(Reuters) – Amazon-backed electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc is set for a highly anticipated Nasdaq debut on Wednesday, after raising nearly $12 billion in an upsized offer that made it one of the biggest U.S. initial public offerings.
Since last year, companies in the EV space have emerged as some of the hottest investments and Wall Street’s biggest institutional investors are betting on Rivian to be the next big player in a sector dominated by Tesla.
The EV market is also witnessing a surge in demand globally, as consumers become more environmentally conscious and bet on eco-friendly vehicles.
Rivian generated the most new watchers in the last 24 hours on social media site Stocktwits, viewed commonly as measure of retail investor interest.
Founded in 2009, Rivian has been investing heavily to ramp up production, doubling down on its upscale all-electric R1T pickup truck, which was launched in September.
The EV maker, also backed by Ford Motor Co, had about 55,400 R1T and R1S pre-orders in the United States and Canada as of Oct. 31, according to a recent regulatory filing.
Rivian priced an upsized IPO of 153 million shares at $78 per share, the company said. Last week, it had boosted its price range to $72 to $74 per share from $57 to $62.
Amazon, T. Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton, Capital Research and Blackstone are among a group of “cornerstone investors” who are indicated to buy up to $5 billion worth of shares, according to the filing.
Rivian will list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol “RIVN”.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bangalore and Echo Wang in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
