An application for an initial public offering was filed confidentially with regulators by the electric vehicle maker Rivian which sets the stage for an awaited listing of the company at e end of the year with the company looking to benefit from the IPO market that is currently booming in the United States, Rivian said on Friday.

The major investors of Rivian include Amazon.com Inc, Soros Fund Management and BlackRock and the company said it has set a target to achieve a valuation of about $70-80 billion during the initial public offering, said reports quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.

If that valuation is achieved by the company, the market capitalization of Rivian will be bigger than that of General Motors Co, the largest auto maker of the US. However, that valuation will still be much lower than that of Tesla Inc which has a total market capitalization of almost $700 billion and which is currently in the process of development of a pickup truck that would rival that of Rivian’s.

According to data from Dealogic, the IPO market in the US has so far raised a record amount of more than $225 billion so far his year and the stock market flotation of Rivian is expected to be the perfect cap to a great year for US IPOs.

The record-breaking capital markets activity in the United State this year has attracted a number of well-known names including the Chinese ride hailing firm Didi Global, South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global as they went public in the country’s stock exchanges.

It is expected that in the last quarter of this year, a number of other big companies will also get listed in the country which includes names such as the chip maker GlobalFoundries, the restaurant software provider Toast and the private equity giant TPG.

No other details of the IPO were provided by Rivian on Friday. Analysts and investors expect the company to disclose its financials for the first time in a public filing in the next few weeks.

Rivian is amongst the most well-funded startups in e United States. Since the beginning of 2019, the company has raised a total of $10.5 billion which includes a financing round in July worth $2.5 billion which was led by Amazon and Ford Motor Co (F.N).

The company was founded by RJ Scaringe in 2009 and was initially called Mainstream Motors and was later named Rivian in 2011.

The name “Rivian” is based on the term “Indian River” in Florida, a place Scaringe frequented in a rowboat as a youth.

The company has set a target of production of an electric pick-up and an SUV this year.

With China, the European Union and other countries tightening their regulations over carbon emissions, there is a race among auto companies to develop electric vehicles.

Factories re being modified by US traditional carmakers such as GM and Ford for enabling production of electric vehicles while new factories are being built or existing ones expanded by other companies Tesla, Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn and several other startups.

(Adapted from DevdiScourse.com)