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Rivian climbs as it breaks ground on a $5 billion EV plant that could produce 200,000 vehicles a year by 2028

EV tax credits may be ending this month, but Rivian’s still optimistic about future demand.

The electric vehicle maker on Tuesday broke ground on its delayed $5 billion Georgia plant that it says will be able to produce 200,000 vehicles per year by 2028. (For comparison, Rivian expects to deliver up to 46,000 EVs this year.) Its shares climbed more than 6% on the news.

The plant will create 7,500 permanent jobs once complete, according to Rivian, with the first phase of production beginning next year.

2026 also marks the planned launch year for Rivian’s R2 electric SUV, expected to start around $45,000 and compete with Tesla’s Model Y. Earlier this month, Lucid confirmed that it too would be creating a roughly $50,000 electric SUV.

If it seems like an odd time to build an EV plant, it probably is. But unlike larger rivals GM and Honda, Rivian doesn’t have the ability to scale back its EV ambitions — they’re the only vehicles the automaker produces. Last month, the company posted a steeper loss than analysts expected, losing $1.12 billion over its second quarter.

The plant will create 7,500 permanent jobs once complete, according to Rivian, with the first phase of production beginning next year.

2026 also marks the planned launch year for Rivian’s R2 electric SUV, expected to start around $45,000 and compete with Tesla’s Model Y. Earlier this month, Lucid confirmed that it too would be creating a roughly $50,000 electric SUV.

If it seems like an odd time to build an EV plant, it probably is. But unlike larger rivals GM and Honda, Rivian doesn’t have the ability to scale back its EV ambitions — they’re the only vehicles the automaker produces. Last month, the company posted a steeper loss than analysts expected, losing $1.12 billion over its second quarter.

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Gold and silver plunge, suffering their worst losses since the 1980s

Gold and silver suffered their worst losses in decades on Friday, with the iShares Silver Trust falling more than 30% at one point during afternoon trading before recovering slightly.

After recently crossing $5,000 per ounce for the first time, golds dip was relatively muted compared to silvers rout, but nevertheless eye-watering for a traditional safe haven asset. At one point, golds intraday dip exceeded 10%, its worst intraday drop since the 1980s and surpassing its declines seen during the 2008 financial crisis, per Bloomberg.

Silvers drop was its worst in percentage terms since 1980.

Gold, and particularly silver, have been pushed higher recently by a storm of retail trader enthusiasm for the metals, as well as more traditional drivers of precious metals such as geopolitical risks and concerns over a fall in the dollars value due to trade wars and possibly waning central bank independence.

Leveraged ETFs that hold gold and silver futures have become increasingly popular trading vehicles amid the parabolic moves in precious metals prices, and likely contributed to the magnitude of the unwind today.

Case in point: look at silver futures for delivery in March. That’s the dominant contract held by the ProShares Ultra Silver ETF, which offers exposure to 2x the daily move in the shiny metal. Volumes exploded (and the contract rebounded modestly) right around 1:25 p.m. ET, which is when silver futures settled and around the time the ETF performed its daily rebalancing (which in this case, involved massive selling).

Gaming stocks plunge following release of Google’s AI tool that can create playable, copyrighted worlds

Shares of major gaming companies are plunging on Friday as investors get a deeper look at the capabilities of Google’s new generative-AI prototype, Project Genie.

The tool allows users to “create and explore infinitely diverse worlds” with a text or image prompt. Users have already exposed its ability to realistically recreate knockoffs of copyrighted games from Nintendo and other gaming companies.

As users experiment with recreations of game worlds like Take-Two’s “Grand Theft Auto 6,” shares of major gaming companies are sinking. Unity Software, the maker of the popular Unity game engine, is down over 25%, while gaming platform Roblox is down about 9%.

Collision 2019 - Day One

D-Wave Quantum CEO on what’s next after the most eventful month in the company’s history

“If 2025 was the international year of quantum, 2026 is the international year of D-Wave Quantum,” said CEO Dr. Alan Baratz.

Luke Kawa1/30/26
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SoFi bests Wall Street’s Q4 expectations, shares rise

SoFi Technologies reported better-than-expected Q4 sales and earnings-per-share numbers Friday before market open, sending the shares higher in the premarket. 

The online lender reported: 

  • Adjusted Q4 earnings per share of $0.13 vs. the $0.12 consensus estimate collected by FactSet.

  • Adjusted revenue of $1.01 billion in Q4 vs. the Wall Street forecast for $977.4 million.

  • Q1 2026 adjusted net revenue guidance of approximately $1.04 billion vs. the $1.04 billion consensus expectation, according to FactSet.

SoFi shares rallied roughly 70% last year, as the company’s growing menu of financial products — including trading, wealth management, mortgages, credit cards, and cryptocurrency trading — showed signs of gaining traction beyond its traditional base of student borrowers. But the stock has stumbled in early 2026, falling nearly 7% in January through Thursday’s close, though most of that slump seems to have been reversed this morning.

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