Rivian soars 29% in IPO debut, valuing electric truck company above peers at nearly $100 billion
- Electric truck maker Rivian soared as much as 46% in its IPO trading debut on Wednesday.
- Rivian is now valued at nearly $100 billion, a sign of the strong demand for EV companies among investors.
- Rivian stock hit a high of $113.90 per share, well above its IPO pricing of $78 per share.
Rivian stock finished its IPO trading day up 29% on Wednesday, giving the electric truck maker a market valuation of nearly $100 billion on a fully diluted basis. That makes it more valuable than its peers Ford and General Motors.
The firm priced its IPO at $78 per share Tuesday evening, well above its expected range of $72-$74, which was already raised from a prior range of $57-$62. Rivian's IPO pricing valued the company at about $77 billion on a fully diluted basis. Rivian hit a high of $119.46 on Wednesday.
Rivian raised $11.9 billion from its IPO by selling 153 million shares, making it the sixth biggest trading debut on a US exchange ever. Shares trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "RIVN."
Rivian now has a lot to prove, sporting a higher valuation than Ford's $80 billion market cap and General Motors' $86 billion. The EV startup is on track to lose $1.28 billion on revenue of no more than $1 million in the third quarter, according to its SEC filings.
The company, which was founded in 2009, began deliveries of its R1T truck in September, while its R1S truck won't begin deliveries until early 2022. Rivian already has more than 55,000 pre-orders for its vehicles. The R1T and R1S vehicles start at about $70,000, according to Rivian's website.
But Rivian can count on big business from its early customer and investor, Amazon, which ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans in 2019. Amazon's order is expected to be completed by 2030, with 10,000 electric delivery vans being delivered to the e-commerce giant early next year. Amazon is Rivian's largest shareholder, holding a 22% stake worth more than $12 billion.