In December 2022, Carvana’s stock plummeted to the depths amid talk of bankruptcy.

Three years later, the online used-car retailer is being welcomed into the S&P 500, an announcement that’s driving its stock price to record levels.

S&P Global said Friday that Carvana will be included in its index of 500 of the nation’s largest public companies, effective Dec. 22. That news sparked a pre-trading surge that Reuters reported drove Carvana stock value up 9% by Monday’s market opening.

“This designation is the latest in a series of important milestones cementing the power, performance and potential of Carvana’s business,” the company said in a statement. “Our path to this point is an incredible story full of ambition and challenge. It involves a steadfast commitment to customers, big swings and relentless execution, and arguably the biggest corporate comeback of all time. And there’s much more yet to come.”

The comeback became necessary when sales fell and debt rose in 2022 amid a used-car market affected by high inflation and interest rates. The bottom dropped out of Carvana stock, which sank 99% from its 2021 high of $370 to just $3.72.

The company now has a market valuation of some $87 billion — higher than that of giant automakers General Motors and Ford. Its stock opened Monday at $434. In its recent third-quarter earnings call, Carvana announced it sold 155,941 retail units in Q3, up 44% year-over-year, with revenue up 55% to $5.6 billion and net income up $115 million to $263 million.

The recovery was fueled by a shift in focus from growth to efficiency and profitability, Carvana said, “driving rapid progress in financial and operational metrics and restructuring and reducing its debt before returning to profitable growth. Throughout 2024 and 2025, we continued to prioritize fundamental efficiency gains and profitable growth while maintaining relentless focus on the customer experience.”

Now, the company said, those efforts have “set Carvana apart as a force in auto retail and e-commerce generally.”

Carvana, founded in 2012 by CEO Ernie Garcia, chief operating officer Ben Huston and chief brand officer Ryan Keeton, sold its first car in January 2013 in Atlanta. It went public in 2017 and in 2021 became the third-fastest company ever to make the Fortune 500.

In May 2022, it acquired ADESA’s U.S. physical auctions and has begun adding inspection-reconditioning centers to those facilities to improve its retail sales infrastructure.

The company now claims the title of “the fastest-growing, most profitable automotive retailer in history,” and, it added, “we’re just getting started.”