Rivian has become the latest EV startup to go public as the company has begun trading on the Nasdaq, under the RIVN ticker symbol.
The “upsized initial public offering” of 153,000,000 shares saw them priced at $78 (£57.89 / €67.70) each. As a result, the automaker is looking at an $11.9 (£8.8 / €10.3) billion payday.
While Rivian started production less than two months ago, CNBC noted the automaker could have an eye-popping valuation of $68 (£50.5 / €59.1) billion if “underwriters exercise their full purchase option.” Should that occur, Rivian would only be worth about $11 (£8.2 / €9.6) billion less than Ford.
Also Read: Rivian R1T Finally Goes Into Production, Becomes First American-Made EV Pickup Of The Modern Era
In their prospectus, Rivian said they expect to build approximately 1,200 R1Ts and 25 R1Ss by the end of the year. The company also noted that as of October 31th, they had approximately 55,400 preorders for the R1T and R1S in the United States and Canada. If all those orders remain firm and production occurs as expected, that’s enough to keep Rivian busy until the end of 2023.
In an email, Rivian founder RJ Scaringe thanked customers and supporters while also noting the “incredible efforts of our team.” He added, “We made the decision to go public to help us achieve the largest possible impact” as “becoming a public company enables us to accelerate our efforts to help society transition to sustainable transportation and energy systems.”
Investors seem to have embraced the IPO as Rivian’s stock is up to $105.56 (£78.44 / €91.67) per share as of this writing.
