Battery Makers and Critical Inputs
Kevin Balfe@kbalfe
−14.4%
since Oct 3
The idea
I believe batteries become the quiet bottleneck for cars, grids, and everything electrified, and the companies making them will capture outsized value. The basket leans on established makers with real factories and revenue, adds a smaller sleeve of next-gen chemistry bets like solid-state and silicon-anode, and tilts its materials exposure toward the exotic, hard-to-make inputs both today's cells and tomorrow's designs need. No single name dominates, the speculative chemistry bets are sized small on purpose, and I keep 10% in cash to use when this volatile group sells off.
What it owns
- The exotic, necessary inputs, lithium and anode graphite, that both current and next-gen batteries can't be built without. · AlbemarleIt is the largest western lithium producer and makes the hardest forms, including lithium hydroxide and metal, that both current high-nickel cells and next-gen anodes require., Lithium AmericasIt is building the biggest US lithium project, making it necessary because exotic, necessary inputs increasingly need to come from somewhere other than China., Sociedad Química y Minera de ChileIt pulls lithium from Chilean brine at some of the lowest costs in the world, allowing it to stay profitable through price crashes that bankrupt higher-cost producers., NovonixIt makes anode-grade synthetic graphite in North America, the necessary input nearly every lithium cell needs that today comes almost entirely from China., Sigma LithiumIt mines unusually high-grade hard rock in Brazil, the kind of concentrated, necessary input the take calls for, and already produces and ships., Standard LithiumIt is working to pull lithium directly from Arkansas brines with a newer extraction method, a bet that the hardest-to-make supply will come from new techniques., American Battery TechnologyIt recycles old batteries back into lithium, nickel, and cobalt, becoming a real source of the scarcest inputs once enough cells age out.38%
- Companies already building and selling batteries at scale carry the take while the science plays out. · Tesla, Inc.It makes batteries at a scale almost no one else matches, with cars, storage products, and cell programs all dependent on cells becoming smaller, faster, and higher capacity., EnerSysIt sells industrial batteries for forklifts, data centers, and telecom today for real revenue, providing the established maker foundation the take needs., Fluence EnergyIt builds the grid-scale storage systems that turn batteries into infrastructure, the clearest case of batteries constraining the grid., Eos Energy EnterprisesIt makes zinc-based batteries for long-duration grid storage, a different chemistry aimed at the same constraint that the grid needs more stored capacity.29%
- Solid-state and silicon-anode companies are the direct bet on smaller, faster, higher-capacity cells. · EnovixIt packs more energy into a cell by replacing graphite anodes with silicon, attacking the energy-density problem head-on., QuantumScapeIt develops solid-state cells that promise more energy in less space, the most direct bet on the smaller, faster, higher-capacity part of the take., Amprius TechnologiesIt already ships silicon-anode cells to drone and aviation customers, making it the next-gen bet closest to real revenue., Solid PowerIt sells the sulfide electrolyte that many solid-state designs need, making it a bet on the whole next-gen category rather than one cell design.23%
- Cash10%