Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe on steering through the mess

“The role of leadership is to make sure it’s really clear how we’re going to chart through the messiness,” said Scaringe in an interview last week with Fortune at SXSW, where Rivian was a headline sponsor. “So, whether it be tariffs, whether it be EV incentives, whether it be the globalization of electrification, we work really hard to drive back to our central vision around helping develop and build the world for our kids’ kids.” 

Rivian shares are down about 16% in 2025 to date among a broader EV selloff. Meanwhile, the company, based in Irvine, Calif., is set to launch its new compact SUV, called the R2, which is anticipated to make waves as an affordable EV option. (EV-focused Rivian is currently small compared to the largest U.S. automakers—the company’s 2024 annual revenue was $4.97 billion. Comparatively, Ford clocked $185 billion in 2024 revenue.) Scaringe founded Rivian more than a decade ago, and the company went public in 2021. 

“When you’re a private company, you talk to your investors very transparently,” said Scaringe. “Suddenly, when you’re public, you have to re-learn how to talk to investors in a way that’s still incredibly transparent and authentic… I say this all the time in our leadership meetings: What would we do if we were private? It’s important to know, because you don’t want to be optimized around retail investors who are probably thinking in weeks or months.”

Scaringe’s advice to other CEOs looking to communicate in the crosshairs? Stay authentic, don’t get distracted by short-term noise, and speak to all your stakeholders. 

“The business we have—we have 15,000-16,000 employees right now—is growing,” he said. “With that large employee base, we have people that are on the right, on the left, in the middle. So, we have to be able to speak to the entirety of that employee base, as well. It’s helpful to draw from things like: We need to make amazing products. We need to ramp production. We need to drive costs down to make [EVs] as affordable as possible. The whole team catalyzes around that.” — Allie Garfinkle.

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Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Trump will call Putin today. The president is hoping to persuade Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. There are few concrete details but Trump has already talked about “dividing up certain assets” such as territory or power plants—which will be music to Moscow’s ears. However, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said the talks weren’t that far along.

Wall Street expected too much. The U.S. head of investment strategy at JPMorgan Private Bank told Fortune that Wall Street investors who expected a second Trump presidency to be decidedly pro-business are to blame for the recent market downturn. “So far the first…50 days of Trump is almost the opposite of what the expectations were in November, December, January,” JPMorgan’s Jake Manoukian said.

Germany votes today on $1 trillion package. The Bundestag is expected to approve a historic and massive fiscal stimulus plan for infrastructure and defense spending worth up to $1 trillion. That’s proportionately more than was spent during the post-war Marshall Plan or the post-Cold War reunification of Germany. Details from Bloomberg’s John Authers. 

Israel bombed Gaza, killing hundreds. Hamas still hasn’t given back all the Israeli hostages it took on Oct. 7, 2023. Fewer than half of the remaining 59 are thought to still be alive.

DOGE to reduce Social Security phone service? A leaked email from Acting Deputy SSA Commissioner Doris Diaz is floating the idea that Americans should be restricted from using the phone to verify their identities to the retirement benefits administration.

Microsoft almost passed on Nadella. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates revealed in an interview that Satya Nadella, the current CEO of the tech giant, almost didn’t get the job despite support from Gates and Gates’ successor, Steve Ballmer. More than 10 years after Nadella took the role, however, Gates lauds his leadership.

BofA changes oversight of junior bankers. Bank of America is now having senior bankers oversee the work given to junior employees following a number of tragedies involving young people in investment banking. “We want all of our junior bankers to have the best experience possible, learning from the teammates they work with and further benefiting from the career growth and development this role brings,” according to a BofA statement.

Morgan Stanley’s DEI missteps. The WSJ has a details-heavy longread on the bank’s internal DEI program, which is being rolled back after things did not turn out as planned, to put it mildly. Among the flubs, the company set up a six-month program authored by McKinsey that included topics such as “common mindset challenges for Black leaders.”

The markets

• The S&P 500 went up 0.64% to 5,675.12 yesterday, posting a second day of gains. Don't get too excited: It’s still down -3.51% YTD. Major indexes in the U.K., Europe, Japan, and China were all trading in positive territory this morning. The VIX (volatility) declined another 6%, easing further back from its recent anxious highs. Not joining the party: Bitcoin flopped to $83K and is still down more than -11% for the year … U.S. futures contracts on the S&P were flat this morning.

From the analysts 

• Saxo on Nvidia: “Nvidia is hosting a special session with top executives from major quantum computing firms to discuss the path toward practical quantum applications. Investors will be watching for potential collaborations and Nvidia’s own progress in quantum acceleration,” per Charu Chanana.
• Apollo on WFH: “Household surveys, entry swipes, and location data show that work from home has become a new permanent feature of the labor market, with all indicators moving sideways since 2023,” per Tosten Sløk.
• Goldman on the Fed: “FOMC participants will have to rethink their projections now that the first tariffs have taken effect and the White House looks set to eventually impose larger tariffs than initially seemed likely. … the normalization cuts that FOMC participants penciled into the dot plot at the end of last year now look further off. But we suspect that the Fed leadership would nevertheless prefer for the median 2025 dot to continue to show two cuts this year to avoid adding to recent market turbulence,” per Jan Hatzius et al.
• EY on the economy: “Cracks are forming in the economy's foundation: Layoffs are creeping higher, hiring is slowing, consumer sentiment has deteriorated markedly, and inflation expectations are moving higher. As the negative impact from tariffs takes hold, slower income growth coupled with depressed consumer sentiment are likely to translate into slower consumption growth. While we don’t anticipate an outright pullback in consumer spending, recession risks are rising,” per Lydia Boussour.

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