Rivian Automotive, Inc. (RIVN) Cash Flow Statement

The conversion ratio has fluctuated widely, moving from 1.59 in 2024Q4 to -0.02 in 2025Q3 and back to 0.83 in 2026Q3, which suggests the relationship between earnings and cash is driven more by working capital swings than by a stable earnings-quality profile. Because stock-based compensation of $201.0M is a non-cash add-back, most of the operating cash deficit appears to reflect real spending on operations rather than accounting noise. Investors should monitor whether this near-parity of cash and accounting losses persists as production scales.

Across the ten-quarter window, free cash flow was positive only in 2024Q4 at $856.0M, a period that appears driven by a $1.5B working capital inflow rather than sustainable operations. Excluding that single quarter, the business has consumed cash in every other period, with quarterly burn ranging from roughly $400M to $1.2B. This pattern suggests that self-funding remains distant and that the company depends on external capital to sustain its operating and investment plans.

CapEx has stayed in a range of roughly $277M to $463M per quarter, with the ratio to revenue peaking at 36.0% in 2025Q4 before declining to 17.0% in the latest quarter, which may reflect either tapering of build-out spending or a rise in revenue. Depreciation and amortization of $251.0M in 2026Q3 runs below CapEx, suggesting the company is still investing ahead of asset consumption rather than merely replacing existing capacity. Investors should consider whether continued investment above depreciation reflects growth capacity that warrants further investigation.

The magnitude of working capital movements, including a $877.0M inflow in 2025Q3 and $774.0M in 2025Q2, appears large relative to the underlying operating cash profile, suggesting that reported operating cash flow in individual quarters may not reflect a stable run rate. Such large reversals may point to inventory or payables timing rather than structural improvement in collections efficiency. Because these movements can reverse sharply, reported quarterly cash figures warrant caution in extrapolation.

Summing reported net income across the window yields a large cumulative loss, and operating cash flow over the same period is also substantially negative, suggesting that accounting losses have translated into real cash consumption rather than being inflated by non-cash items. The single positive operating cash quarter in 2024Q4 does not offset the broader pattern of losses. This alignment of cash and accounting results implies that improvement depends on operating economics changing, not on accounting adjustments.