Google has joined as an investor in Redwood Materials, a battery recycling and cathode production startup that is expanding into energy storage for AI data centers and industrial sites. The company recently raised $425 million in a Series E round, bringing its total capital raised to $4.9 billion.

Founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, Redwood Materials focuses on creating a circular supply chain for batteries by recycling scrap from battery production and consumer electronics. The company extracts materials like nickel and lithium from the scrap and sells them to customers such as Panasonic for battery production.

Redwood Materials has expanded beyond recycling to include cathode production and an energy storage business called Redwood Energy. This new venture repurposes EV batteries into micro-grids that power AI data centers and industrial sites, addressing the growing demand for energy storage infrastructure.

The company has recovered over 70% of used or discarded battery packs in North America, with plans to deploy 20 gigawatt-hours of grid-scale storage by 2028. Redwood’s latest funding round, which includes investments from Google and Nvidia, values the company at over $6 billion, reflecting its growth and potential in the energy storage market.

Read more at Yahoo Finance: Redwood attracts Google for its $425M Series E as AI power needs rise