Rivian Initiates Layoffs, Less Than A Year After Its Blockbuster IPO

Electric vehicle maker Rivian is laying off 6% of its employees, The Wall Street Journal reported this week.

The layoffs amount to around 840 employees, and come less than a year after Rivian went public in the largest IPO of 2021. 

“Over the last six months, the world has dramatically changed with inflation reaching record highs, interest rates rapidly rising and commodity prices continuing to climb—all of which have contributed to the global capital markets tightening,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in an email to employees, according to the WSJ.

Rivian went public in November 2021, raising $11.9 billion through its IPO, Crunchbase data shows. The Plymouth, Michigan-based company was valued at $66.5 billion at the time of its IPO.

The company’s stock price is down around 68% since the beginning of the year, and had a market cap of about $29.6 billion on Thursday. The company warned employees earlier this month that layoffs were coming. 

Growth stocks have been hit hard by the turmoil in the public markets. More than 32,000 employees of U.S.-based tech companies have been laid off so far this year, according to a Crunchbase News tally. The tech industry and tech-adjacent companies like those in the electric vehicle and biotech spaces seem to be bearing the brunt of the layoffs.

Rivian has faced some production challenges since it’s been public as well. In March, the company cut its production forecast in half to 25,000 vehicles, pointing to a parts shortage, according to the WSJ.

Rivian is not the only electric vehicle company to conduct layoffs. Tesla also laid off some employees and closed an office in California after CEO Elon Musk said he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy. 

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Learn More