{"id":"1792725294550-tech-segment","slug":"trump-bought-spacex-bonds","title":"Trump Bought SpaceX Bonds","summary":"Rivian cut about 200 jobs, or roughly 1.5% of its workforce, in a September 2025 restructuring tied partly to the expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Rivian has since made additional, larger layoffs of more than 600 employees in October 2025.","publishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:14:54.550Z","channel":{"id":"tech","name":"Oncast Tech","language":"en"},"show":"Tech Tonight","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"TRUE","notes":"TRUE: Rivian cut about 200 jobs, or roughly 1.5% of its workforce, in a September 2025 restructuring tied partly to the expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Rivian has since made additional, larger layoffs of more than 600 employees in October 2025.\nSource: [latimes.com](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-09-08/rivian-lays-off-employees-new-suv-tax-credits) NAMES: RIVN = Rivian Automotive's stock ticker. (https://x.com/techamericaofcl/status/2112966286212800932)","claims":[{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"Rivian cut about 200 jobs, or roughly 1.5% of its workforce, in a September 2025 restructuring tied partly to the expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Rivian has since made additional, larger layoffs of more than 600 employees in October 2025.","sourceName":"[latimes.com](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-09-08/rivian-lays-off-employees-new-suv-tax-credits) NAMES: RIVN = Rivian Automotive's stock ticker.","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/techamericaofcl/status/2112966286212800932","claim":"Rivian Reportedly Cuts 200 Jobs as EV Market Faces Growing Pressure Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian has reportedly laid off approximately 200 employees, representing around 1.5% of its workforce, as the company adjusts to changing conditions in the U.S. electric vehicle http","author":"TechAmerica (@techamericaofcl)"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/techamericaofcl/status/2112966286212800932","name":"[latimes.com](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-09-08/rivian-lays-off-employees-new-suv-tax-credits) NAMES: RIVN = Rivian Automotive's stock ticker.","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"TechAmerica (@techamericaofcl)"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792725294550-tech-segment-trump-bought-spacex-bonds","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/tech","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792725294550-tech-segment-trump-bought-spacex-bonds","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1792725294550-tech-segment-trump-bought-spacex-bonds and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Chris","text":"SpaceX just sold bonds, and the lowest-rated slice was priced at over eight percent interest."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Eight point three? For a company everyone treats like it prints money?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"That's what Semafor is reporting, from people familiar with the deal. And Carl Quintanilla posted the kicker: Donald Trump personally bought five million dollars of those bonds back in August."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"That's the same month SpaceX was raising this debt. A president buying bonds in a private company he's been handing contracts to."},{"host":"Chris","text":"It's not new for him to have business ties, but this one's pretty direct. You've got a sitting president holding private debt in a company that gets federal launches."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And nobody saw a conflict there? The optics alone should have stopped it."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The argument you'll hear is that five million is nothing to SpaceX, and the bonds were open to accredited investors. It's not like they were reserved for him."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Sure, a president just happened to get a piece of the riskiest tranche of a company he's effectively subsidizing."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I'm not saying it looks great. I'm saying the mechanics aren't unusual. Private companies sell bonds to wealthy individuals all the time."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"But they don't usually sell them to the person who controls their biggest customer. That's not normal mechanics, Chris."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Okay, fair. But here's the part I find more interesting: eight percent on the riskiest slice. That tells you what sophisticated investors think about SpaceX's actual credit risk."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Eight percent is what you pay when lenders want real protection. This isn't a company without questions about its cash flow."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Right. Everyone talks about the valuation, the launches, the Starlink revenue. But bond buyers look at free cash flow, and eight percent is them saying 'we want a premium for this.'"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And a president bought the riskiest part of it. I keep coming back to that."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I keep coming back to whether this even matters for SpaceX. Five million is a rounding error to Musk."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"It matters because it's a sitting president with a personal financial stake in a private company that depends on his government. That's not a rounding error."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I'll give you that the timing is terrible, at minimum."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Terrible is the generous word."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Alright, different world entirely. Rivian's cutting jobs again."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"The number going around is about two hundred employees, roughly one and a half percent of the workforce."},{"host":"Chris","text":"That was actually reported back in September, tied to the federal EV tax credit expiring. But here's the part that's worse: Rivian has since made larger cuts."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"The LA Times reported over six hundred more layoffs in October. So the 'two hundred' is already old news, and the real number is bigger."},{"host":"Chris","text":"This is the gap between what's trending and what's actually happening. The small number gets shared, the bigger one doesn't."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And the reason matters too. The seven-thousand-five-hundred-dollar tax credit going away hits Rivian hard because their vehicles are expensive."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The R2 is supposed to change that. Under fifty thousand, aimed right at the Model Y."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"But it's not here yet. And in the meantime, they're cutting people to survive."},{"host":"Chris","text":"It's a race between getting the R2 to market and running out of runway. I still think they make it."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"You've been optimistic about Rivian for years, Chris."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Because the product is genuinely good. The R1S is the best SUV I've driven, electric or not. The problem is price and scale."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And right now, price is losing. When the tax credit goes away, a Rivian starts looking even more expensive next to a Tesla."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Tesla's also losing the credit on a lot of models. It's not a Rivian-only problem."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"No, but Rivian has less margin to absorb it. Tesla's been through the scale-up pain already."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Fair. Rivian's still in that awkward middle stage where every cost matters."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Speaking of awkward, one of those X accounts is also claiming Rivian's bringing AI agents into its cars."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The post says drivers could give more natural instructions instead of old-school voice commands. But that's not actually confirmed."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Rivian has talked about better software, sure. But an official 'AI agents are coming' announcement? Nobody's found one."},{"host":"Chris","text":"This feels like someone took a vague road map slide and added the words 'AI agents' because that's what gets clicks."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Classic. Take a real trend, punch it up with unconfirmed specifics, and suddenly it's news."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I'd wait for Rivian to actually say it. Until then, it's just a rumor wearing a facts costume."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And the jobs story is the one that actually matters. Real people losing work while the hype machine spins."}]}