Rivian IPO | GeorgMedia

November 20, 2021

Ford and Rivian cancel plans to develop an electric vehicle together, citing a mutual desire to focus on their own separate projects

The Rivian R1T and Ford F-150 Lightning.
Rivian; Ford

Ford and Rivian no longer plan to develop an electric vehicle together, Automotive News reported.
Ford CEO Jim Farley suggested his company had “confidence” to build EVs without Rivian’s help.
“We’ve mutually decided to focus on our own projects and deliveries,” Rivian told CNBC.

Ford and Rivian have scrapped plans to develop an electric vehicle together, the companies confirmed Friday.

The two companies mutually decided to focus on their own projects instead, axing plans to co-create a new model envisioned under a deal struck in early 2019, Automotive News first reported.

Ford CEO Jim Farley pointed to the automaker’s “growing confidence” to “win in the electric space” without the help of Rivian, the outlet reported.

“We want to invest in Rivian — we love their future as a company — but at this point we’re going to develop our own vehicles,” Farley said.

Ford said in an emailed statement to CNBC: “We respect Rivian and have had extensive exploratory discussions with them, however, both sides have agreed not to pursue any kind of joint vehicle development or platform sharing.”

Electric-truck maker Rivian also emailed a statement to CNBC. “As Ford has scaled its own EV strategy and demand for Rivian vehicles has grown, we’ve mutually decided to focus on our own projects and deliveries,” it said.

Ford and Rivian did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Ford originally announced its intentions to produce a Rivian-powered electric vehicle in 2019, when it made its first investment of $500 million in the startup.

In 2020, Ford dropped plans for a different model for the automaker’s Lincoln luxury brand, which would have been developed using Rivian’s technology, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The turnaround comes after Rivian went public this month, with a blockbuster IPO that raised $11.9 billion — one of the biggest market debuts in history.

The electric-car maker reached a market value near $100 billion on a fully diluted basis as its shares soared, making it more valuable than Ford and General Motors, as Insider previously reported.

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November 17, 2021

Rivian drops 18% in its first down day as a public company following massive post-IPO surge

A trader sits in front of a computer monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. — Trader Leon Montana works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange stocks NYSE worry
AP Photo/Richard Drew

Rivian fell as much as 18% in its first down day as a public company after it went public last week.
The electric truck manufacturer has surged as much as 130% from its IPO price of $78 per share.
The big up and down moves highlight the heightened volatility Rivian stock poses to investors.

Rivian stock fell as much as 18% on Wednesday after a week-long post-IPO surge, sending the electric truck maker towards what would be its first down day as a public company.

Amid an ongoing boom in electric vehicle stocks, Rivian has soared as much as 130% from its IPO price of $78 per share, giving the automaker a valuation of more than $150 billion. That valuation makes it more valuable than Ford, General Motors, and Volkswagen, despite the fact that it has yet to generate significant revenue from its operations.

Rivian can count its five consecutive daily gains post-IPO as a unique feat, especially given its large market value, and it signals that demand for shares remains strong as investors hope to replicate the success of an early Tesla investment.

But the strong up and down trading in shares of Rivian highlights the heightened volatility risk for investors buying the company before it reports earnings and ramps up vehicle production.

While Rivian can rely on its more than 50,000 reservations for its $70,000 trucks and a 100,000 electric delivery van order from Amazon, the company is still years out from reaching the same type of scale that has led to big profits for Tesla in recent quarters.

And competition in the EV space is heating up, as both new entrants and legacy automakers seek to wow customers with sleek designs and modern technologies. While Ford and General Motors have seen positive interest for its F-150 Lightning and electric Hummer, respectively, new auto startups are also impressing consumers.

Lucid, an EV maker going after the luxury sedan market, surged as much as 30% this week after its Air model received MotorTrend’s car of the year award for 2022.

Besides competition, Rivian will have to show it’s able to manage ongoing supply chain disruptions and rising input costs if it wants to please shareholders and maintain its sky-high valuation when it reports earnings later this year. Recent comments on a Rivian forum point to supply constraints leading to 3-month delivery delays for some of its early customers.

But supply constraints are showing early signs of easing, so the investors’ focus will likely remain fixated on demand as electric vehicle company’s look to capitalize on a new and fast-growing market.

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November 15, 2021

Rivian extends post-IPO rally to 93% with Biden expected to sign $1 trillion infrastructure bill that includes billions for EVs

Rivian soared as much as 16% on Monday with Biden set to sign a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
The bill will include $7.5 billion for the buildout of a network of 500,000 charging stations.
Rivian is up 93% since it went public last week, pushing its valuation to about $130 billion.

Rivian continued its post-IPO rally on Monday, surging as much as 16% to a record $150 per share as President Joe Biden plans to sign a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

Part of the infrastructure bill is designed to accelerate the consumer adoption of electric vehicles by building out a network of 500,000 electric charging stations across the country. The bill allocates $7.5 billion to the project, with the idea being that increased charging accessibility will lower consumers’ barrier to entry in the EV space.

Monday’s rally in Rivian brought its post-IPO gains to 93%, based on its IPO price of $78 per share. The near week-long surge has pushed Rivian’s valuation to as much as $130 billion, making it the second most valued auto-manufacturer behind Tesla and minting big gains for its early investors like Amazon and Ford.

That’s despite the company’s expectations to generate more than $1 billion in losses on about $1 million in revenue in the third quarter, according to its SEC filings. But Rivian can count on more than 50,000 pre-orders for its luxury electric trucks and a 100,000 electric delivery van order from Amazon, as well as ever-increasing demand for EVs.

Some think Rivian’s sky-high valuation despite little revenues and no profits is a sure-sign that the stock market is in a massive bubble, including famed short-seller Michael Burry. Burry tweeted last week in reference to Rivian, “More speculation than the 1920s. More overvaluation than the 1990s.”

Rivian’s valuation is in nosebleed territory, but if Tesla has taught investors anything, it’s that the EV start-up has plenty to gain in the long-term if it can execute on its vision.

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November 12, 2021

‘The Big Short’ investor Michael Burry warns speculation has reached a century high – and points to Rivian’s $100 billion IPO as a prime example

Michael Burry big short — Michael Burry.
Jim Spellman/Getty Images

Michael Burry warned speculation is at a historic high, and valuations have exceeded dot-com levels.
“The Big Short” investor pointed to Rivian, a tiny startup valued at more than $100 billion.
Burry noted that real US wages have fallen this year, and that inflation hammers the poor.

Market speculation has reached its highest level in a century, and asset valuations are more excessive today than during the dot-com bubble, Michael Burry warned in a tweet on Thursday.

“More speculation than the 1920s,” he said, referring to the years leading up to the Great Crash in 1929. “More overvaluation than the 1990s.”

The investor of “The Big Short” fame highlighted a Wall Street Journal story about Rivian, an electric-vehicle startup that has only made 156 vehicles and generates virtually no revenue. Regardless, it commands a market capitalization north of $100 billion after going public this week.

In another Thursday tweet, Burry noted that US wage growth has lagged inflation this year, and emphasized that price increases disproportionately affect the poor.

“American real wages – adjusted for inflation – are down 2.2% since Jan 1,” he said. “Seems the ONLY truly meaningful thing that’s down this manic, manic year. Inflation is a massively regressive tax. Never forget it.”

The Scion Asset Management boss has set his sights on electric-vehicle companies and inflation this week. He tweeted that Tesla CEO Elon Musk might be selling stock to cover his personal debts, and raised the prospect of the automaker’s stock plunging 90%.

Moreover, he noted that month-on-month inflation hit a 13-year high in October primarily because of rising energy prices and factors unrelated to the US economy reopening from the pandemic.

Burry is best known for calling the mid-2000s housing bubble and making a fortune by betting on its collapse. He’s been urging casual investors not to gamble on meme stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other risky assets for months.

“All hype/speculation is doing is drawing in retail before the mother of all crashes,” he tweeted in June. “When crypto falls from trillions, or meme stocks fall from tens of billions, #MainStreet losses will approach the size of countries.”

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November 12, 2021

Rivian is now the 2nd most valuable US carmaker after its IPO surge – and its founder R.J. Scaringe is worth $2.2 billion

Rivian employees building an R1T pickup truck — Rivian had one of the biggest IPOs in history on Wednesday.
Rivian

Rivian is now the second-most valuable US carmaker after Tesla, and is ahead of Ford and General Motors.
Its stock has surged since its IPO on Wednesday, making its founder R.J. Scaringe worth at least $2.2 billion.
The EV startup has only ever delivered about 150 cars and suffered a heavy loss in the first half of 2021.

Electric-vehicle startup Rivian is now the second most valuable carmaker in the US after its post-IPO surge, despite having delivered only about 150 cars.

Its stock has surged since it priced its IPO at $78 a share on Wednesday, when it made one of the biggest market debuts in history, raising $11.9 billion.

The electric-car maker is now worth a whopping $107.4 billion after finishing at $122.99 a share on Thursday, according to Bloomberg data. On a fully diluted basis, which includes options, Rivian is worth $120.5 billion.

It means Rivian founder and chief executive R.J. Scaringe’s stake in the company is now worth $2.2 billion. Scaringe, who’s 38, owns 17.6 million shares, and he could become much richer through stock awards if the Amazon-backed startup does well.

In the US automaker stakes, Rivian ranks behind only Tesla, which is worth $1.07 trillion. It comes above General Motors, which has a market cap of $89.8 billion, and Ford, with a market value of $78.1 billion.

But the differences between the companies are striking. Rivian was founded in 2009, but has only delivered 156 cars, according to its IPO prospectus. It suffered a loss of $994 million in the first half of the year as it spent heavily to ramp up production.

By contrast, Tesla has delivered more than 600,000 vehicles in 2021, and had more than $20 billion of revenue in the first half. General Motors and Ford sell millions of cars per year. General Motors made more than $65 billion in revenue in the first half, and Ford notched more than $62 billion.

So far, Rivian has 55,400 preorders for its R1T truck and R1S SUV, which it expects to fulfil by 2023.

However, investors are betting that Rivian can be the new Tesla and will thrive as countries focus on climate change and electric vehicles.

Rivian is a “a legitimate option for institutional investors who have previously only had Tesla to play the electric vehicle space,” said DataTrek co-founder Nicholas Colas, adding that its products are “truly compelling.”

Scaringe is one of the biggest winners from Rivian’s IPO, and he retains 9.5% voting control in the company through class B shares.

The board have also given the MIT PhD grad a time-based equity award of 6.8 million shares and a performance-based option to buy up to 20.4 million shares, meaning he could dramatically increase his wealth.

Although Ford has been overtaken in the carmaker ranks, it was also a big winner from the IPO, having owned 14.4% of the company’s shares before it went public.

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November 12, 2021

Elon Musk weighs in on competitor Rivian after the company’s blockbuster IPO, says high production and breakeven cash flow are the ‘true test’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk — Yichuan Cao/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Rivian made its debut on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, closing 30% up from its offering price.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that high production and breakeven cash flow would be the “true test” for Rivian.
Musk was responding to a tweet that said Tesla had already been selling its Roadster model for two years with plans to roll out Model S when it went public.

Elon Musk has weighed in on Tesla competitor Rivian a day after the latter’s blockbuster IPO debut.

In a tweet, the Tesla CEO said high production and breakeven cash flow would be the “true test” for Rivian, but that Tesla is the only American carmaker to have achieved that goal in the last 100 years.

-Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2021

Musk was responding to a tweet that pointed out that Tesla – which is cash flow positive – had already been selling its Roadster model for two years with plans to roll out Model S when it went public in 2010.

Rivian, in comparison, just started selling its vehicles and has reported a net loss of almost $1 billion in the first half of this year.

Rivian made its debut on the Nasdaq Wednesday, closing 30% up from its offering price. The startup’s shares extended gains on Thursday, finishing the day 22% higher. The company’s market cap is now over $100 billion, making it more valuable than legacy automakers Ford and General Motors.

It’s not the first time Musk has commented on his company’s competitor. Last month, he tweeted, “prototypes are trivial compared to scaling production & supply chain” in response to another tweet about Rivian’s electric truck production rate.

Rivian did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on Musk’s tweet.

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November 11, 2021

Rivian soars 29% in IPO debut, valuing electric truck company above peers at nearly $100 billion

Rivian EV maker car electric vehicle Tesla — Rivian.
SOPA Images/Getty

Electric truck maker Rivian soared as much as 46% in its IPO trading debut on Wednesday.
Rivian is now valued at nearly $100 billion, a sign of the strong demand for EV companies among investors.
Rivian stock hit a high of $113.90 per share, well above its IPO pricing of $78 per share.

Rivian stock finished its IPO trading day up 29% on Wednesday, giving the electric truck maker a market valuation of nearly $100 billion on a fully diluted basis. That makes it more valuable than its peers Ford and General Motors.

The firm priced its IPO at $78 per share Tuesday evening, well above its expected range of $72-$74, which was already raised from a prior range of $57-$62. Rivian’s IPO pricing valued the company at about $77 billion on a fully diluted basis. Rivian hit a high of $119.46 on Wednesday.

Rivian raised $11.9 billion from its IPO by selling 153 million shares, making it the sixth biggest trading debut on a US exchange ever. Shares trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “RIVN.”

Rivian now has a lot to prove, sporting a higher valuation than Ford‘s $80 billion market cap and General Motors‘ $86 billion. The EV startup is on track to lose $1.28 billion on revenue of no more than $1 million in the third quarter, according to its SEC filings.

The company, which was founded in 2009, began deliveries of its R1T truck in September, while its R1S truck won’t begin deliveries until early 2022. Rivian already has more than 55,000 pre-orders for its vehicles. The R1T and R1S vehicles start at about $70,000, according to Rivian’s website.

But Rivian can count on big business from its early customer and investor, Amazon, which ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans in 2019. Amazon’s order is expected to be completed by 2030, with 10,000 electric delivery vans being delivered to the e-commerce giant early next year. Amazon is Rivian’s largest shareholder, holding a 22% stake worth more than $12 billion.

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November 10, 2021

The big winners in Rivian’s $77 billion IPO include Amazon, Ford, and a Saudi investor that sells gas-fueled cars

Rivian’s $77 billion IPO on Wednesday will make it the sixth biggest public debut of all time.
The company is set to raise nearly $12 billion after pricing its IPO well above the expected range.
Big winners from the Rivian IPO include Amazon, Ford, and a Saudi investor that sells gasoline-powered cars.

The Rivian IPO on Wednesday will raise $11.9 billion, making it the sixth largest public debut on a US exchange – and the EV startup’s early investors stand to gain billions.

Rivian priced its IPO at $78 per share Tuesday evening, well above its expected range of $72 to $74, which was already raised from a prior range of $57 to $62. That values the company at nearly $77 billion on a fully diluted basis, nearly triple the $27.6 billion valuation it received earlier this year from the private market.

The winning investors of Rivian’s IPO include Amazon, Ford, and an investor that built its fortune on selling gasoline-powered cars in Saudi Arabia, according to data from CrunchBase.

1. Amazon

The e-commerce giant made waves when it invested in Rivian in 2019 and ordered up to 100,000 electric delivery vans from the EV startup. Amazon initially invested $700 million in the company in 2019, but subsequent funding rounds led by Amazon brought its total private market investment to $1.8 billion. Those investments secured Amazon more than 160 million shares of Rivian, or 22% of the company before the IPO. That makes Amazon the largest shareholder of Rivian, with a stake worth $12.5 billion at its IPO price of $78 per share.

2. T. Rowe Price

T. Rowe Price invested in Rivian four separate times while it was private, leading three rounds and co-leading a fourth. The investment firm now owns a near 19% stake, which equates to more than 133 million shares worth $10.4 billion at the Rivian IPO price of $78.

3. Oryx Global/Abdul Latif Jameel

Oryx Global, a subsidiary of Abdul Latif Jameel, built its fortune by distributing Toyota cars in Saudi Arabia since 1955. The family clearly saw the need to electrify autos, having invested in Rivian years ago. An investment unit of Abdul Latif Jameel, Oryx Global, acquired warrants for Rivian stock in 2018 after loaning the company more than $300 million. Abdul Latif Jameel now owns about 16% of Rivian, or 114 million shares worth $8.9 billion based on the company’s IPO price.

4. Ford

Ford led Rivian’s $500 million investment round in 2019, and has since invested in subsequent private funding rounds. The 118-year-old automaker has bet big on electric vehicles in recent years, having recently revealed its electric F-150 lighting and Mustang Mach E. Ford’s Rivian investment gave the firm a more than 14% stake in Rivian, worth about $8 billion at the company’s IPO price.

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November 10, 2021

Amazon-backed Rivian aims for $66.5 billion market value as the Tesla rival goes public at a higher price than expected

EV startup Rivian is targeting a market valuation of $66.5 billion in its blockbuster IPO on Wednesday.
Rivian has priced its IPO at $78 per share, higher than expected, and it expects to raise $11.9 billion.
The Tesla rival is currently making big losses but that valuation puts it in the ballpark of Ford and GM.

Amazon-backed EV startup Rivian priced its initial public offering at $78 per share, giving the company a market value of $66.5 billion as it gears up for one of the biggest floats in US history on Wednesday.

Rivian said in a filing on Tuesday night that it had sold 153 million shares at $78 per share, having previously expected to sell 135 million at between $72 and $74.

The company expects to raise $11.9 billion from the share sale, which would put it in the top 10 biggest IPOs of all time, according to Renaissance Capital data. It will trade on the Nasdaq exchange with the ticker RIVN.

Rivian was founded in 2009 and builds electric vehicles, with a focus on trucks. The company made a loss of $994 million in the first six months of the year as it spent heavily to ramp up production.

Despite its big losses, its $78-a-share IPO price would give the company a market value of $66.5 billion. That would put Rivian in the same ballpark as General Motors, worth $85.1 billion, and Ford, worth $80.4 billion. Fellow EV startup Lucid, which went public earlier this year via a SPAC deal, has a $74.3 billion market capitalization.

The sky-high valuation is a sign of the lofty expectations for Rivian. Investors’ hopes have no doubt been spurred by the success of Tesla, whose revenue came in at $13.8 billion in the third quarter and which now has a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion.

Rivian boasts big name investors including Ford and Amazon, which owned 14.4% and 22.4% of class A shares respectively prior to the IPO.

Amazon has ordered 100,000 trucks for delivery by 2025. Rivian overall has 55,400 preorders for its R1T truck and R1S SUV, which it expects to fulfil by 2023.

To try to drum up interest on Main Street, Rivian plans to sell up to 0.4% of the shares on offer to retail investors through SoFi Securities. In IPOs, most of the stock is sold by the underwriters to institutions and will only become available to retail investors when it’s resold in the following days.

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September 15, 2021

Rivian wants to raise up to $8 billion in its hotly anticipated 4th-quarter IPO, report says

Rivian is looking to raise as much as $8 billion in its upcoming IPO, CNBC reported.
The electric truck maker is backed by big names including Amazon and Ford.
The company has a lineup of electric SUVs and pickups, and has partnered with Amazon for electric delivery vans.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Electric truck maker Rivian is gearing up to go public in the fourth quarter and is looking to raise as much as $8 billion in its IPO, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The company, which is backed by Amazon and has garnered additional investment from Ford and T. Rowe Price, filed documents last month indicating its intent to go public. A raise of $8 billion would make Rivian’s the fourth largest IPO of the last 10 years, according to Reuters, just behind Uber’s public debut in 2019.

The company’s EV lineup include an electric SUV and an electric pickup truck, with plans to begin fulfilling pre-order deliveries later this year. It has also partnered with Amazon to manufacture electric delivery vans for the online retail giant.

Rivian has raised $10 billion since 2019, making it one of the most well-funded startups. Its IPO would allow it to expand operations, with plans to add additional manufacturing capacity beyond its current factor located in Normal, Illinois, Reuters said.

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