Electric car company Rivian Automotive priced its IPO Tuesday at $78 per share. The pricing values the company at roughly $66.5 billion. The company said it expects to raise up to $11.9 billion through the deal.
Rivian can opt to go with a full purchase option depending on the demand for its stock. If it chooses to go with the option, the company's valuation could go up to $68 billion.
When it successfully launches its IPO, expected to be on Wednesday, the company's market valuation will push it close in size to traditional rivals such as Ford, which is valued at $79 billion, and General Motors, which is valued at $85 billion. Given that it has yet to generate any revenue from its operations, Rivian could very well overtake traditional domestic rivals when it does go into full swing.
Last week, the company initially announced an expected price range of between $72 and $74 per share. This was a significant jump from its previously expected price range of between $57 and $62.
Rivian expects to lose up to $1.28 billion in the third quarter, with revenue ranging from $0 to $1 million. The company is the latest electric vehicle startup to raise a large sum of money by selling shares at high prices without demonstrating a viable business strategy.
Other electric vehicle companies that had made similar moves include Lucid Motors and Nikola. Even though Lucid Motors has just recently begun manufacturing its first automobiles, the company is now valued at $72.5 billion.
Nikola, which hasn't also generated any profits, had seen its market valuation overtake Ford's at one point in time last year. After a short-selling group accused the company of lying about its operations, Nikola's value had dropped to less than $6 billion.
Despite not generating any profits, investors still want to gamble on the companies becoming the next Tesla, which recently saw its valuation surge beyond $1 trillion. Tesla is now the fifth most valuable company in the U.S.
Rivian is leveraging that ambition by showing investors just how large it could become. Through its prospectus, the company told investors that it now has a backlog of 55,400 pre-orders for its R1T and R1S electric vehicles. According to Rivian's website, the R1T is a truck that starts at $67,500, and the R1S is an SUV that starts at $70,000.
By the end of 2023, the company hopes to be able to fulfill those orders. The company also touted Amazon's recent order of 100,000 vehicles, which it expects to deliver by 2030.
