Lucid Names Schindler Veteran Silvio Napoli as CEO and Raises Over $1 Billion as Uber Robotaxi Order Grows to 35,000 Vehicles

Overview

Lucid Group announced on April 14 that it has named Silvio Napoli, the long-time chairman and chief executive of Swiss elevator manufacturer Schindler Group, as its next CEO, while simultaneously disclosing roughly $1.05 billion in fresh capital and a significantly expanded robotaxi agreement with Uber. The moves cap more than a year of interim leadership at the struggling electric-vehicle maker and deepen its reliance on its two largest backers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Uber.

What We Know

According to TechCrunch, Napoli is an auto-industry outsider who spent decades at Schindler, the global manufacturer of elevators, escalators, and moving walks. He will replace interim CEO Marc Winterhoff, who has led Lucid since founder Peter Rawlinson stepped down in February 2025. Winterhoff will resume his prior role as chief operating officer once Napoli officially begins, pending completion of a U.S. work-authorization process that will require the incoming CEO to relocate from Switzerland.

TechCrunch reports that Napoli’s compensation package includes a $1.5 million base salary, a roughly $1 million relocation allowance, and a share grant valued around $10 million, plus a performance-based stock package worth tens of millions more.

The funding announcement breaks down into three tranches, as detailed by Electrek: $550 million in convertible preferred stock from Ayar Third Investment Company, an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Lucid’s majority shareholder; an additional $200 million equity investment from Uber; and approximately $300 million in gross proceeds from an underwritten public offering of common stock expected to close on April 15. The combined package brings Uber’s total investment in Lucid to $500 million, up from the $300 million committed when the two companies first announced their robotaxi partnership in 2025.

The Uber deal itself has grown materially. Electrek reports that Uber has now committed to purchasing and deploying up to 35,000 Lucid vehicles — a mix of Gravity SUVs and forthcoming midsize models — for its global robotaxi service, with the cars to be equipped with Nuro’s Level 4 autonomous-driving system. Electrive notes that the original agreement, announced in summer 2025, covered up to 20,000 vehicles.

Context

Lucid has spent much of 2026 trying to stabilize its cost base while ramping production of the Gravity SUV and developing a new midsize platform targeting a $50,000 price point. TechCrunch reports that the company laid off 12 percent of its workforce in February and has since trimmed contractor headcount further. The new capital and the enlarged Uber order are designed to carry the company through that ramp and toward its first meaningful production scale since launching the original Air sedan.

What We Don’t Know

Neither the company nor its backers have disclosed a firm start date for Napoli, with TechCrunch and Electrek both noting only that he will take over “in the coming weeks” once his U.S. visa is processed. It also remains unclear how quickly Lucid can deliver midsize robotaxi-ready vehicles to Uber, or when Nuro’s Level 4 stack will be certified for commercial deployment at the scale the 35,000-vehicle commitment implies. Lucid has not published an updated multi-year production forecast tied to the expanded Uber order.