The market value of the Amazon-backed electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc crossed the $100 billion following as much as a 53 per cent surge in the shares of the company on Wednesday at its debut at Nasdaq in what was the largest initial public offering so far this year.

The stocks of the company ultimately closed at 30 per cent higher than its offering price at $100.73 a share.

The strong debut of the company at the stock exchange has now made it the second most valuable automaker in the United States, after only Tesla Inc, which has a market value of about $1.06 trillion.

Rivian is now listed in ablution above that of General Motors Co, valued at $86.05 billion, Ford Motor Co with a market value of $77.37 billion, and Lucid Group which has a market valuation of $65.96 billion, despite Rivian having just started to sell vehicles and not having much revenue to report,

It has been tough for Rivian to increase its manufacturing at its plant in Illinois, owing to the global supply-chain restrictions that have impacted all automakers. The rollout of vehicles from its Illinois plant had been delayed because of Covid-19 and its impact on its suppliers, the electric vehicle maker had said last July.

Investors have flocked to purchase shares of electric vehicle companies since 2020.  The fully diluted valuation of Rivian at its launch topped $106 billion which included securities such as options and restricted stock units.

The company was able to raise around $12 billion through the IPO to support growth, and if the entire over-allotment of shares is exercised, the amount might climb to $13.7 billion. Considering this fact, the IPO of Rivian is the largest IPO in the United States since the one issued by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in September 2014.

“The transition to a public company (and) the growth in our capital base” enables Rivian to develop “promising products and volume and growth in terms of new segments and new vehicles that we’ll be going into,” Rivian Chief Executive R.J. Scaringe said in an interview.

T. Rowe Price and BlackRock, two of Wall Street’s largest institutional investors, are counting on Rivian to be the next big player in a field that is eclipsed by Tesla Inc, even while there is the rising push for automakers to reduce emissions in China and Europe.

Rivian’s largest stakeholder, Amazon.com Inc, owns 20 per cent of the company.

The company’s stock market debut also coincides with the United Nations Climate Summit, which saw automakers, airlines, and governments announce a slew of commitments to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the transportation sector globally.

Rivian’s IPO only demonstrated how undervalued her firm is, said GM CEO Mary Barra on Wednesday.

“What it highlights to me is the huge opportunity,” she said at a New York Times event. “General Motors is so undervalued.”

(Adapted from Reuters.com)