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Themis Qi

From data centres to hydropower stations, Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) is placing investment bets on prospective growth engines following the electric vehicle (EV) boom, according to analysts.
Since June last year, at least seven CATL-led equity deals involving a total of over 17 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) have been announced in non-battery industries. The sectors involved span humanoid robots, state-owned hydropower stations, artificial intelligence data centres (AIDCs) and large-language-model developer DeepSeek.
The equity investments by Fujian-based CATL seemed primarily strategic, similar to its earlier playbook of forming joint ventures with carmakers and investing in EV start-ups, said Yang Jing, director of Asia-Pacific corporate ratings at Fitch Ratings.
“As the incumbent leader, sustaining market share and margins requires identifying new high-growth frontiers early and capturing first-mover advantages,” she said. “AIDC’s high-growth, high-barrier characteristics position it as a potential ‘third growth curve’ alongside EVs and energy storage systems.”
Yang said CATL’s investments related to data centres could help cement its dominance in the post-EV era if the centres’ use scaled up energy storage demand as projected.
CATL is the world’s largest producer of lithium-ion batteries for EVs and energy storage systems. But it is facing weakening demand for electric cars in China – the world’s largest automotive market – and intensifying competition with domestic rivals for energy storage orders in overseas markets.
In May, Nasdaq-listed VNET Group, a Chinese third-party provider of neutral data centres, said two CATL-affiliates would acquire up to 38.1 per cent of its shares for US$942 million, becoming its largest shareholder. This month, Shenzhen-listed Hangzhou Zhonhen Electric, which supplies power supply systems for data centres and vehicle charging, said that it planned to sell a 49 per cent stake in the business to CATL for 4.09 billion yuan.
In June, CATL and affiliates committed 5 billion yuan in the latest round of fundraising by Chinese AI company DeepSeek.
CATL also led a 1.1 billion yuan fundraising round in Beijing-based robot start-up Galbot in June last year, and a year later it said a Galbot robot model using its batteries had been used on a production line.


Lucas Zhang Liutong, director of Hong Kong-based consultancy WaterRock Energy Economics, said investments in humanoid robot makers could help CATL develop next- generation batteries to capture future demand growth.
Globally, battery-powered humanoid robots are projected to require 6,000 gigawatt-hours of electric power a year by 2035, according to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie, which is based in the United Kingdom. One GWh is enough to power about 100 average American households for a year.
From November to last month, CATL also took stakes in three joint ventures with state-owned enterprises for three clean energy projects in southwestern and western China.
It contributed 670 million yuan to the Yagen II Hydropower Station on the Yalong River in Sichuan province, 360 million yuan to the Danba Hydropower Station on the Dadu River, also in Sichuan, and 528 million yuan to a project aiming to develop sources of clean energy in the Tibet autonomous region’s upper Lancang (Mekong) River basin.
Zhang said the projects could provide CATL with affordable green power, reducing its carbon footprint to meet European Union regulations and its decarbonisation target.
CATL chairman and CEO Robin Zeng Yuqun said at a news conference on August 17 that the company regarded carbon neutrality as “not only a mission, but also a capability developed through practice, and, above all, a tremendous opportunity for growth”.
CATL said in a statement issued the same day that it aimed to neutralise emissions throughout its value chain, from mining to cell manufacturing, by 2035.
Zhang said CATL might also be able to become more extensively involved in industrial estates targeting zero carbon emissions, because battery energy storage systems were a critical part of such initiatives.


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World’s largest producer of lithium-ion batteries for EVs and energy storage systems has committed over 17 billion yuan to non-battery deals


World’s largest producer of lithium-ion batteries for EVs and energy storage systems has committed over 17 billion yuan to non-battery deals.


Chinese battery giant CATL spreads investments in search of new growth drivers

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}World’s largest producer of lithium-ion batteries for EVs and energy storage systems has committed over 17 billion yuan to non-battery deals

World’s largest producer of lithium-ion batteries for EVs and energy storage systems has committed over 17 billion yuan to non-battery deals