Recent Rivian hires come from Tesla, McLaren, Ford — but especially Faraday Future

Rivian has grown to employ 750 people, with a new report detailing the startup’s recent hires from Tesla, Ford, and McLaren — but most notably, an influx of new employees from fading EV startup Faraday Future.

“Hundreds” of LinkedIn profiles seen by The Verge show Rivian has gained at least a dozen employees from all of those companies.

But about 50 employees have made their way to Rivian from Faraday Future alone, with the report noting “at least 34” of those came since Faraday announced furloughs late last year. Most of those hires have come with battery and electric drivetrain experience.

Faraday Future has run into a number of other issues since then. In April, the company announced that it received a $225 million bridge loan, but recent reports note that dozens of those furloughed employees were laid off in June.

Rivian has also hired at least 20 employees from Ford — perhaps not so surprising, given Ford’s $500 million investment and partnership with the startup.

Additionally, 12 employees have come to Rivian from Tesla since last summer, and the startup has also added 24 former McLaren employees during the past year, The Verge said.

RJ’s Rivian

Rivian founder RJ Scaringe was also recently the focus of a profile in the New York Times.

Much of the article is dedicated to Scaringe, his work habits and how Rivian came to be, including an anecdote about how many Rivian employees will dress up like the founder (in flannel) on his birthday.

But the article also corroborates earlier reports that Rivian didn’t get involved with GM because the established automaker was “demanding more control and exclusivity than he was comfortable with.” Rivian did, of course, get a $700 million investment from Amazon in addition to its Ford funding.