"Tesla cofounder JB Straubel served as the brains behind the battery development for the electric vehicle giant, and he saw firsthand the massive amounts of critical minerals that are potentially wasted when it comes time to retire each EV-raw materials ripe for recycling and redeploying. China dominates most of the world's critical mineral supply chains. Each EV battery represents a treasure trove of lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, and more that can be reused for brand-new batteries for energy storage and all sorts of devices from AI data centers to military equipment to smartphones and computers."
"Straubel founded Redwood Materials in 2017, which is rapidly expanding and has grown into the United States' first line of defense for recycling critical minerals in the potential supply-chain cold war with China-now at a temporary truce. "Being able to tap into materials that are already in the market can dramatically reduce the pressure on what's needed to mine," Straubel told Fortune. "Once you have some diversity of supply, you reduce the risk of the [Chinese] monopoly and the geopolitical concentration.""
Significant quantities of critical minerals in retired EV batteries present a major recycling opportunity. China currently dominates most global critical mineral supply chains, creating geopolitical risk. Each EV battery contains lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, and other materials that can be reused for new batteries and diverse applications from energy storage to AI data centers and military equipment. Redwood Materials, founded by JB Straubel in 2017, is rapidly expanding to recycle these materials domestically. The U.S. is investing in mining, refining, recycling, and battery manufacturing to reduce dependence on foreign supply and increase domestic resilience.
Read at Fortune
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