Rivian Hasn't Made a Profit-but Paid Its CEO $403 Million
Auto industry CEOs are traditionally among the best paid business executives in the world, but there are significant differences between the pay packages US automakers provide to their bosses.
Last year, America's biggest automakers paid their CEOs in the tens of millions of dollars each, with General Motors' Mary Barra earning $29.9 million and Ford's Jim Farley bringing home $27.5 million. As for Stellantis, its new CEO Antonio Filosa received a total compensation package of €5.4 million (approximately $6.3 million), although it's worth noting that the pay covered only half a year of work as he started in June.
But compared to the CEO of Rivian, Detroit Three CEOs made peanuts last year. RJ Scaringe, who founded the EV startup in 2009, earned a total of $403 million for his work at the electric-truck maker in 2025. That's about 13 times more than the next best-paid automotive CEO in the US, Mary Barra.
RJ Scaringe Got an Elon Musk-Style Pay Deal
According to an April 27 SEC filing cited by the Financial Times, Scaringe received $373 million in stock options and $26.6 million in stock awards as part of a deal agreed by Rivian's board last year. Those sums were in addition to his yearly salary of $1.1 million and $1 million bonus.
Scaringe's 2025 pay package saw a massive increase over the two previous years, when he made $14.9 million (2024) and $14.3 million (2023). In 2026, his base salary is set to double to $2 million and his maximum bonus will reach $1.7 million, according to the filing.
But why is RJ Scaringe making so much more money than the CEOs of much bigger automakers that have been around for more than 100 years? It all comes down to the company hitting stock price and financial targets, as those bonuses were tied to company achievements.
Interestingly, RJ Scaringe could end up making much more in the coming years after Rivian's board in November 2025 approved a package that could be worth as much as $4.6 billion over the next decade if the chief executive hits a series of ambitious stock price and financial goals.
As FT points out, this system reminds of that used by Tesla, which has given its CEO Elon Musk a potential $1 trillion pay deal last year tied to seemingly unrealistic goals such as increasing the group's valuation six times and boosting earnings 24-fold.
Midsize R2 Electric SUV Is Expected to Take Rivian to the Next Level
As for Scaringe's pay package, Rivian's directors justified it by saying it was "entirely at-risk" and the shares would only be awarded after significant price and financial improvements would be achieved; those indicators include operating income and cash flow. To get the pay package, Rivian's valuation would have to grow by $153 billion compared to its current market cap, the directors said.
Rivian's current valuation is $21 billion, down 86 percent since the company's initial public offering in 2021. The EV maker has been losing money for its entire existence, ending 2025 with a net loss of 3.6 billion despite selling 42,000 R1T pickups and R1S SUVs last year.
Rivian is hoping that the upcoming launch of its new mass-market R2 midsize SUV, which entered production last week at the company's plant in Normal, Illinois, will help it reverse years of multibillion-dollar losses.
The company also expects to make money by selling its software and autonomous systems to other companies, following a $5.8 billion software and electrics deal with Volkswagen last year. Additionally, the EV maker relies on a $1.25 billion investment from Uber, which agreed to buy up to 50,000 R2 EVs by 2030. As part of the deal, Rivian has to turn the vehicles into autonomous, unsupervised robotaxis.
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This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 9:15 AM.