Rivian Automotive, backed by Amazon.com Inc, on Friday significantly raised the expected offer price of its shares, with the electric vehicle manufacturer aiming for a valuation of as much as $65 billion in its initial public offering.

The company, which last month disclosed nearly $1 billion in losses for the first half of this year, said it will sell 135 million shares at a price range of between $72 and $74 each and raise nearly $10 billion.

The new price band is much higher than the $57-$62 range announced earlier this month and follows a successful investor roadshow this week, as Wall Street's big IPO investors bet on Rivian to be the next big player in a sector dominated by Tesla.

While the startup has yet to sell any significant volume of its electric vans or trucks, a $65 billion valuation for Rivian could bring it closer to traditional auto makers Ford, but still be smaller than General Motors.

The IPO could be one of the biggest in the past decade after Alibaba and Facebook.

Rivian, which has been investing aggressively to ramp up production, including for its upscale all-electric R1T pickup truck which was launched in September, beating out competition from more established rivals such as Tesla Inc, General Motors and Ford.

The company had about 55,400 R1T and R1S preorders in the United States and Canada from customers who each paid a cancellable and refundable deposit of $1,000, as of Oct. 31.

Amazon has ordered 100,000 of Rivian's electric delivery vans as part of the e-commerce giant's broader effort to cut its carbon footprint.

Rivian will, however, face competition from automakers in both the consumer and commercial van markets.

Ford said it has more than 160,000 orders for its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck and that an electric version of its Transit commercial van is "completely sold out."

General Motors is gearing up production of electric delivery vans, SUVs and pickup trucks.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters. Rivian will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "RIVN".

  - Reuters