Ascend Elements said on Friday it had commenced Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the United States, a major blow to investors who had invested nearly $900 million in the company.
Ascend CEO Linh Austin announced the decision in a post on LinkedIn late Thursday night. He said the company faced “insurmountable” financial difficulties.
Ascend’s application comes amid a weakening U.S. electric vehicle market, likely exacerbated by the Trump administration’s decision to cancel a $316 million subsidy for an under-construction Kentucky facility. Although $204 million had been spent at the time, Ascend had to find additional capital to make up the shortfall.
The U.S. electric vehicle market has been experiencing difficulties recently. Sales soared before the tax credit ended in September of last year, but have not yet fully recovered. Analysts have predicted that customers who might have purchased this year will bring their purchases forward to take advantage of credit, but that hasn’t helped ease automakers’ concerns.
Since then, several automakers have scrapped plans for new EVs in the United States. Volkswagen, for example, said yesterday it was discontinuing production of the ID.4 at its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant in favor of the gas-powered Atlas.
Ascend has developed a process to extract valuable and essential minerals from scrap and end-of-life batteries. The process is said to limit the number of steps needed to convert shredded waste into precursor material for new cathodes.
The company is building a 1 million-square-foot facility in Kentucky, but it has been plagued by lawsuits and delays, according to local reports.
Tech Crunch Event
San Francisco, California
|
October 13-15, 2026
Like many battery-related startups, Ascend was entering a challenging and competitive industry. The largest market for battery materials is cells for electric vehicles, but automakers are known to have long lead times and specifications that change over time. Benefiting from steady and generous state support, Chinese manufacturers have been able to dominate the market and cut costs.
Other recycling startups, like Redwood Materials, have shifted to reusing some of the packs that flow through their sourcing networks. The startup has developed a way to integrate different types of packs into larger grid-scale batteries that can power data centers. The explosive growth of the stationary storage market in recent years has allowed Redwood to continue building its recycling business while also generating short-term revenue.
