Amazon-backed Rivian is going public

When it comes to the Bezos vs. Musk billionaire beef, space is the main event — pitting Blue Origin against SpaceX.

Back on earth, there’s another battle brewing: electric vehicles.

While Musk has Tesla…

… Bezos is backing EV truck maker Rivian, in which Amazon owns a ~5% stake, per CNBC. Rivian filed its IPO papers last week and currently sports $0 revenue and a loss of $994m through the first half of 2021.

For the company — which is eyeing an ~$80B valuation — it’s all about the future. Here are some plans, per TechCrunch:

• Something for everyone: Rivian will roll out both a consumer product (pickup truck) and a commercial product (van)
• The Amazon assist: The ecommerce giant has committed to ordering 100k of Rivian’s electric delivery vans (presumably, this will help increase revenue from $0)
• Ford in the mix, too: The US car manufacturer also has a ~5% stake in Rivian, and the 2 companies have swapped car manufacturing know-how

Rivian has a $1T serviceable addressable market…

… per company filings, which refers to business it can serve in the next 3 years. The company employs 6k+ people and currently operates an assembly plant out of Illinois.

Unlike Tesla’s Cybertruck, Rivian’s pickup truck (R1T) has already hit the market. Priced at $67k+, reviews so far are positive — per CNBC.

The first iteration of the van is expected by the end of 2021… and the next subtweet from Musk is probably coming any day now.