Following a recent $350 million raise, Redwood Materials, a company specializing in battery recycling and cathode production, has reportedly made staff cuts amounting to around 5% of its workforce, according to Bloomberg News.
The Nevada-based company, founded by former Tesla executive JB Straubel in 2017, has shifted its focus towards utilizing recycled battery materials to develop energy storage solutions for AI data centers. Initially concentrating on recycling materials from battery cell production, consumer electronics, and used electric vehicles (EVs), Redwood Materials extracts valuable resources like cobalt, nickel, and lithium from these sources for resale to customers such as Panasonic. The company has since expanded its operations to include cathode production.
Redwood Materials has recently introduced a new venture that repurposes old EV batteries for energy storage applications, catering to the increasing demand from power-intensive AI data centers. By stockpiling over 1 gigawatt-hour’s worth of batteries, the company is positioning itself in the burgeoning energy storage sector.
The substantial Series E funding round, disclosed in October, led to a valuation of approximately $6 billion for Redwood Materials. Despite the recent layoffs, the company has chosen not to provide details or comments on the matter.
Source: TechCrunch