Enovix buys Korean battery maker RouteJade in cash and stock deal
20/09/2023 21:01
By Stephen Nellis
Sept 20 (Reuters) - Enovix ENVX.O , a Silicon Valley
firm developing new battery technology for consumer electronics
such as mobile phones, said on Wednesday it has acquired Korean
battery maker RouteJade in a cash-and-stock deal.
Enovix said it paid $16.5 million in cash and 6.2 million
shares of common stock for RouteJade, which had previously been
a supplier to Enovix. Enovix Chief Executive Raj Talluri told
Reuters that the deal will help Fremont, California-based Enovix
vertically integrate its battery manufacturing operations as it
scales up a factory in Malaysia next year.
With the deal, "we are able to really take advantage of all
the new materials coming out and quickly run them through R&D
and manufacturing, so we can change our battery composition
quickly," Talluri said. "That's been one of the slower parts of
the battery industry."
Enovix is developing a technology that can replace part of a
battery called an anode, traditionally made out of graphite,
with silicon instead. The swap gives batteries more energy
density, which can help them either last longer or supply more
power to computing chips for functions such artificial
intelligence.
Enonvix is working with Android phone makers Xiaomi
1810.HK , Lenovo Group 0992.HK , Oppo and Vivo. Talluri said
the company is targeting mass production of batteries by the
first half of 2025 and that its Malaysian factory would
eventually have capacity to make about 36 million batteries a
year.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
((Stephen.Nellis@thomsonreuters.com;))