Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN) shares are racing higher on Monday. The EV stock appears to be reacting to reports that Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) reached a "conditional" settlement with Rivian in regard to a 2020 lawsuit.

What Happened: According to a Bloomberg report, Tesla said it reached a conditional settlement in its 2020 lawsuit against Rivian in which the Elon Musk-led company accused Rivian of poaching Tesla employees to get ahold of its EV trade secrets.

Tesla reportedly told a California judge that it plans to seek dismissal of the case by Dec. 24 if the terms of the settlement are met. Tesla didn't disclose specifics about the conditional agreement in its court filing.

About four years ago, Musk flagged an "alarming pattern" of Tesla employees being poached by Rivian. Tesla even claimed that some workers were caught misappropriating Tesla's internal technology for its next-gen batteries.

Rivian reportedly denied all wrongdoing related to the lawsuit and suggested that Tesla was merely attempting to stifle competition in the EV space.

Rivian previously failed to get the lawsuit thrown out and a trial was scheduled for March. It appears an agreement between the two EV makers could bring the dispute to a close before the end of the year.

Rivian recently launched a new joint venture with Volkswagen called "Rivian and VW Group Technology" that will focus on providing next-gen electrical architecture and software technology for future electric vehicles.

Rivian and Volkswagen expect to reduce development costs and scale new technologies more quickly through the joint venture, which aims to use existing Rivian architecture and software to enable the launch of Rivian's R2 in the first half of 2026.

RIVN Price Action: Rivian shares were up 10.9% at $11.36 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.