Fresh off a major $350 million funding boost, battery recycling and cathode manufacturing firm Redwood Materials is reportedly scaling back operations with a reduction of about 5% of its staff, according to Bloomberg News.
The Nevada-based company, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, had been aggressively expanding to support the clean energy transition, making the job cuts a surprising development amid its rapid growth trajectory.
Redwood Materials, which employs roughly 1,200 people at its Nevada facilities, is expected to let go of only a small fraction of its workforce, impacting a few dozen positions. The move appears to be a targeted restructuring rather than a broad downsizing, as the company continues to scale.
READ: Google reportedly in talks to supply AI chips to Nvidia (
Founded in 2017, Redwood Materials began by recycling waste from battery manufacturing, consumer electronics, and end-of-life electric vehicle batteries. The company recovers valuable metals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt, which it then supplies back to clients, among them Panasonic. Over time, Redwood expanded its capabilities beyond recycling, venturing into cathode material production to support the growing domestic battery supply chain.
More recently, Redwood Materials has branched into a new line of business repurposing retired electric vehicle batteries for energy storage systems, a market experiencing rapid growth amid soaring demand from AI-driven data centers. By June, the company had accumulated over 1 gigawatt-hour of used batteries designated for this expanding energy storage venture, positioning itself as a key player in the circular battery economy.
The company’s $350 million Series E round, announced in October, reportedly pushed its valuation to approximately $6 billion, according to TechCrunch. While the funding signaled strong investor confidence in Redwood’s growth strategy, the company has not publicly addressed the recent workforce reduction. A spokesperson declined to comment on the layoffs.
The ripple effects of shifting market conditions are being felt across the battery and EV materials sector. General Motors recently confirmed plans to eliminate roughly 1,700 positions tied to its electric-vehicle and battery operations in Detroit and Ohio, part of broader efforts to recalibrate production targets. Cellforce, a Porsche-backed battery unit is preparing to cut a significant portion of its workforce after pulling back on plans for high-performance cell manufacturing. On the West Coast, Washington-based Group14 Technologies has reduced staff and postponed its facility launch, pointing to changing demand patterns and uncertainty in global supply chains.