Rivian expands VW joint venture to include AI assistant

Rivian is licensing parts of its AI voice assistant technology to Volkswagen Group, expanding the companies’ joint venture, according to Rivian’s third-quarter investor presentation released Thursday. The presentation did not say whether the venture’s value would change.

The joint venture was established in 2024 to bring Rivian’s electrical architecture and software to Volkswagen’s next-generation vehicles. The companies initially announced a deal valued at up to $5 billion. VW later increased its commitment to invest up to $5.8 billion in Rivian by 2027. Rivian did not disclose the assistant’s licensing fees, payment terms, or which Volkswagen vehicles might use it.

The assistant could appear in Volkswagen’s low-cost EV, the ID EVERY1, though that possibility has not been confirmed. The four-door hatchback is expected to be the first Volkswagen vehicle to use Rivian’s software and electrical architecture under the venture.

Rivian spent two years developing the assistant, which began rolling out in September 2026 to its R1S, R1T, and R2 vehicles. It lets drivers and passengers interact with the vehicle and control some functions. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told TechCrunch at Disrupt 2026 that the company built an in-house agentic framework to interpret requests and route them to the relevant vehicle software. He said it could eventually support AI agents from other companies, including Anthropic.

Rivian called the expansion “a proof point for the extensibility of the platform we’ve built in-house.”