Silicon Valley battery startup Lyten announced today that it’s acquiring manufacturing assets from Northvolt, a cash-strapped Swedish battery maker.

As a part of the deal, Northvolt is selling manufacturing equipment the corporate inherited through its 2021 acquisition of Cuberg, one other battery startup. Lyten may also take over the lease of the old Cuberg manufacturing facility in San Leandro, California. Lyten will invest $20 million next yr to expand its San Leandro facilities and existing operations in San Jose.

Neither Lyten nor Northvolt immediately responded to questions on the financial terms of the deal.

Unlike many other battery manufacturers, Lyten doesn’t use nickel, cobalt, manganese and even iron in its cathode materials. Instead, it uses low cost and abundant sulfur mixed with a graphene matrix. The anode side doesn’t use graphite, a surface-facing material export restrictions from China. The company claims that this mix creates cells which have the next energy density than nickel-manganese-cobalt cells, but are cheaper to provide than inexpensive lithium iron phosphate.

Northvolt has been having problems currently. The company struggled to ramp up production of lithium-ion batteries and failed to satisfy a big order from BMW, prompting the automaker to cancel a €2 billion contract.

To get monetary savings, the corporate announced in August that it could achieve this snapshot research and development on the Cuberg plant, shedding almost 200 employees. Then in September it said it was shedding a further 1,600 staff, or about 20% of its workforce, and that it had halted two planned factory expansions.

It is unclear whether cost cutting and the Lyten deal can be enough to assist Northvolt survive the approaching yr. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Northvolt needs to lift almost $1 billion to present itself some respiration room; According to reports, the corporate’s operations generate costs of roughly $100 million monthly.

While Northvolt is slipping, Lyten appears to be growing.

The San Jose-based startup plans to begin constructing a factory in Nevada next yr with a planned capability of 10 gigawatt hours. Once accomplished, the $1 billion facility will produce lithium-sulfur batteries for micro-mobility vehicles reminiscent of scooters and electric bicycles, and for defense and space applications reminiscent of drones and satellites. The company expects to come back online in 2027.

Lyten’s purchase of Northvolt’s Cuberg assets gives it equipment and space to provide as much as 200 megawatt-hours of lithium-sulfur batteries within the Bay Area. This should provide the corporate with some revenue while it prepares a bigger factory in Nevada.

According to PitchBook, Lyten has raised $476 million up to now at a $1.17 billion valuation, which incorporates a $200 million round that closed last yr.

Swedish buy now, pay later (BNPL) start-up. Klarna is on its method to becoming a public company. Fintech he said on Wednesday announced the confidential filing of a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The announcement of the stock exchange listing, long in the making, comes amid a dearth of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the technology sector. Klarna’s European status only adds to the excitement of today’s news.

Founded in 2005, Klarna is certainly one of several players on the market BNPL a space enabling customers to buy goods with a guarantee of an interest-free loan. After launching in the US in 2015, Klarna achieved a lofty valuation of over $45 billion by 2021, a figure that quickly declined by 85% to $6.5 billion attributable to “market corrections.”

However, Klarna’s valuation recently increased to $14.6 billionbased on reports, after one investor increased his stake.

We still don’t know the way many shares will likely be offered or what the IPO price range will likely be, but today’s announcement paves the way for Klarna to go public, likely in the first half of 2025.

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Elon Musk will co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, whose acronym stands for DOGE, Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency. The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink and the owner of

Specifically, DOGE will “provide non-governmental advice and guidance,” implying that it will not be an official government agency requiring legislative approvals and funding. DOGE would moderately work with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget, based on the report press release.

The Trump campaign noted that DOGE’s work would be accomplished no later than July 4, 2026.

Musk has mentioned the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency over the past few months while campaigning for Trump across the country. However, it was unclear what shape DOGE would actually take or whether Trump would actually accept Musk’s offer.

At an October rally in New York, Musk promised to discover “cuts of at least $2 trillion” in federal agencies if Trump wins. It isn’t yet known whether Musk and Ramaswamy will keep this promise. Musk never explained which agencies or police would receive these cuts.

Trump and Musk have grown closer in recent months, and their relationship has only accelerated since they chatted together at X Spaces in August. During Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Musk donated greater than $100 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, called America PAC, while also holding pro-Trump rallies in key swing states. Trump promised Musk the position of head of DOGE during a September speech at the Economic Club of New York.