Rivian Automotive went public on November 10 2021 issuing roughly 153 million shares at an offering of $78 per share. At that point, the company was valued at $66.5 billion. Roughly a week later it is now valued at $167 per share, with a market capitalization of $141.8 billion.
It’s quite an impressive journey given the fact that they have only delivered 42 vehicles thus far. The electric Automotive maker now joins an exclusive club of Tesla, Lucid, Fisker, Lordstown Motors, and Nikola. Their combined market capitalization is nearly $1.3 trillion.
To put things into perspective, the combined market capitalization of the 9 largest automakers is $845 billion, this includes GM, Ford, Stellantis, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen, BMW, and Daimler-Benz. Traditionally automakers out sale the top 7 Electronic vehicle manufacturers by 100-1.
Trevor Milton who is the CEO of Nikola currently facing charges relating to his elusive company that is yet to create a workable model of an electric semi-truck. Rivian too is yet to fulfill it’s potential being placed on it by investors who at the moment believe in the company.
Boom or Bust
Despite all the hype surrounding the electric automotive industry and the perceived “global” impact, it will have on the well-being of the environment. It’s still some way off and is filled with scandals. On one side you have greedy and naïve investors looking to make a quick buck off of every hype cycle.
If they see a stock being touted up by analysts as a stock of the future, they will readily invest without much due diligence. Hence, why we will continually have scandal after scandal. It’s as if the riskier the stock or industry is, the higher its valuation because it’s unpredictable.
Modern-day investors seem to be okay with that risk. Additionally, with the amount of capital being floating around, it’s an okay bet to take. Rivian seems a bit overvalued at the moment, especially given their low output of vehicles. Probably investors know more than I do, time will tell.
