Billionaire investor George Soros bought nearly 20 million shares of electric truck startup Rivian Automotive in the quarter ended December 31, 2021, securities filings showed Friday.
The 19,835,761 shares, worth about US$2 billion at the time, makes Soros Fund Management among the most prominent investors in the company. Rivian, which is 20-per-cent owned by Amazon.com, is expected to provide the e-commerce company with more than 100,000 electric trucks.
Seven state government employee pension funds including CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension plan, also took stakes in Rivian according to the same filings.
The Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), and the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System were among the seven, as well as pension funds for Utah, Colorado, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, according to data from fund tracker WhaleWisdom.
CalPERS, which has approximately US$492 billion under management, bought slightly more than 305,000 shares in the company, while the US$191-billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas fund took a position of about 33,000 shares in the company.
Irvine, California-based Rivian said in December it expected production to fall “a few hundred vehicles short” of its 2021 target of 1,200 due to supply chain constraints, highlighting the likely challenges in ramping up production to take on EV leader Tesla.
Keyword: Billionaire George Soros, pension fund groups buy stake in Rivian