Blog Posts
Nov 10, 2021
by Sebastian Cenizo Industry News / 5 Comments
The little startup is making massive waves.
The big news in the electric vehicle market this month is Rivian's initial product offering (IPO), filings for which have already revealed information about the automaker that we were formerly not privy to. Among these revelations is the news that Amazon owns a pretty big chunk of Rivian, more than most thought.
We also learned that the EV-maker reserved stock for loyal customers for when it went public. That's turned out to be an even greater blessing for those customers than expected since Rivian sold shares in its IPO yesterday at $78 each, considerably more than was originally forecast.
That pricing values Rivian at more than $77 billion, which puts the automaker in the same sort of sphere as GM and Ford, companies with market caps of roughly $85 billion and $80 billion respectively.
Previous estimates projected that shares would be offered at around $57-62 per share, so this higher price range of $72-74 is good news for all with faith in the manufacturer's impressive potential, especially since the company had a huge, billion-dollar loss last year and almost another billion gone in the first half of this year.
These things shouldn't be too much of a concern to anyone unfamiliar with the industry though, as Tesla had massive operating losses for years and is now worth over a trillion bucks. Rivian's IPO now ranks among the top ten of all time in the US.
And there's more good news as Amazon and various investment firms have indicated their intent to invest in Rivian at its IPO price. Rivian has begun building customer versions of its R1T truck and the Amazon delivery van, with production on the R1S SUV set to commence in December too.
With Rivian aiming to raise around $11.93 billion through the sale of more than 153 million shares, the future looks bright. Should the company be successful, its production goals can be met and facilities can grow. It's a much brighter outlook than that of Lordstown Motors, and if Rivian's value stabilizes or climbs, it'll be worth more than brands like BMW and Ferrari. Not bad for a small startup.
