[RahulNagaraj]

Rivian Automotive - the Amazon and Ford-backed electric pickup truck maker, is said to have filed for an IPO (Initial Public Offering). According to reports, the California-based start-up is targeting an impressive US$ 80 billion (Rs. 5,84,712.8 crore) valuation.



Rivian is said to have confidentially filed the S-1 form with the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission). The company expects the IPO to go ahead sometime in late November, upon receiving approval from the SEC.



Rivian, however, is yet to launch a vehicle in the market. Although the company began taking reservations for its R1T electric trucks, they have been facing multiple delays in production. The Rivian R1T electric truck was first showcased at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show and is said to be a direct rival to the Tesla Cybertruck.

The company also announced the R1S - an electric SUV, which will be the second model from the brand.

Source: Bloomberg

Link to Team-BHP news

[vikramk]

The company did some great advertising by having their vehicles be a part of the TV show called Long Way Up. This included driving the first two prototypes from the southern tip of South America to Los Angeles. The show streams on Apple TV+.

Though the car was incomplete when it was used in the show, it looked really good. Given the size of the IPO, quite clearly they're betting on a big electric future and maybe even trying to become the Ford F-150 of electric trucks. Also interesting to note that Ford is an investor in the company.

[abhishek46]

A valuation of $80 Billion, for a company whose product is still to reach active production.

A bit too optimistic, in my opinion.

[drumbrakes]

Elon Musk on IPO

[Shresth_EV]

And then people said Tesla valuations were crazy

No but on a serious note, Rivian has delivered vehicles — the delivery van order placed by Amazon.

Surely that doesn’t justify the entirety of the valuation as it stands, but yes, it does give context that it’s not a vapourware company like Nikola.

[officer416]

Originally Posted by Shresth_EV

And then people said Tesla valuations were crazy

No but on a serious note, Rivian has delivered vehicles — the delivery van order placed by Amazon.

Surely that doesn’t justify the entirety of the valuation as it stands, but yes, it does give context that it’s not a vapourware company like Nikola.

Amazon has invested almost a billion dollar in Rivian so far. Both by placing a pre-order of 100,000 vans and direct investments into the company along with Ford. So they have their own interests and will market the company.

They don't have a production facility ready yet, the vans you are talking about are couple of pre-production units that Amazon has used for pilot projects. Those pilot projects so far have been marketing activities only. Just like one in the article you posted from Amazon website.

Rivian was suppose to deliver first batch of R1T trucks in June-July 2021, they even asked reservation holders to pick colours through their portal plus any other options they want, but so far none have been delivered. They still testing the thing and keep posting videos in Youtube of the same. They will not be able to deliver any vans until they setup a second manufacturing facility for it, the one already under works is for the R1T truck and R1S SUV.

People will be skeptical now in investing in Rivian because many got burnt with Nikola. Nikola got GM involved to get a bit weightage behind them, but that didn't help them in anyway. Another example is Lordstown Motors who even have GM's factory available to them but still couldn't deliver any trucks.

[shortbread]

American markets is currently a massive bubble.

Capital is sloshing about and very cheap. Biden wants to give free money to everyone and people now investing all this extra money in markets/crypto wherever they get any return.

So that valuation does not seem far off.