Apple CEO Tim Cook is attending the Sun Valley Conference this week in Idaho, often referred to as a “summer camp for billionaires.” While we rarely learn much about what goes on at Sun Valley each year, a fun Friday story this year is that Tim Cook has been spending some time checking out the Rivian electric truck and SUV.
As first noted by Bloomberg, Rivian founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe is also in attendance at Sun Valley this year, and he brought along two Rivian EVs with him: the R1T electric pickup truck and the R1S electric SUV.
Scaringe brought two EVs with him: the R1T and Rivian’s sport utility vehicle, the R1S. Dozens of attendees were seen inspecting the two cars, which were parked for much of the last three days on the lodge’s front drive. Scaringe was seen showing Home Depot Inc. co-founder Ken Langone around one of the vehicles.
Bloomberg goes on to note that Tim Cook and few other Sun Valley attendees took the Rivian R1T out for a ride to downtown. The report says that Cook “borrowed the metallic green R1T” and took it “downtown for dinner” in Sun Valley, Idaho.
There’s not a whole lot to the Bloomberg story other than that tidbit, but it’s neat to see Cook checking out one of the more promising EV startups out there. Apple, of course, is rumored to be working on its own electric car with self-driving capabilities. Elon Musk also insists he tried to sell Tesla to Apple, though Cook says he’s never spoken to the Tesla CEO.
Sun Valley has given birth to a number of notable deals over the years, including the Jeff Bezos purchase of The Washington Post and the merger between Warner Media and Discovery. The historic Disney acquisition of ABC/Capital Cities also began at Sun Valley.
There’s no indication that Cook’s time with the Rivian R1T at Sun Valley was anything other than curiosity, but we have to ask: would you like to see Apple explore an acquisition of an EV startup like Rivian? Let us know down in the comments.
