Lithium battery maker Lyten buys further Northvolt assets in Europe

California-based lithium-sulfur battery-maker start-up Lyten has entered a binding agreement to acquire the remaining Swedish and German assets of failed Swedish battery-maker Northvolt, the US company said late on Thursday August 7

Key takeaways:

  • Lyten acquired Northvolt’s key assets, including gigafactories in Sweden and Germany, intellectual property and facilities in Poland and the US, valued at approximately $5 billion.
  • The lithium battery maker plans to restart operations at multiple sites, funded by private equity investments. And aims to integrate its proprietary lithium-sulfur battery technology.
  • Northvolt’s bankruptcy highlighted challenges for the EU’s battery industry. While Lyten’s acquisition signals a shift toward meeting growing global demand for advanced battery solutions.

Key assets acquired by lithium battery maker Lyten

The acquisition will include the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in Skellefteå, Sweden; the Northvolt Labs research and development unit, in Västerås, Sweden; and the planned 15GWh gigafactory Northvolt Drei, in Heide, Germany.

Lyten planned to immediately restart operations in Skellefteå and Västerås in Sweden on closing the transaction, it said, adding that talks with Northvolt’s prior anchor customers were “progressing constructively.”

Lyten was also acquiring all remaining Northvolt intellectual property, it said, and that it was “committed to pursuing the acquisition of [the planned 15GWh gigafactory] Northvolt Six in Quebec, Canada.”

Financial details and investment

Lyten and Northvolt declined to disclose the financial terms of the agreement, but said that Lyten’s total acquisition “includes assets valued at approximately $5 billion, including 16GWh of existing battery manufacturing capacity, more than 15GWh of capacity under construction, the infrastructure and plans to scale to more than 100GWh.”

The acquisition was being fully funded through equity investment by private investors into Lyten, the company said. It previously said on July 28 that it had secured more than $200 million in additional equity investment.

Strategic goals and challenges

“The acquisition of Northvolt’s assets brings the facilities and Swedish talent to accelerate [Lyten’s] mission by years,” Lyten chief executive officer Dan Cook said, “just at the moment when demand for Lyten lithium-sulfur batteries is growing exponentially to meet energy independence, national security and AI data center needs.”

Northvolt founder and former CEO Peter Carlsson said via social media that there were “lots of challenges ahead to restart.”

“It’s going to be a risky undertaking for Lyten,” Connor Watts, battery raw material demand analyst at Fastmarkets, said, “but considering the current policy and demand climate, it makes sense for a predominantly US-based company to shift toward the European market.

“It will be very important for them to find offtake partners for any resumed output from Northvolt’s facilities – to rebuild trust and also to offset some of the capital outlay from this fairly sizeable investment,” Watts added.

Northvolt’s collapse and broader implications

This latest purchase of Northvolt assets comes after Lyten acquired Northvolt’s battery energy storage system (BESS) plant in Gdansk, Poland. As well as its BESS product and IP portfolio in July 2025. The company also acquired Northvolt’s US facility in Cuberg, California in November 2024.

Lyten plans to restart the Gdansk BESS facility with the same product design and nickel-based lithium-ion battery cells as Northvolt was producing, Keith Norman, Lyten chief marketing and sustainability officer, told Fastmarkets on July 29. He added that the company’s long-term goal was to bring its proprietary lithium-sulfur chemistry to the product lineup.

Swedish lithium battery maker Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in March 2025, starting a sales process of the business and its assets.

The collapse of Northvolt was a blow to the EU’s efforts to establish a robust domestic battery industry. The company had been seen as a flagship project for Europe’s transition to the use of electric vehicles and to a more sustainable energy landscape.

Want to keep track of global lithium shifts? Visit our hub for the latest insights and updates.

What to read next
Read the key takeaways from a recent conversation on Fast Forward podcast with Vedanta Resources CEO, Deshnee Naidoo, and Andrea Hotter
Spot prices for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) black mass and battery scrap rose during the week to Thursday November 13, driven by a sharp increase in Chinese lithium carbonate prices, sources told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for its International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)-audited non-ferrous metals, via an open consultation process between October 13 and November 12, 2025. This consultation was done as part of our published annual methodology review process.
Explore how Latin America & Argentina are emerging as key players in critical minerals with a focus on copper and lithium mining investments.
Vedanta Resources’ Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Zambia is set for a major revival, after years of under-investment and political uncertainty. The move is being driven by a convergence of capital, government support and shifting geopolitics, according to a senior executive at CopperTech Metals.
Explore the evolving market for base metals as nickel faces competition from lithium iron phosphate alternatives.