Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) ownership looks different going forward as the company's founder RJ Scaringe had to transfer part of his stake in the electric vehicle company as part of a divorce settlement.
What Happened: Ahead of the highly anticipated launch of the R2 vehicle for Rivian, the company's CEO has transferred around four million shares and six million options in the company's stock to his ex-wife Meagan Scaringe.
The transfer was reported in a regulatory filing, as shared by TechCrunch. Based on current values, the stock and options sent to his ex-wife are worth around $130 million.
Scaringe owned over 15 million shares of Rivian Class A stock back in April, alongside around 8 million Class B voting shares.
With the transfer of stock and options, Scaringe now owns around 2% of the electric vehicle company and has around 4% of voting power in the company. This marks the lowest voting power Scaringe has had in the company since it went public in 2021.
Scaringe's voting power was 7.6% earlier this year and was over 9% back in 2022.
"RJ and Meagan finalized their divorce. They will continue to prioritize co-parenting their children," a Rivian spokesperson told TechCrunch.
As Scaringe's ownership stake falls, Volkswagen is now one of the largest shareholders in the company, thanks to a joint venture. Volkswagen owns 12.3% of Rivian, according to the report. Early investor and partner Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) owns 14.2% of the company and has the most significant voting power at 13.3%.
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), which was previously a large shareholder in Rivian, has mostly sold its stake in the company.
While Scaringe's voting power in the company has decreased, the fact that he owned 9.2% in 2022, after the company's IPO, is significantly smaller than the voting power many CEOs who are founders in their companies have.
Scaringe's stake in the company could rise in the future if he exercises options and restricted stock units.
The Scaringes were married in 2014, five years after Scaringe founded Rivian.
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Why It's Important: The divorces of company CEOs and co-founders typically have no material impact on the business, but can affect the ownership structure and control going forward.
Scaringe's lower ownership stake and voting power could, of course, become a factor down the road if any company approached Rivian as an acquisition target.
Until then, Scaringe’s ownership will decrease as a result of a divorce, similar to what has happened to other company founders, such as Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Bill Gates (Microsoft).
In 2019, Bezos and MacKenzie Scott were divorced. The break-up saw Scott receive 400 million shares in Amazon, lowering the stake of the company's founder. Scott has sold portions of her Amazon stake over the years to help fund philanthropic efforts.
Bezos, who serves as Executive Chairman of Amazon, has also been selling portions of his Amazon stock in recent months.
Another highly publicized divorce, given the wealth of the parties involved, was the 2021 divorce of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. The divorce resulted in Melinda receiving a portion of the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock owned by her husband.
A portion of Gates' ownership in Microsoft was also transferred to the Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organization co-founded by the former partners.
Melinda also received portions of stock owned by Cascade Investments, the investment portfolio owned by Gates. This included stock in companies like AutoNation, Canadian National Railway, Grupo Televisa and Coca-Cola Femsa.
RIVN Price Action: Rivian stock is down 0.5% to $12.69 on Tuesday versus a 52-week trading range of $9.50 to $18.49. Rivian stock is down 4.2% year-to-date in 2025.
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