Rivian Electric Vehicles Attract Eyes in Sun Valley
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Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook was spotted in downtown Sun Valley July 7 taking a ride in a Rivian Automotive Inc. battery-electric pickup.
The chief executive officer borrowed the metallic green R1T while attending Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, according to people familiar with the matter. Cook and others took the vehicle from the Sun Valley Resort, where the conference is held, downtown for dinner, the people said, asking not to be identified.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Rivian’s founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe is also in attendance at the so-called summer camp for billionaires for the first time and has been one of the stars of the conference.
Scaringe brought two EVs with him: the R1T and Rivian’s sport utility vehicle, the R1S. Dozens of attendees were seen inspecting the two cars, which were parked for much of the last three days on the lodge’s front drive. Scaringe was seen showing Home Depot Inc. co-founder Ken Langone around one of the vehicles.
Irvine, Calif.-based Rivian is one of the biggest EV challengers to Tesla Inc. In November, Rivian pulled off the sixth-biggest U.S. initial public offering ever. The fledgling EV maker is backed by Amazon.com Inc. and Jeff Bezos, who are among its biggest investors. Rivian builds battery-electric delivery vans for Amazon and has a contract to build 100,000 of them by the end of the decade.
Apple is also working on its own battery-electric, self-driving car, Bloomberg News has reported.
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