California's $135M EV subsidy exempts California-based Rivian from the $50K price cap while Austin-based Tesla gets shut out entirely on premium tiers.
Rivian stock surged 25% in one week despite an 8.5% bankruptcy probability and 80% bearish Reddit sentiment heading into R2 external deliveries.
Act now: the ****** yst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Tesla didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) both closed the books on Q1 FY2026. Rivian posted $1.38B in revenue and a widening EBITDA loss, while Tesla delivered $22.39B revenue and $941M in GAAP operating income. California just handed Rivian a policy wedge Tesla cannot access, which reframes the comparison entirely.
Rivian's quarter was carried by its Software & Services segment, up 49% year over year to $473M on the Volkswagen JV, alongside 10,365 deliveries (+20% YoY). The automotive segment slipped into a $62M gross loss as regulatory credit sales fell $100M. CEO RJ Scaringe framed R2 as the pivot, calling out the $4.5 billion DOE loan for the Georgia plant.