Rivian, the heavily venture-backed startup that's manufacturing electric trucks in downstate Normal, IL, is being sued by rival Tesla for allegedly stealing trade secrets and poaching employees.
Tesla said in a filing this week that Rivian is "knowingly encouraging the misappropriation of Tesla’s trade secret, confidential, and proprietary information by Tesla employees that Rivian hires.”
The lawsuit was first reported by Bloomberg.
Tesla said Rivian employs 178 former Tesla workers out of its roughly 2,300-person workforce. Tesla wrote in the filing that it has "discovered disturbing pattern of employees who are departing for Rivian surreptitiously stealing Tesla trade secret, confidential, and proprietary information — information that is especially useful for startup electric vehicle company."
A Rivian spokesperson told CNBC that the lawsuit is "baseless."
Rivian, based in Michigan, is manufacturing its vehicles at a former Mitsubishi plant in downstate Normal. It's expected to deliver its first trucks to customers in 2021.
Earlier this month Rivian raised $2.5 billion in new funding, which is on top of the more than $2.3 billion it raised in multiple funding rounds throughout 2019. Its investors include Amazon, Ford, Cox Automotive and T. Rowe Price. Rivian is also making 100,000 electric delivery vans for Amazon.
Tesla's first foray into electric trucks came with its Cybertruck, a vehicle that's expected to be available in 2021. Just yesterday, Tesla announced it selected Austin as the home to its new "gigafactory," which will manufacture the new Cybertruck, along with its Semi and Model Y vehicles.
