Tags: Redwood Materials

Redwood Materials, the battery‑recycling startup founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, has seen its energy‑storage division become its fastest‑growing unit as AI‑driven data centers surge. The company expanded its San Francisco R&D lab four‑fold to a 55,000‑square‑foot facility, now employing nearly 100 staff. A recent $425 million Series E round, led by new investor Google and existing backer Nvidia, will fund further scaling. Early customers include Crusoe, and Redwood is courting hyperscalers for projects measured in hundreds of megawatt‑hours to gigawatt‑hours, positioning the business to meet the massive power needs of modern AI computing. Weiterlesen

A new International Energy Agency report shows global spending on data centers surpassing oil exploration, highlighting the massive power demand of AI-driven facilities. The surge strains electrical grids, especially near large cities, but also opens opportunities for renewable solutions such as solar farms and microgrids built from used EV batteries. Major AI firms like OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic have pledged billions toward new data center projects, while startups focusing on clean energy infrastructure stand to benefit from the shift. Weiterlesen