24M Technologies, a battery startup once valued at over $1 billion, is shutting down and auctioning off its assets — the latest in a string of failures that signals deepening trouble across the US battery industry.
The company, founded in 2010 and co-founded by MIT professor Yet-Ming Chiang, had not tried to replace lithium-ion technology but to improve it. Its manufacturing process involved spreading electrode materials directly onto metal sheets — simpler and potentially cheaper than standard methods. The resulting cells used thicker layers, reduced inactive material, and achieved higher energy density. The firm had set a goal of producing a battery capable of powering an electric vehicle for 1,000 miles (approximately 1,600 kilometers).
Because the technology was designed to slot into existing lithium-ion supply chains, it was considered a relatively low-risk bet — exactly the kind of company that, according to the announcement, “should have been easier,” as Kara Rodby, a technical principal at venture capital firm Volta Energy Technologies, put it.
That it still failed says something about the current state of the market.
A sector pulling back
24M is not alone. Natron Energy, among the leading sodium-ion startups in the US, shut down operations in September last year. Ample, an EV battery-swapping company, filed for bankruptcy in December 2025. Investors are retreating, and appetite for novel energy storage ideas has contracted sharply. “It just feels like there’s not a lot of appetite for innovation,” Rodby said.
The broader EV market in the US is cooling. Automakers have canceled models and scaled back factory plans. The gutting of major components of the Inflation Reduction Act — legislation that had provided funding and incentives for batteries and EVs — has removed a significant support layer for the industry.
The company itself has not commented publicly. Chiang declined to speak on the record. Details about what triggered the closure and what happens to its intellectual property remain unclear.
Where growth still exists
Not every signal is negative. The stationary energy storage market — batteries used for grid storage rather than vehicles — continues to show growth even within the US. China’s battery sector is expanding, with its manufacturers and EV companies extending their dominance in global markets.
But for US-based battery startups, the window that opened during the investment boom of the early 2020s appears to be closing. Money that once flowed toward speculative chemistries and ambitious manufacturing overhauls is no longer available at the same scale. The companies now failing were not all long shots — some, like 24M, had technology that analysts considered practical and near-deployable.
The industry was always going to see some consolidation after years of aggressive fundraising. What the recent wave of closures has made plain is that the correction is hitting even the safer end of the spectrum.
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