Cleaner Tech

Tesla Co-Founder Straubel’s Battery Startup Redwood Fires Dozens

JB Straubel, co-founder and CEO of Redwood Materials Inc., at the company's battery recycling and manufacturing facility in McCarran, Nevada in 2024.
Photographer: Emily Najera/Bloomberg

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By Michelle Ma, Gabrielle Coppola and Ben Elgin

November 25, 2025 at 5:38 PM UTC

Tesla Inc. co-founder JB Straubel’s battery recycling firm Redwood Materials Inc. cut dozens of jobs as the startup scales back some of its ambitious projects to refocus on tapping into demand for grid-scale batteries.

The staffing reductions occurred this month and were spread across the company, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private.