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🚗 Rivian Ignites Chicago

🚗 Rivian Ignites Chicago

AND Register for Chicago Tech Events

Landon Campbell
May 06, 2024

57th Edition

📍 This Week’s Lineup:

🚗 Rivian Ignites Chicago

🗃️ Incoming Chicago Data Centers

📆 Events Around the City

🔙 Previous Editions of the Driver’s Seat

Highlights from Last Week:

We hosted a product manager meetup with Zoco Designs for PMs in Chicago. 👇

One of our pre-seed companies, Architect Health, unveiled their brand new website along with the first edition of the "Front Door Newsletter," spotlighting GTM strategies in healthcare. 👇

Artist Vic Mensa sat down with one of our pre-seed companies, Rivet, to discuss the evolution of music with AI as a catalyst. 👇

🚗 Rivian Ignites Chicago

Two months ago, Rivian paused their plans for a $5B plant in Georgia. They chose to double down and build the plant in Illinois instead.

This new plant will further help cement Illinois as a hub for clean tech and sustainable computing.

Let’s dive in:

Rivian's Expansion

Rivian secured $827M from the state to expand its Normal, IL factory for its midsize SUV R2 model.
The company's investment in Normal totals $2B, contributing $3.9B to the local economy.
Production at the plant has reached 100,000 vehicles since 2021, leading to a 6% increase in Rivian shares post-announcement.

Opportunity for New Jobs

The plant expansion will contribute over 550 jobs to the Illinois economy.
The state is funding a second manufacturing-job training academy contingent upon Rivian maintaining at least 6,000 jobs in Illinois.
With the introduction of the R2 model, Rivian anticipates reaching a total annual capacity of 215,000 vehicles.

🗃️ Incoming Chicago Data Centers

T5’s Expansion to Chicago

T5 Data Centers announced a significant expansion to Chicago with a new data center campus.
The 160-acre site will support up to 480 MW across multiple data center buildings.
Development begins immediately, targeting the first 60MW of data center capacity by Q4 2027.

DPK Hillside’s Proposal

DPK Hillside is proposing a two-story, 245,000-square-foot data center in Chicago.
The facility will be built on a 13-acre plot of land and will target hyperscale customers.
The construction timeline estimates two years for completion.