A $6.6 Billion Lame-Duck Loan From Biden to Bezos and the Saudis
Rivian, a competitor to Musk’s Tesla, would benefit
The electric car and truck company Rivian (RIVN) announced this week that it had received “conditional commitment” from the U.S. Department of Energy for a $6.6 billion loan to build a factory in Georgia. You can read the Rivian press release and the Department of Energy press release. Neither one will tell you what the company’s most recent proxy statement says, which is that Rivian’s two biggest owners are Amazon (“Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC,” to be precise) and “Global Oryx Company Limited,” which is the Jameel family of Saudi Arabia.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world. The Jameel family is also prosperous. So if they want to build a factory in Georgia, why don’t they do it with their own money, rather than by borrowing from the U.S. taxpayers?
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