"The only explanation for this valuation is that"

There is an abundance of cheap money courtesy of the FED that is finding it's way into the market. It isn't Joe6pack buying Rivian.

"Rivian managed to build a car that people actually want."

Didn't FORD do this with the F150? I don't know of one contractor that is going to buy a Rivian. Most drive beat up F250's/RAM 2500/etc.

"I think Rivians high valuation just shows that they managed to nail a market segment that Tesla floundered."

>as of Sept. 30, it had roughly 48,390 orders for its truck and S.U.V. in the United States and Canada from customers who each had paid a refundable deposit of $1,000.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/business/rivian-ipo.html

Here are Fords numbers.

https://fordauthority.com/fmc/ford-motor-company-sales-numbe...

So far this year approx 500k F150's and that's during a chip shortage.

Anyway, I hope they're successful but there is a lot of future growth and profit priced in and time will tell.