronic mail to TechCrunch, Squire stated “Georgia and the Southeast have a really robust automotive provider base. We need to leverage that base to optimize logistics prices and reinforce a robust provide chain. It’s good for jobs, regionally and nationally, and promotes American manufacturing and financial improvement.”
As Rivian ramps up that provider exercise, the corporate can be beginning to rent employees to assist the buildout of the manufacturing unit. It has posted seven open roles to LinkedIn throughout the final month, together with one for building supervisor.
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