🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

A cooling EV market pushes battery makers toward AI-related power needs

• Market pressure is steering investment away from electric vehicle batteries and toward energy storage.
• The combined market shares of LG Energy Solution, SK On, and Samsung SDI in global electric vehicle battery usage from Jan to Nov 2025 fell by 3.5 percentage points year-on-year, while Samsung SDI posted its first-ever annual operating loss exceeding 1 trillion won amid slowing EV battery demand 1, 2.
• LG Energy Solution forecasts annual demand growth of more than 40% in the energy storage system (ESS) sector in 2026, driven by rising power demand, grid stability needs, and AI and data centre developments 3.
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory projects U.S. data center demand could rise to 6.7%–12.0% of total U.S. electricity consumption by 2028 4.
• LG Energy Solution is shifting electric vehicle battery production capacity toward ESS as SNE Research describes a “structural shift from EVs to ESS applications” tied to AI data center power demand 3, 1.
• At InterBattery 2026 in Seoul (March 11–13 at COEX in Gangnam-gu), LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, and SK On will present next-generation batteries for ESS, AI data centres, robotics, and drones.

New battery designs aim to speed data center growth when grids lag

• Data center-focused batteries target a bottleneck as new AI “computing power is waiting for electricity” because grid upgrades move slowly 5.
• Samsung SDI plans to market ultra-high-power cells for AI data centres, and will unveil the U8A1 prismatic (rectangular) cell for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and battery backup unit (BBU) systems.
• HiTHIUM says long-duration storage paired with renewables can cut power-infrastructure timelines from five to 10 years down to one to two years in some scenarios 5.
• This supports a “bring your own power” approach, where sites use behind-the-meter generation (on-site power that can run without relying on the public grid) to reduce dependence on the public grid 6.
• In the US, “foreign entity of concern” (FEOC) rules tied to production and investment tax credits are viewed as blocking the use of Chinese battery cells, while Korean manufacturers’ US manufacturing investments are described as an advantage in a domestic-content-focused market 3.