Rivian Had the Biggest IPO for a U.S. Company Since Facebook

UPDATE 11/11/21: Rivian’s stock price climbed to $100.73 per share by the time the markets closed yesterday, after starting at $78. This rise puts Rivian’s valuation over $100 billion. At the time of writing, the price has increased to about $123 per share.

Electric upstart Rivian recently began deliveries of its first production vehicle, the R1T, beating to market the long-delayed Tesla Cybertruck and pickups from legacy automakers such as Ford and General Motors. With the R1T now rolling off the line, Rivian made its much-hyped debut on the U.S. stock market, pricing its upsized initial public offering of 153 million shares at $78 per share.

Rivian, backed by giants including Amazon and Ford, was initially expected to price its stocks between $57 and $62 before increasing that range last week to between $72 and $74 per share. The new $78 figure helped Rivian raise an estimated $11.9 billion, making it the biggest IPO for an American firm since Facebook earned $16 billion when it went public in 2012. Rivian’s IPO is the largest worldwide this year and the 12th largest of all time, as reported by CNN Business. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rivian will have an initial valuation upwards of $77 billion, making it almost worth as much as one of its major backers, Ford.

Ahead of the IPO, Amazon—along with the investment firms T. Rowe Price and Franklin Templeton—were listed as part of a group of “anchor investors” expected to purchase up to $5 billion worth of shares. Rivian’s IPO is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan, and the electric truck manufacturer will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker “RIVN.”

Rivian’s S-1 filing made in advance of its stock market debut stated that the company plans to deliver 1000 vehicles before the end of 2021, although in a recent wrongful-dismissal lawsuit, a former employee alleged that the company is not likely to make that number. In that same legal complaint, the executive, vice president of sales and marketing Laura Schwab, raised concerns that Rivian’s pricing wasn’t high enough and that the company would lose money on every vehicle sold. Her superiors allegedly said they would raise prices after the IPO. Currently, the R1T starts at $68,145.

This story was originally published November 10, 2021.

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