The Rivian IPO story is one that shows exactly how much interest there is in new EV brands these days. The stocks of the electric truck maker soared in the first day of trading, from the $78 price tag they had in the IPO to $106.75 before the markets opened. That drastically exceeded the expectations of the Irvine-based company, and should lead to a revenue of about $12 billion before deductions, the biggest IPO haul for a US company since Facebook’s flotation in May 2012.
With that soar in price, the value of the company briefly went over $100 billion, reaching $107 billion to be more precise. However, things started to stabilize later on, with the price tag dropping to around $98 per share at the New York Stock Exchange. Even so, the value of the company remained extremely high, at $85 billion.
Including options and restricted stock units would take the valuation of the company up to $101 billion. The listing is the biggest globally this year, and the sixth-largest ever on a U.S. exchange, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
To put things into perspective, Rivian is now more valuable than Ford and GM. However, the former also has a stake in the company, and considering the current stock price, Ford pulled in some $8 billion yesterday, money that could go into development of new electric trucks as well, rivals for Rivian.
Another big investor in the company is Amazon. The e-commerce giant has a stake in the company worth $12.5 billion and has already posted the biggest order Rivian had so far, of 100,000 electric vans. For now, the California-based electric truck maker is a bit short of production capability, but has ambitious plans of making 150,000 units per year by the end of 2023. For now, though, estimates from Rivian show that it will only be able to deliver 1,200 units by the end of the year, from its only plant in Normal, Illinois.
