ELECTRIC TRUCK MAKER RIVIAN ZOOMS TO $86B MARKET VALUE

Shares of Rivian Automotive jumped in their debut Wednesday, rising as much as 53% as investors look for the next big winner in the electric vehicle market.

The closing price of $100.73 gave Rivian a market value of about $85.9 billion, greater than that of Ford and just below General Motors. That’s noteworthy because Rivian has so far delivered about 150 of its electric pickup trucks to customers, mostly employees, whereas Ford and GM sell millions of cars globally each year.

Ford is one of Rivian’s high-profile backers, having invested a half-billion dollars into the company in 2019. The other is Amazon, which held a 20% stake in Rivian ahead of the IPO.

Rivian is aiming to take advantage of a growing appetite among consumers and investors for electric vehicles. It joins what’s becoming a long line of companies, both new and old, trying to peel away market share from Tesla.

Tesla has largely dominated the electric vehicle market for years, amassing a market value of more than $1 trillion along the way. So far this year, Tesla has sold around 627,300 vehicles.