Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast Auto Ltd. (NASDAQ:VFS) has achieved a notable milestone. On Monday’s close, the EV maker hit a market capitalization of $190 billion, making it the third most valuable carmaker in the world, just behind electric car behemoth Tesla and veteran automaker Toyota.
With a market cap of $190 billion, VinFast has effectively reached a level that Tesla was only able to attain in June 2020, when the company’s stock rose to more than $1,000 per share for the first time. The milestone shocked Tesla critics then, as the company only delivered 367,656 vehicles in the year prior. Toyota, then the world’s most valuable carmaker, delivered over 10 million in 2019.
It should also be noted that when Tesla achieved its $190 billion market cap, the company had already established itself as a leader in the electric vehicle sector, with the Model 3 sedan dominating its segment. The Model Y had also started its deliveries then, and expectations were high that the all-electric crossover would be a best-seller. The Model Y met these expectations, becoming the world’s best-selling car in Q1 2023.
VinFast, on the other hand, only sold 24,000 cars globally in 2022, and in the United States, the company’s sales are significantly lower, with only 128 VF 8 units being registered in the country through May. Considering these results from the automaker so far, its $190 billion valuation definitely seems to warrant a few raised eyebrows.
As noted in a Bloomberg News report, part of the reason behind the volatility of VinFast stock is the limited number of shares that are in the company’s float. About 99% of the company’s 2.3 billion shares outstanding is controlled by founder Pham Nhat Vuong, so only a small fraction is publicly traded. Thus, it doesn’t take much to move the stock up or down.
Whether VinFast could maintain its market cap is a completely different story, but the company deserves some credit just for how insane its rise has become. For context, VinFast eclipsed $200 billion in just ten trading days. Industry leader Tesla took over 3,600 sessions to hit the mark. Nvidia, which is currently seeing a lot of momentum, took 7,700 sessions to achieve the same mark.
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