Redwood Materials

Sawyer Merritt

@SawyerMerritt

NEWS: Redwood Materials has begun operations at its new $3.5 billion battery recycling factory in South Carolina that will supply badly needed critical materials. The company has brought a system online that’s capable of recovering 20,000 metric tons of critical minerals annually, which isn't full capacity. "America runs on critical materials: cobalt, lithium, nickel, and copper. They are the backbone of our modern economy, powering everything from computers and smartphones to energy storage, defense systems, and AI data centers. Yet today, the United States imports nearly all of these minerals, often from unstable regions or adversarial nations. Redwood’s mission is to change this."

Ed Ludlow

@EdLudlow

NEWS: Redwood materials upsized its series E funding round to $425M (up from $350M) and added Google as a new investor. Valuation remains at $6.1 billion (sources). Story @TheTerminal Increasing emphasis from Redwood on energy storage and infrastructure re data center.

Ashlee Vance

@ashleevance

More than 70 pecent of the end-of-life lithium-ion batteries in the US flow through Redwood Materials to be recycled into their base elements. Redwood is now the largest Cobalt producer in the US, as a result. We spent a day with Redwood's CEO JB Straubel to see the whole operation in action. https://t.co/IdadswB8Dl

Rep. Nancy Mace

@RepNancyMace

Redwood Materials is the nation’s only domestic source of cobalt and it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the largest U.S. suppliers of nickel and lithium, whether mined or recycled. They’ve poured over $3 BILLION into their new South Carolina facility, bringing 20,000 metric tons of brand-new capacity online. South Carolina is HOT!

ImNotHarsh | 📈💸

@imnotharsh

$QS x $TSLA: The Partnership that could happen & why it just makes sense 🔋 QuantumScape just announced Q2 2026 earnings for July 22nd, which is the same day as Tesla. On Dec 5th, 2024, QS delivered & installed its Cobra next-gen ceramic separator heat treatment equipment, which was a key milestone for scaling solid-state production to higher volumes after 2025. QS's core tech is anode-free lithium-metal solid-state batteries. No traditional graphite/silicon anode host material. Lithium plates in-situ on the current collector during charging. This directly aligns with Elon’s vision: “The best of all possible worlds would be figuring out how to have no anode. Best part being no part. That’s the dream of the lithium batteries...” (Tesla Q1 2025 earnings call, where he talks about anode challenges). Why the partnership is possible: QS brings the breakthrough ceramic separator and anode-free architecture (higher energy density, faster charging ~10-80% in <15 min, better safety, potentially lower cost by skipping anode manufacturing). Tesla brings unmatched high-volume cell production expertise (4680 scaling, dry electrode, Gigafactories, vehicle integration). Leadership bridges: 1. JB Straubel (Tesla co-founder & former CTO) has been on QS’s board (and now on the Strategic Advisory Board). He previously called QS’s anode-less design “the most elegant architecture I’ve seen for a lithium-based battery system.” 2. Brad Buss (former Tesla board member) serves on QS’s board. Proven model: QS already uses a licensing and collaboration approach with $VWA.NE VW’s PowerCo (non-exclusive license targeting up to 40-85 GWh/year capacity). Tesla could follow a similar path, where they license the platform, do a joint development, or supply agreement. How it could actually happen: 1. Tesla licenses QS’s QSE-5 (or next-gen) platform for specific use cases or full integration. 2. Joint development / supply: Co-work on cell formats, cathode compatibility, and manufacturing tweaks. QS supplies cells or just the high-performance ceramic separators. 3. Deeper strategic partnership: Equity investment, co-located production, or tech integration into Tesla’s next-gen cells beyond current 4680. 4. Indirect via ecosystem: Straubel’s Redwood Materials, which is a battery materials & recycling co. creates natural supply-chain overlap. No official announcement exists. This is just some informed speculation based on tech alignment, leadership ties, and QS’s commercialization roadmap. But the dots line up unusually well as both companies push battery boundaries. Cobra enables the scale QS needs. Tesla needs next-gen performance at volume. The win-win potential is real.

Aidan Gold

@MrGoldBro

Top private companies that fewer people know about: 1) Heron Power 2) Erebor Bank 3) Redwood Materials 4) Bedrock Robotics 5) Armada

Former Tesla CFO and long-time automotive finance executive; now leading finance at Redwood Materials.