
US startup Lyten to take over Northvolt's energy storage systems factory in Poland
Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in March, one of Sweden's largest corporate failures and effectively ending Europe's best hope of developing a rival to challenge Chinese battery makers. It announced the factory's closure in November last year.
"We plan to immediately restart operations in Poland and deliver on existing and new customer orders," Dan Cook, Lyten CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.
The 25,000 square metre (269,000 square feet) battery energy storage system manufacturing and R&D facility in Gdansk, Poland, opened in 2023.
The facility includes equipment for up to 6 gigawatt-hours of energy storage manufacturing capacity and the footprint to expand to 10 GWh in the future, Lyten said in a statement, adding that it had contracted orders extending into 2026.
The financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter, were not disclosed.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNA
15 hours ago
- CNA
Code of practice to help companies with AI rules may come end 2025, EU says
BRUSSELS :Key guidance to help thousands of companies comply with the European Union's landmark artificial intelligence rules may come at the end of the year, the European Commission said on Thursday, marking a six-month delay. "On the AI Act's GPAI rules, the European AI Board is discussing the timing to implement the Code of Practice, with the end of 2025 being considered," a Commission spokesperson said. GPAI refers to large language models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and similar models launched by Google and Mistral. The Commission had originally set May 2 as the deadline for the introduction of the Code of Practice.


CNA
15 hours ago
- CNA
Amundi warns US stablecoin policy could destabilise global payments system
LONDON :Europe's largest asset manager has raised concerns that a boom in dollar-backed stablecoins in the wake of the United States' GENIUS Act could cause a major shift in money flows that destabilises the global payment system. The U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act a bill last month to create a regulatory framework for the U.S.-dollar-pegged cryptotokens. It is expected to be passed by the House of Representatives and approved by President Donald Trump, leaving other countries worried about a wave of so-called 'dollarization' of economies if their own populations buy them. "It could be genius, or it could be evil," Amundi Asset Management's chief investment officer Vincent Mortier told Reuters, voicing his concerns about the U.S. act. JPMorgan expects the amount of stablecoins in circulation to roughly double to $500 billion in the next few years, although some estimates have put it as high as $2 trillion. As stablecoins need be pegged to the dollar under the U.S. act, it will trigger buying of U.S. Treasury bonds. That has its benefits for the U.S. as it grapples with a gaping budget deficit, but could also pose problems for the U.S. and other countries. "In doing so you create an alternative to the U.S. dollar and that could lead to more weakening of the dollar," Mortier said. "Because if a country is pushing a stablecoin, it could be perceived as pushing the message that the dollar is not that strong." Currently, 98 per cent of all stablecoins are pegged to the dollar, but more than 80 per cent of stablecoin transactions happen outside the United States. Italy's finance minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, warned in April that the U.S. stablecoin policies presented an "even more dangerous" threat to European financial stability than Trump's trade war. His argument was that access to dollars without needing a U.S. bank account would be attractive to millions of people and could undermine countries' monetary sovereignty. The Bank for International Settlements issued a similar warning on the risks posed by stablecoins, noting their potential to undermine monetary sovereignty, transparency issues and the risk of capital flight from emerging economies. Mortier, who oversees the 2 trillion euros ($2.36 trillion) of assets Amundi manages - none of which are in crypto - said he still had not fully made up his mind about stablecoins, but the worry was that a mass uptake could impact financial stability. As well as the dollarization issue, they would become "quasi-banks" he said, as people will deposit money in a coin assuming they can take it out again whenever they want. They will also be used as a direct means of payment. "It could potentially destabilise the global payment system," he said. "I'm not so sure it's a good idea".


CNA
19 hours ago
- CNA
Explainer-Will the EU delay enforcing its AI Act?
STOCKHOLM :With less than a month to go before parts of the European Union's AI Act come into force, companies are calling for a pause in the provisions and getting support from some politicians. Groups representing big U.S. tech companies such as Google owner Alphabet and Facebook owner Meta, and European companies such as Mistral and ASML have urged the European Commission to delay the AI Act by years. WHAT IS THE AUGUST 2 DEADLINE? Under the landmark act that was passed a year earlier after intense debate between EU countries, its provisions would come into effect in a staggered manner over several years. Some important provisions, including rules for general purpose AI (GPAI) models, are due to apply on August 2. GPAI, which includes foundation models like those made by Google, Mistral and OpenAI, will be subject to transparency requirements such as drawing up technical documentation, complying with EU copyright law and providing detailed summaries about the content used for algorithm training. The companies will also need to test for bias, toxicity, and robustness before launching. AI models classed as posing a systemic risk and high-impact GPAI will have to conduct model evaluations, assess and mitigate risks, conduct adversarial testing, report to the European Commission on serious incidents and provide information on their energy efficiency. WHY DO COMPANIES WANT A PAUSE? For AI companies, the enforcement of the act means additional costs for compliance. And for ones that make AI models, the requirements are tougher. But companies are also unsure how to comply with the rules as there are no guidelines yet. The AI Code of Practice, a guidance document to help AI developers to comply with the act, missed its publication date of May 2. "To address the uncertainty this situation is creating, we urge the Commission to propose a two-year 'clock-stop' on the AI Act before key obligations enter into force," said an open letter published on Thursday by a group of 45 European companies. It also called for simplification of the new rules. Another concern is that the act may stifle innovation, particularly in Europe where companies have smaller compliance teams than their U.S. counterparts. WILL IT BE POSTPONED? The European Commission has not yet commented on whether it will postpone the enforcement of the new rules in August. However, EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen promised on Wednesday to publish the AI Code of Practice before next month. Some political leaders, such as Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, have also called the AI rules "confusing" and asked the EU to pause the act. "A bold 'stop-the-clock' intervention is urgently needed to give AI developers and deployers legal certainty, as long as necessary standards remain unavailable or delayed," tech lobbying group CCIA Europe said. The European Commission did not respond immediatelyt to requests for comment.