End of an Era: Porsche Walks Away from Bugatti as the Age of Automotive Excess Meets Financial Reality

STUTTGART / PARIS, April 24, 2026 — One of the most storied partnerships in the hypercar world is over. Porsche has agreed to sell its entire stake in Bugatti Rimac, marking a clean and complete break from both the legendary French-Italian supercar brand and Croatian electric hypercar pioneer Rimac Group — a move that speaks volumes about the brutal financial pressures reshaping the global automotive industry.

The Stuttgart-based sports car giant confirmed Friday that it will divest its 45% stake in Bugatti Rimac and its 20.6% holding in Rimac Group to a consortium led by New York-based investment firm HOF Capital, with Abu Dhabi-headquartered private equity firm BlueFive Capital coming in as the consortium’s largest investor. The transaction agreements were signed on April 24, with deal completion — pending regulatory clearances — expected before the end of 2026.

The exit is total. Porsche is not trimming its position or reshuffling its portfolio — it is walking away entirely from both ventures it spent years carefully building. “In setting up the joint venture Bugatti Rimac together with Rimac Group, we successfully laid the foundation for Bugatti’s future,” said Porsche CEO Michael Leiters. “Now, with the sale of our stake, we are focusing Porsche on the core business.”

The joint venture that is now changing hands was itself born from ambition. In 2021, Volkswagen transferred the Bugatti brand into a newly formed partnership between Porsche and Rimac Group, marrying Bugatti’s century-old legacy of obscene speed and opulence with Rimac’s cutting-edge electric powertrain expertise. Porsche held a 45% minority stake; Rimac Group controlled the remaining 55%. The venture delivered its first jointly developed model, the Bugatti W16 Mistral, in 2022.

But what looked like a bold vision of hypercar electrification has collided with the cold arithmetic of a company under siege. Porsche, once the profit engine of the Volkswagen Group, has faced mounting earnings pressure as EV demand underwhelmed expectations and cost-cutting became an existential imperative. Selling a minority stake in a low-volume, ultra-luxury brand — however iconic — was an obvious candidate for the chopping block.

For Bugatti Rimac CEO Mate Rimac, the deal is a liberation as much as a transaction. The Croatian entrepreneur, who built Rimac from a garage startup into a world-class electric hypercar and technology firm, had reportedly grown frustrated with the constraints of working under Porsche’s oversight. Following completion, Rimac Group will assume full operational control of Bugatti Rimac and forge a new strategic partnership with HOF Capital and BlueFive Capital to fuel the brand’s next chapter. HOF Capital — co-founded by Onsi Sawiris, a scion of Egypt’s powerful billionaire Sawiris family — will also join Rimac Group as its largest shareholder alongside Mate Rimac himself.

“With the strong foundations that Porsche’s support has provided, we now have a structure that allows us to execute even faster on our long-term vision,” Rimac said in a statement Friday.

The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, though earlier reports had valued the deal at more than $1.2 billion.

Porsche shares slipped 1.6% in early Frankfurt trading on Friday — a modest reaction that perhaps reflects investor relief that the company is sharpening its focus rather than mourning the departure of a glamorous but peripheral asset.

For Bugatti, the change of hands is neither a crisis nor a retreat. The brand’s Molsheim atelier, its DNA of excess perfected, and its waiting list of ultra-wealthy clients remain intact. What changes is who sits in the boardroom — and the ambition now belongs entirely to Mate Rimac and his new backers.

Porsche built great things with Bugatti. It is leaving the legend in capable hands.