JB Straubel

Who they are

JB Straubel is Co-Founder and CEO of Redwood Materials — co-founded Tesla in 2003 as CTO and launched Redwood Energy in June 2025 to repurpose retired EV batteries into grid-scale storage systems.

Person

Straubel took both a BS in Energy Systems Engineering and an MS in Energy Engineering from Stanford — the same institution where he now lectures on energy storage integration. Before Tesla, he did propulsion engineering at Rosen Motors and co-founded Volacom, a hybrid electric aircraft venture. In 2003 he co-founded Tesla and served as CTO for over 15 years, steering the battery and powertrain engineering that made the Roadster and Model S viable. He stepped back from that role in 2019 and had already bootstrapped Redwood Materials in 2017 — founding it while still at Tesla, before any external funding existed. He joined Tesla's board as an independent director in 2023. He also sits on QuantumScape's Strategic Advisory Board. The through-line is a lifetime spent collapsing the distance between energy engineering theory and physical hardware — from building custom EVs in his 20s to architecting a closed-loop domestic battery supply chain. He speaks publicly at venues including TechCrunch Disrupt, the Commonwealth Club, the Milken Institute Global Conference, and Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability, consistently on battery recycling, circular economy, and the domestic critical-minerals supply chain.

Company

Redwood Materials closed its $425 million Series E in January 2026 at a post-money valuation exceeding $6 billion — Google and NVIDIA's venture arm NVentures joined as new strategic investors alongside Capricorn and Goldman Sachs, with AI data-center power demand explicitly cited as a driver. The round followed an October 2025 first close led by Eclipse and NVentures. In June 2025 Redwood launched Redwood Energy, a new business line that repurposes retired EV battery packs into modular grid-scale storage systems. November 2025 brought the opening of South Carolina operations, positioning the company as a domestic critical minerals processor across two coasts. Notably, in late 2024 Redwood withdrew from a $2 billion conditional DOE loan commitment ahead of anticipated policy changes — a deliberate strategic de-risking rather than a financial setback.

Market

Redwood operates at the intersection of battery recycling and domestic materials supply, a space shaped by China's control of approximately 60% of global lithium processing and 80% of cobalt refining — a geopolitical dynamic that makes U.S.-based recyclers strategically valuable. The IRA's domestic-content tax credits create a structural tailwind, though Chinese recyclers retain cost advantages. Li-Cycle, once Redwood's most prominent U.S. rival, filed for bankruptcy in May 2025; remaining competitors include Ascend Elements, Aqua Metals, and Mangrove Lithium.

Network

Deepak Ahuja, Tesla's long-tenured former CFO, has joined Redwood Materials — a signal that Straubel is recruiting from the Tesla orbit he helped build. Ford has partnered with Redwood on battery recycling and supply, bringing an OEM anchor relationship into the network. Straubel also maintains a board seat at Tesla and an advisory role at QuantumScape, keeping him connected to the broader EV and battery-technology ecosystem.

Deepak Ahuja· Former Tesla CFO, joined Redwood Materials
Ford (partnership)· OEM partner for battery recycling and supply via Redwood Materials

How they likely show up

Founded Redwood in 2017 while still serving as Tesla CTO — running a bootstrapped startup in parallel with a C-suite role signals extremely high agency and comfort with overlapping commitments.
Long tenure at Tesla (co-founder through 2019) followed by founding Redwood → thinks in decade-scale arcs, not quarterly cycles; unlikely to engage with short-horizon framing.
Withdrew from a $2 billion DOE loan commitment ahead of policy shifts → willing to walk away from large capital when the strategic risk calculus changes; not captured by headline funding numbers.
Active LinkedIn poster on battery recycling and circular economy → comfortable being publicly visible and opinionated; will respond well to engagement with specifics, not pleasantries.
Lecturing at Stanford's Atmosphere and Energy Program while running a $6 billion company → values the engineering fundamentals, not just the business narrative; first-principles orientation likely shows up in how he stress-tests ideas.
Co-founded Volacom (aircraft), Tesla (EVs), and Redwood (battery materials) across three distinct hardware categories → pattern is building the infrastructure layer that others depend on, not consumer-facing products.

Conversation tips

→ Come in with a specific, grounded question about battery chemistry or supply-chain economics — he is an engineer first and will quickly lose interest in high-altitude business conversation.
→ The DOE loan withdrawal is a pointed data point about how he reads policy risk; asking how he thinks about navigating regulatory uncertainty will get a substantive answer.
→ Reference the Redwood Energy launch and the AI data-center angle — Google and NVIDIA joining the Series E for power-demand reasons is a genuine strategic pivot worth unpacking.
→ He has spoken publicly about 'reinventing everything' at Stanford — if you have a genuinely contrarian take on the battery supply chain, put it on the table; he engages with people who have done the work.
→ Don't treat the Tesla chapter as ancient history — his 2023 return to the Tesla board shows it's an active, ongoing relationship, not a closed chapter.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the Redwood Energy launch (June 2025) — he built an entirely new business line repurposing second-life EV batteries for grid-scale storage, and Google and NVIDIA backed it specifically because of AI data-center power demand. That's a sharp strategic pivot worth probing.
Reference the DOE loan withdrawal in late 2024 — walking away from a $2 billion conditional commitment is an unusually decisive call; it opens a direct conversation about how he reads the current policy environment and what that means for domestic critical-minerals strategy.
Note his Stanford Energy Storage Integration lectureship — he's teaching the next generation of engineers while running a $6 billion company, which signals something specific about how he thinks the field needs to develop.

Discovery questions

The Series E brought in Google and NVIDIA specifically on the energy-storage side — how does the AI data-center demand thesis change how you think about Redwood's product roadmap versus the original battery recycling mission?
You withdrew from the $2 billion DOE loan ahead of policy changes — how are you thinking about the balance between government tailwinds and the risk of being tied to a particular policy regime as you scale?
Li-Cycle's bankruptcy in May 2025 removed one of your main U.S. rivals — does that change the competitive calculus, or does it mostly highlight the structural difficulty of making battery recycling economics work at scale?

Avoid

Don't lead with vague sustainability or climate-impact framing — Straubel engages with supply-chain economics and engineering specifics, and mission-speak without substance will signal you haven't done the work.

Make it yours