Before Anyone Was Talking About Electric Vehicles, Abdul Latif Jameel Was Already Invested in One

In 2012, Rivian was an obscure electric vehicle startup based near Detroit with no commercial product, no public profile, and no guarantee of survival. Abdul Latif Jameel became its first major investor that year. The family said nothing publicly about the investment for eight years.

Abdul Latif Jameel’s electric vehicle ventures now extend from ground transport to the air. The Rivian investment was the first chapter in what has become a deliberate push into the full spectrum of next-generation mobility, most recently including a memorandum of understanding with Joby Aviation covering up to 200 electric air taxis for Saudi Arabia.

The Rivian bet was not a passive financial position. Hassan Jameel, who heads Abdul Latif Jameel’s Saudi Arabia operations, traveled to Detroit regularly to work alongside founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe. The investment was structured in tranches, tied to milestones, and built on a relationship that grew over years before it was ever publicly disclosed.

“We kept Rivian in stealth for a good eight years because we wanted to make sure we didn’t flex our muscles until we had muscles to flex,” Hassan Jameel said in a McKinsey interview. “We can make decisions that others can’t because we look at the long term.”

When Ford and Amazon both announced major investments in Rivian in 2019 — with Amazon committing to purchase 100,000 vehicles — the scope of what Abdul Latif Jameel had quietly backed for seven years became clear. The family had seen something in 2012 that the market was only beginning to understand by 2019.

The investment philosophy behind Rivian applies across the company’s portfolio. Abdul Latif Jameel does not enter sectors to exit them. Fady Jameel, who oversees the company’s international operations, has described the rule simply: imagine the industry in 20 years, then assess honestly whether you have the knowledge and patience to build something real inside it.

The same long-range thinking governs operations at every level of the business. The instinct to improve what isn’t working — whether that means a stock yard driver rerouting a lane or a vice chairman restructuring a decades-old distribution model — reflects a consistent operating culture that runs from the front line to the boardroom.

Hassan Jameel has described the family business culture as one where passion and good intent matter more than hierarchy. His father gave both brothers room to pursue the investments and initiatives they believed in, without prescribing direction. That license produced Rivian, the solar energy company FRV, and the philanthropic institution Community Jameel — three very different bets made by the same family in the same decade.

The long-term framing extends to Community Jameel’s research investments as well. MIT-affiliated work on water and food innovation reflects the same thesis that drove the Rivian investment: identify a problem that will matter enormously in 20 years, and start working on it now, before the urgency forces everyone else into the space.