The Information称硅负极电池初创公司借AI数据中心、无人机需求重新获得融资关注

But that’s changing, and AI is a primary driver. This week, California-based silicon anode developer Sila Nanotechnologies announced a $300 million funding round after a year or so of attempts to raise new money, bringing the startup’s total raised to $1.6 billion. CEO Gene Berdichevsky declined to disclose Sila’s valuation but credited the AI boom for pushing the new round over the finish line.

Investor interest in batteries waned when EVs did not take off as the industry expected in the U.S. Now, though, batteries are seen as “critical for everything that’s happening in the world today in AI,” Berdichevsky told me.

For batteries, “anything that AI touches…is hot,” he said.“And as soon as you get humanoids starting to actually deliver, that’s going to be really hot for batteries. If you get to space data centers, it’s going to be a wild time for batteries for that as well.”

Sila is among the slew of U.S. battery startups that emerged in droves in 2020 and 2021, anticipating massive demand for EVs. When that didn’t happen, Sila and others like it found customers in makers of electric devices—Whoop fitness watches, for instance, which use Sila silicon. But such devices require an infinitesimal amount of silicon compared with EVs, so they generate only tiny revenue.

While many of the startups have closed down, others have pivoted to AI. Most are emphasizing their ability to power combat drones, which use AI for guidance, and AI data centers, which can use silicon anode batteries to provide needed surges of power. “AI data center needs have created a huge new market opportunity that is in development,” said Rick Luebbe, CEO of Washington state–based Group14 Technologies, Sila’s primary rival in the U.S. silicon anode battery industry.

It’s not only silicon anode battery makers that are making this pivot. In its second quarter revenue call on Wednesday evening, lithium metal anode developer QuantumScape said it, too, is shifting its strategy to focus on the AI boom. CEO Siva Sivaram said the California startup had formed two new units—one that would try to sell QuantumScape’s batteries to AI data centers, and the other that would aim at defense customers, like drone makers.

But QuantumScape lacks any commercial sales as yet, while silicon anode developers are already in the money with AI customers. Sila and Group14 have pioneered the development of silicon carbon anodes, which investors favor because silicon atoms can theoretically hold 10 times more lithium by weight than graphite, the material used in almost all of today’s lithium-ion batteries. That can make for far greater driving range. Silicon anodes also charge faster than graphite ones, which have trouble absorbing lithium quickly. The startups’ anodes use a carbon shell to absorb the extensive swelling that is a feature of silicon.

As with most major commercial battery chemistries, silicon carbon anodes have become part of the geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China. Silicon carbon anodes were invented in the U.S., but Chinese companies, having somehow obtained the capacity to make them as well, are quickly scaling up their production. By[one estimate](https://www.batterypoweronline.com/news/jeff-dahn-on-silicon-carbon-anodes/), more than 70 Chinese companies are selling this type of anode.

Earlier this year, China’s BYD and Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. became the[world’s first companies](https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/the-electric/electric-china-steals-manufacturing-march-another-american-made-technology?rc=fd9gxc) to deploy silicon carbon in an EV battery.

Now, in a development that has not previously been reported, Luebbe said he expects a carmaker to deploy Group14’s anode in an EV later this year, and Berdichevsky said other automakers will use Sila’s anodes in the U.S. and Europe beginning next year. Neither of the men would identify the carmakers.

That’s good news. The startups hadn’t entertained a lot of hope for obtaining much if any EV business anytime soon, as carmakers have shunned next-generation batteries, instead embracing[“good enough](https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/the-electric/the-electric-good-enough-batteries-threaten-lithium-metal-startups?rc=fd9gxc)” ones that meet most consumer needs.

Still, these few EV models are a far cry from the previously expected towering demand for silicon anodes, explaining the strategic pivot to AI applications.

Berdichevsky said drones are the key source of new demand for his anodes. The war in Ukraine, which has wholly changed the consensus on how to wage warfare, has been the main source of this demand. Now, warfare is driven by cheap, unmanned aircraft and ground vehicles that can swarm a target without risk to a human pilot or driver.

As an example of the frenzy over these drones, Germany-based combat drone maker Helsing on July 13 said it had raised $1.8 billion at a $18 billion valuation. The prior week, German drone maker Quantum Systems raised $1.2 billion at an $8 billion valuation. Both are major suppliers to Ukraine and spend tons of money on batteries for those drones.

This development—in addition to the new focus on satellites and space data centers—offers a reprieve for companies like Sila because silicon anodes are much lighter than graphite ones, allowing a drone to travel further and hover longer.

“The value proposition is very simple,” Berdichevsky said. “One kilo of silicon anodes displaces 5 kilos of graphite. Obviously, for anything space related, that’s huge.”