Shares of Amazon-backed EV startup Rivian pops on IPO debut, surpassing GM at $101 billion market cap despite less than 100 EV trucks delivered

Yesterday, we wrote about Rivian after the Amazon-backed EV startup made its public market debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange, opening at $106.75 per share after being priced at $78. By the time the market closed, the shares of the Plymouth, Michigan-based Rivian rose by 2%, pulling other EV stocks up including Nio and Fisker.

This morning, shares of Rivian continued to climb Thursday, up more than 18 percent, reaching a valuation of more than $101 billion. This means that Rivian is now more valuable than either GM, which currently has a market cap of $88.8 billion midmorning Thursday or Ford’s at $78.9 billion.

Even at over $100 billion market cap, the EV startup has yet to produce high volumes of its vehicles. So far, Rivian has only delivered 42 electric pickups to customers, most of them company employees. As of October 22, Rivian has built only 56 R1Ts or an average of two vehicles a day.

Meanwhile, Amazon, one of the major investor in the company, said it plans to use Rivian vehicles in its delivery fleet, having ordered 100,000 to be handed over by 2030. Amazon expects to have 10,000 Rivian vehicles delivering Amazon packages as early as next year.

Rivian is just one of the many EV startups going public this year. In July, Tesla’s rival Lucid Motors went public via SPAC in a $24 billion mega-deal. The company was able to raise an eye-watering $4.5 billion in new capital infusion.

Founded in 2009 by Robert J. Scaringe, Rivian is the world’s first electric adventure vehicle. The company is developing vehicles, technology, and services that inspire people to get out and explore the world. Rivian is an automotive technology company that develops products and services to advance the shift to sustainable mobility.

“As we near the start of vehicle production, it’s vital that we keep looking forward and pushing through to Rivian’s next phase of growth,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement.

Rivian originally planned to launch its R1T pickup truck and R1S sport utility in the U.S. in 2020 but was later delayed. Last week, Rivian notified buyers it is delaying deliveries of the R1T pickup until September and the R1S SUV until later in the fall. Now the company plans to test its electric delivery vans in 16 cities by the end of 2021.