Shipping a product people love and running a company that makes money are two different jobs.
The other earns a line on the balance sheet, and the two rarely arrive in the same week. Rivian spent years selling the idea that it could become the next great American carmaker. Its trucks won awards.
Its brand built a following most legacy automakers would envy. Amazon (AMZN) placed a large delivery van order and an early equity bet. For a company that has never posted an annual profit, the entire story rested on one promise, that a cheaper, higher volume vehicle would finally turn all that attention into earnings.