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Rivian, an electric vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com Inc (Nasdaq: AMZN ), BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK ) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE: ), announced via press release Friday that it has filed a draft registration statement confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO).

Bloomberg News reported that Rivian expects the offering to be available by late November and is targeting an $80 billion valuation, while The New York Times said the company is looking for $70 billion.

Either eye-popping valuation would make Rivian worth more than legacy automakers like GM and Ford, which have market capitalizations of $71 billion and $52 billion, respectively.

According to Green Car Reports, a traditional IPO would also set Rivian apart from other EV startups, like Canoo, Fisker Automotive, Lucid Group, Lordstown Motors Corp and Nikola Corporation, all of which went public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company.

As Rivian gets closer to bringing its first vehicles to market, there has been much discussion that the well-financed startup and potential Tesla rival will go public.

In July, Rivian closed a $2.5 billion private funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $10.5 billion since opening its doors in 2009. 

Its current backers, including Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Partners and Ford, along with T. Rowe Price Associates, led the latest round.

According to Reuters, the company plans to use the money to fund the next phase of growth, which includes investing at least $5 billion to open a second US assembly plant that will also produce battery cells. 

Rivian recently delayed the launch of its long-awaited electric pickup truck and electric sport utility vehicle, blaming the “cascading impacts of the pandemic,” as well as the ongoing global chip shortage. 

Its first vehicle, a $73,000 pickup dubbed the R1T, is expected to start shipping in September and a second model, the $75,500 R1S sport utility vehicle, is scheduled for release next year.

Rivian also has a deal with Amazon to build up to 100,000 electric delivery vans, some of which have already hit the streets in the US.

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Source: Equities News

Mentioned in this Article
Ford Motor Co.
Blackrock Inc.
Amazon.com Inc.