Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black on Friday opined that tech giant Apple Inc AAPL must try to buy California-based EV startup Rivian Automotive Inc RIVN given that Chinese smartphone makers are overtaking it in producing cars.
What Happened: “AAPL should try to buy $RIVN with an enterprise value of $17.5B,” Black opined in a post on X. However, Rivian might not sell, particularly given that online shopping giant Amazon.com Inc AMZN still owns a 17% stake in the EV maker, he added.
The comment comes on the heels of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi’s introduction of their first EV, namely the SU7 sedan. Earlier this week, Huawei also displayed models of its Aito M9 SUV, which was developed in collaboration with carmaker Seres.
Rumors of Apple manufacturing a car date as far back as the mid-2010s. However, the company has yet to publicly reveal these plans.
Why It Matters: As of the end of the third quarter, Rivian had delivered 15,564 vehicles, coming remarkably close to Tesla’s 15,985 Model S and X vehicle deliveries worldwide—a difference of just 421 units. For the whole year, it expects to produce 54,000 vehicles.
Rivian reported third-quarter revenue of $1.337 billion and a quarterly loss of $1.19 per share, surpassing analyst estimates of $1.32 per share. The company has a market cap of $22.47 billion.
Black, for one, is optimistic about Rivian and expects it to be gross margin positive by the last quarter of 2024 and EBITDA positive by 2026.
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