Rivian's stock price marks largest IPO since Facebook

Investors are jonesing for EV startups, it seems, and even more for ones producing rugged trucks, if Rivian Automotive's ace IPO today is any indication. Priced at a US$78 debut in the most successful initial public offering since Facebook, Rivian's stock price managed to climb 28% at the time of this writing. The Rivian shares' range briefly flirted with the US$120 threshold since the market opened, bringing the electric truck startup a hefty US$90+ billion valuation.

Thus, Rivian's market cap is now larger than those of legacy car giants like GM or Ford from the get-go. Ford has a 12% stake in Rivian, but most of the electric pickup company's backing comes from Amazon. It owns 20% of Rivian and intends to order 100,000 of its vans when they become available. For now, Rivian is banking on its fun R1T pickup truck that just hit the market in September, and the company is still US$2 billion in the red, but investor hope runs high.

For comparison, Tesla's IPO fetched "just" US$1.5 billion, while its current market valuation stands above the US$1 trillion mark, CEO Elon Musk's Twitter antics notwithstanding. Rivian trades under the RIVN stock ticker over at the NASDAQ exchange.

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