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. Read more →