Rivian Reaches $98 Billion Value With Jump in Trading Debut

(Bloomberg) -- Rivian Automotive Inc. rose as much as 47% in its trading debut, pushing the electric truck maker’s value past that of traditional automakers such as Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. and topping EV rival Lucid Group Inc. 

The shares opened trading Wednesday at $106.75 each after selling for $78 in its initial public offering, which exceeded the Irvine, California-based company’s goals to raise almost $12 billion.

Rivian was up 44% to $112.38 at 1:10 p.m. in New York trading, giving the company a market value of $98 billion. On a fully diluted basis, including options and restricted stock units, Rivian is valued at more than $112 billion.

Backed by deep-pocketed companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Ford, Rivian sold 153 million shares Tuesday after marketing 135 million for $72 to $74, a range it had earlier elevated from $57 to $62.

The listing is the biggest globally this year, and the sixth-largest ever on a U.S. exchange, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Rivian is hitting the public markets as it looks to make a dent in the electric vehicle market led by Tesla Inc., which has a market value of more than $1 trillion.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer R.J. Scaringe said in a Bloomberg TV interview Wednesday that Rivian’s biggest challenge is the “health of the supply chain” as it ramps up production amid parts shortages.

The company’s valuation reflects the company’s ability to scale quickly and its plan to build commercial vehicles, Scaringe said. That starts with 100,000 battery-electric delivery vans for Amazon, which Scaringe described as an “initial order.”

Read more: EV Maker Rivian Raises $11.9 Billion in Year’s Biggest IPO

In addition to consumer EVs, Tesla has also built out a strong and growing energy-storage business including solar, home and commercial energy storage. Scaringe indicated that Rivian is looking at expanding in similar lines of business.

“For us, it’s a question of how do we, as rapidly as possible, transition ourselves away from a fossil-fuel based economy?” Scaringe said. “And that of course has a huge focus on the transportation products. But it also includes energy products. And this is something that we will certainly get into as we really try to accelerate that.”

Rivian’s IPO was led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., with more than 20 banks listed on the cover page of its prospectus. Rivian shares are trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol RIVN.

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