Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Yeah. It really does mark, I mean, at the time of the IPO and leading up to it, you have the R1 made of obviously a crazy reengineering of the vehicle pretty soon after the launch, right? You learned a lot. You learn a lot about suppliers, architecture, technologies, levels of vertical integration and everything else. So yeah, this is -- I share your view that this is your almost your first, right? Now we've -- all the lessons we've learned, and then importantly, the post-Gen AI moment and on the autonomy part which is really -- now we've got the shot. This is the socket for the physical AI.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : You're a robotics company, right? They're just car-shaped robots, adventure robots.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : I just want to ask, since we began on this topic, because I recently spent -- I did about 1,400 miles with FSD in a Model Y. And I estimate that the FSD probably drove 90 -- well over 99% of the miles. It was like a giant downpour where I had to kind of basically like watch the road. Otherwise, I took my shoes off and just hit drove, right? And you've experienced these kinds of things in your technology and competitor technology. So a lot of would-be buyers for R2, for example, maybe coming from Tesla, for a variety of reasons or coming from a competing technology, where they're used to this really good ADAS. You have ADAS. You have advanced ADAS. But what is that path to at kind of more end-to-end, turn by turn that would be something no compromise differential from a Tesla? Like when could you see the vehicles getting there?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : I agree. Just from experience -- people who have an experience that kind of technology --

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Yeah. And then when you see as the robotaxis just kind of propagate and you show the general public want this technology completely and they want to have some of that as an ownership.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : All right. Let's take it back to the core business and the path to profitability, a lot of moving pieces over the past 12 months between the tariffs and the regulatory credits running off, which not only affect the purchase price decision at the end of this month, and we'll talk about that and maybe some things that you might be able to do to give a little more -- get some more things out to the door. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 11:50PM, RIVN.OQ - Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference And then also, just the regulatory credits around selling GHG credits and ZEV credit is also changing. So kind of how are you navigating that so far? And what are the ways that you can kind of offset that to maintain margins -- maintain the very significant improvement in margins that you've had over the last couple of years?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : So yeah, you can compete more on your strengths now on design, engineering, and technology. So kind of expressing that with the R2, kind of going back to that. How much of the design and the hardware and software, let's say, build materials and work is done already? How much of it's cooked or how much is still potentially in play? And remind us kind of your milestones for start of production you think about or anything about (inaudible). REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 11:50PM, RIVN.OQ - Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : A year ago, there was some --

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : So what about milestones then in terms of the production ramp in normal and then also what you're thinking about R2 GA and the Georgia plant?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : By the end of this year.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. If we were in Georgia right now during the land, the projects, what will we see?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : In terms of manufacturing optimization.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. So from that groundbreaking to production, we're talking about two years.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. In terms of business model, a lot of investors, particularly after leading up to the Volkswagen investment in cooperation and after seeing a good opportunity for Rivian to get into different businesses, maybe potentially some more capital-light businesses or licensing model, seeing you potentially like a stood up kind of Tier 1 advanced robotics and AI-embodied enabler or a technology supplier and partner, how is that kind of -- is it something you've acknowledged before in calls? How has that evolved? And I asked that question now because your biggest, let's say, your biggest peer, Tesla, Elon's making some pretty deliberate and decisive actions to diversify away from the steering wheel having car business. So when I see a lot of car companies, including you, but also a lot of your other pure REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 11:50PM, RIVN.OQ - Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference plays and legacy peers, they say, we're going to make the CV if you're going to make the CV, like why are you doubling down a business? Or what is it that you -- why do you think you could be profitable in this business when Tesla even at 1.8 million units is not and the Chinese haven't even come here yet?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : You pick The Double Black Diamond with Wolfsburg.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : It's their answer to China.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : It's been over a year. It's been like 15 months or so, I think, since you announced the deal. It was like a spring or early summer 2024. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 11:50PM, RIVN.OQ - Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : How is it going so far? I mean, it sounds like based on what you said, you're getting product into vehicles.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : You're still a car enthusiast.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : And the partnership does not yet include ADAS at this point, but it could. And then, of course, you -- so you could deepen and expand the scope within a big complex partner. You could also diversify amongst partners as well. But when I think about the autonomy, which I wish we touched on earlier, just to go back to that, I remember, it was also around, a little over a year ago, you mentioned when we were talking about ADAS and you were getting the Mobileye camera off the wind screen. You said an OEM REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 11:50PM, RIVN.OQ - Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference either needs to kind of outsource everything to a partner or do everything or almost everything in-house. It's a hybrid model of doing some things and outsourcing where things kind of go wrong. Just for this audience to kind of understand like everything that you continue to learn, especially as the technology gets on the AI flywheel, why is that? Why have you taken the approach to go internal? Do you have any -- are you -- tell us why that was the right decision, and where do you go from here.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : And that is by drawing a circle around the object.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Do we know where this is going to be? Is it -- the Autonomy Day.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : We've got five minutes left. Any questions from the audience for RJ? Just speak up, project. Unidentified Participant Unknown AnalystAnalyst Given what's going on with your largest competitor and maybe turning off the customer base, which is alliances and politics, how does this open the opportunity for R2 to really maybe have -- help quantify just a bigger market opportunity? I don't know if you've quantified this at all internally. But how do you think about that?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Are you getting into politics any time soon?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. All right. I just want to make sure.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : All right. Quick one here? Yeah, okay. Unidentified Participant You mentioned earlier that heavy rare earths are kind of a pinch point. Do you see OEMs like yourself investing up the supply chain directly into mines, like similar to what GM did with MP Materials maybe couple of years ago now? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 11:50PM, RIVN.OQ - Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Question here? Unidentified Participant Thanks, RJ. When it comes to the upcoming expiry of the credit, I guess there's this dynamic of some demand pull forward this quarter and maybe it's probably going to pull some from this year or next year, I guess, presents some challenge with your sales and delivery team and fulfilling those orders. Could you maybe talk to how the team is handling that?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. We were at, sorry -- got one. Go for it. Unidentified Participant Very quick. You're going smaller in size of a lot of vehicles, but I'm somebody that has a large family and true seven-passenger Yukon kind of sized vehicle. Is that something that's conducive to an electric vehicle? Because I don't see too many of those today. I know GM and Ford, I mean, are trying, but it seems like that's something that you do very well in. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 11:50PM, RIVN.OQ - Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : RJ, we're on time. Just a quick one as we head out. Let's do buy, sell, hold a rapid fire. I'm going to say a word or two, and you tell me buy, sell, hold, okay?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : That's good. That's why I'm doing it, okay? I hope you come back again some time. All right. LiDAR.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Buy, sell or hold?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. Simulation?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. Rare earth magnets? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 / 11:50PM, RIVN.OQ - Rivian Automotive Inc at Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. Humanoids?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Micromobility?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. Selling cars into Europe from the US?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Robotaxis?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Do you experience them on the regular -- do you use?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Coldest place you've ever driven a Rivian?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. All right, two more. Favorite vegan dish.

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. And how does a vegan get by in Wolfsburg, Germany?

Question: Adam Jonas - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. Thanks, RJ. That was awesome.