Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive debuted on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, with shares quickly rising in value above the initial offering of $78 per share after Rivian raised $12 billion in its initial public offering.
Investors are expected to jump aboard the stock, riding on the wave of strong interest in EVs. GM and Ford are each planning all-electric pickup trucks similar to Rivian.
The Irvine, California, company had initially priced its IPO of 153 million shares at $78 per share, up from an earlier price of $57 to $62. Investors quickly piled on the stock with the first trade at $106.75 at 1 p.m. ET Wednesday. That price then rose to more than $112 only 20 minutes into trading.
At market close, the stock had reached had dropped back to $100.66, still about 29% above its opening.
The company is backed by Amazon and Ford Motor among others. It introduced an all-electric R1T pickup truck in September and is in the process of ramping up production. It had about 55,400 R1T and and SUV R1S pre-orders in the U.S. and Canada at the end of October.
The R1T starts at $67,500 with an estimated range of 314 miles while the R1S starts at $70,000.
Amazon has a 20% stake in Rivian and had invested $1.3 billion prior to the IPO. Ford has a 12% stake in Rivian and Cox Automotive has a 5% stake in Rivian. Amazon has ordered more than 100,000 vehicles to be delivered by Rivian by 2030, with about 10,000 new Rivian-Amazon delivery vehicles on the road in 2022.
RJ Scaringe founded Rivian in 2009 and has a Ph.D. from MIT. Rivian has more than 6,200 workers with a factory in Normal, Illinois.
Interest in EVs by consumers is expected to grow, not only because buyers want clean energy. With gas prices so high in recent days, EVs may be viewed as less expensive over their lifetime, said investor Duncan Davidson at Bullpen Capital.