Electric truck sensation Rivian blistered through the stock market after its debut on Wednesday morning, passing Ford and GM in valuation at $93 billion. The company still barely has any cars on the road.
On Tuesday, November 9, Rivian announced 2021’s biggest IPO at $66.5 billion. On Wednesday, it started trading 28% above that and never looked back.
Rivian (RIVN.O) debuted on NASDAQ at $106.75 per share, a huge leap from the $78 it announced the night before. At one point, it peaked at $119.46. As of this writing, it was trading at $112.77.
Those share prices give it a valuation approaching the coveted $100 billion club, vaulting it past GM (GM.N., $86 billion) and Ford (F, $77 billion). If its value holds, it will trail only Tesla (TSLA.O, valued at a massive $1.05 trillion) in the U.S. auto market.
Interestingly, Rivian has pulled the stunt while barely making any cars. Its entire stable includes two vehicles: the R1T (truck) and the R1S (SUV). So far, it has only built the truck — and not on a scale anywhere near what would be considered production.
After firing up the assembly line at its Illinois plant on September 14, Rivian announced it had produced 56 R1Ts as of October 22.
Some quick math reveals that’s an average of less than two per day, which is a far cry from the one million per year Rivian Chief Executive R.J. Scaringe promised by the end of the decade. Of course, the fledgling company’s meteorically successful IPO could help it get there.
For now, what’s so valuable about the “adventure vehicles made for the planet”? Other proposed projects include supplying fleet vans for Amazon, which owns 20% of the company. It also plans to build its own nationwide charging network in the United States.
Still, the vast majority of Rivian’s future remains conjectural.
“The market doesn’t care about valuations or anything like that,” Jake Wujastyk, chief market analyst at TrendSpider, told Reuters. “It’s trading off of simply money flowing into the market. This is a pretty strong seasonal time for risk on assets.”
