Rivian has started the SEC paperwork for an IPO

Rivian is one of the most exciting electric vehicle startups around at the moment. Its R1T and R1S truck and SUV, respectively, promise tons of tech with a heaping helping of practicality, and the company has already managed to attract a whole bunch of capital from companies like Amazon and Ford. According to an announcement Rivian made on Friday, it wants to go a step further and is planning to file an initial public offering.

The details on the IPO are still a little scarce since this announcement only says that the company has filed its initial paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This makes it hard to say how much money the company could expect from its IPO, but some reports estimate that figure to be around $80 billion.

To date, Rivian has secured a little over $10 billion in funding from various sources, so that $80 billion figure would represent a serious influx of cash -- something that's bound to be hugely beneficial to a company that's preparing to launch its first consumer vehicle. The thing is, though, that IPO expectations and actual IPO results don't always line up (just look at Facebook or Aston Martin for examples), so there's still plenty that could go wrong. 

Rivian's first consumer model, the R1T electric truck, is expected to start reaching customers in September, but that date has been pushed back before, and with the current global silicon shortage, we wouldn't be surprised to see it happen again.