Following the announcement that T. Rowe Price led the US$1.3bn funding in Rivian Automotive;

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on the global investment management firm’s interest in electric vehicle and autonomous driving space:

“T. Rowe Price is once again in the news for its investments in the electric vehicle (EV) space. This time, the company has provided US$1.3bn in funding to Rivian Automotive, which now joins a list of companies in the electric vehicle and autonomous driving space that have been supported by T. Rowe Price alongside Tesla, Aurora and General Motor’s self-driving division Cruise.

“GlobalData estimates that the number of EVs on the roads will reach 300 million globally by 2030 while several companies have also been working on innovation around autonomous driving.

“EV or autonomous driving remains a prolific area of innovation for start-ups, and with outlook remaining optimistic, investors such as T. Rowe Price are increasingly placing bets on such companies.

“T. Rowe Price started investing in Tesla in 2015 and was once one of the largest investors in the company. However, with Tesla plagued by several problems affecting its production capacity and deliveries, T. Rowe Price started divesting its stake in the company in 2018. T. Rowe Price’s latest billion-dollar investment in Rivian Automotive testifies that its interest in the space still remains strong.”