- Rivian is offering CEO RJ Scaringe a new stock-based compensation package worth up to $5 billion
- That's contingent on the company’s stock hitting $140 per share, plus strong performance, including profitability by 2032.
- Scaringe’s base salary doubles to $2 million, and he also receives a 10% stake in Rivian’s new “Mind Robotics” subsidiary focused on physical AI.
Rivian is offering CEO RJ Scaringe a new compensation plan that could be worth billions of dollars if the company performs exceptionally well over the next several years. And if Rivian hits some tough performance goals over the next few years, like successful production and sales of its R2 mid-size SUV and the models that follow, and its stock price rises to $140 per share, Scaringe could be worth over $5 billion.
Under the new offer, Scaringe would be able to purchase up to 36.5 million Rivian shares at $15.22 per share, TechCrunch first reported, citing an SEC filing.
“The 2025 CEO award is designed to retain and incentivize Dr. Scaringe to execute on the Company’s critical next phase as it progresses its technology roadmap and launches R2, which the Committee believes is in the best interests of the company and its stockholders,” the company noted in the SEC filing.
If that happens, Rivian could see roughly $153 billion in added value compared to its current market cap of around $18 billion.
The SEC filing came just a day after Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly approved CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package, which gives him unprecedented control over the company but is also tied to ambitious goals such as selling 20 million passenger vehicles and deploying 10 million robotaxis over the next 10 years.
Rivian scrapped Scaringe’s 2021 performance award, which gave him the right to buy about 20 million shares if the company hit some ambitious targets. Those targets now seem unattainable, the company said in the SEC filing, and was now offering him the new package to keep him at the helm.
For Scaringe to reap the award, the company will also have to achieve positive operating income and positive cash flow by 2032. In other words, Rivian will have to be profitable. The company is currently losing thousands of dollars behind every model, although its losses have narrowed in recent quarters and Q3 was another quarter of gross profit.
Rivian also doubled his base salary from $1 million to $2 million and gave him a 10% stake in Mind Robotics, its new subsidiary focused on “physical AI.” For Tesla, physical AI means humanoid robots and robotaxis. But for Rivian, what physical AI will manifest into is unclear at the moment. Although the company said it would focus on “industrial applications.”
That said, the company is on track to launch the R2 in the first half of next year. Scaringe told InsideEVs in a Plugged-In Podcast episode that the R2 launch “must go well,” suggesting that the Tesla Model Y rival would mark a make-or-break moment for the company.
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