Mate Rimac isn’t done rewriting the rulebook. The 36-year-old founder of Rimac Automobili has begun talks to buy Porsche’s 45 percent stake in Bugatti Rimac, a move that would hand him complete ownership of both brands and reshape the supercar landscape. The deal, reportedly valued at around 1.1 billion dollars, has been in discussion since the spring, according to insiders close to Rimac.
Formed in 2021, Bugatti Rimac is the joint venture that married Rimac’s lightning-fast electric tech with Bugatti’s century-old luxury heritage. It gave Rimac Group a majority 55 percent share, while Porsche retained 45. Now, as Porsche faces slowing sales and renewed focus on its own models, Rimac sees his window to take the wheel fully.
Speaking with Bloomberg, Rimac explained that he wants the freedom to make long-term decisions without corporate layers slowing him down. He has already secured support from international investor groups and private equity funds to back the buyout. The move would allow him to steer Bugatti into its next age one defined not by W16 engines, but by the quiet, brutal force of electrification.
Porsche’s declining margins and postponed electric projects have only made the timing sweeter. The company has had to delay its large battery SUV and rebalance toward petrol models, leaving Bugatti Rimac an expendable asset on its books. For Rimac, whose focus is innovation rather than nostalgia, that means a chance to set Bugatti free from corporate conservatism and transform it into something truly fearless.
If the deal closes, Bugatti will enter the next decade as a brand born of combustion yet driven by current, under one man whose obsession with speed began in a Croatian garage. It would be the ultimate irony the world’s oldest hypercar name powered by the youngest mind in the game.
