InoBat's Nasdaq Leap: Powering the AI Revolution with European Batteries

NEW YORK, NY – July 27, 2026 – In a move that underscores the immense energy challenge posed by artificial intelligence, European battery technology firm InoBat has announced a definitive agreement to go public on the Nasdaq through a merger with Cartesian Growth Corporation II. The deal, which values InoBat at $1.265 billion, is not just another financial transaction; it's a strategic maneuver to position the Slovakian company at the heart of one of the 21st century's most critical infrastructure bottlenecks: powering the AI boom.

As data centers and AI workloads consume electricity at an exponential rate, straining national power grids, advanced energy storage is shifting from a niche component of the green transition to an absolute necessity for the digital one. InoBat’s transatlantic leap aims to capture this burgeoning market, bridging European innovation with the deep capital pools of the United States.

“This agreement is a defining moment for InoBat,” said Marian Boček, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of InoBat, in a statement. “Demand for electricity is rising as data center and AI infrastructure expands, and the operators building that infrastructure need reliable, large-scale energy storage. AI runs on computing; computing runs on power.”

A Deal Structured for a New Era

The business combination with the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, is structured to navigate a market that has matured significantly since its speculative frenzy a few years ago. The $1.265 billion valuation includes up to $690 million in share-based earnouts tied directly to concrete project and EBITDA milestones, a feature that aligns long-term performance with shareholder value. The transaction is further bolstered by a $77.5 million committed PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) from institutional investors and existing shareholders, including Gotion and Rio Tinto. Critically, the deal includes no minimum cash condition, a clause that has scuttled many SPAC mergers in the past and signals strong confidence from the dealmakers.

This structure reflects a broader trend toward a more “disciplined revival” in the SPAC market, where experienced sponsors back companies with tangible assets and clear growth trajectories. Cartesian Growth Corporation II is an affiliate of Cartesian Capital Group, a private equity firm with a two-decade history and over $3 billion in managed capital, lending institutional credibility to the venture. Following the expected close in late 2026, InoBat will trade under the ticker symbol “INBT.”

“InoBat is almost uniquely well-situated to address growing demand for battery storage in a world of heightened attention to supply chain security,” noted Peter Yu, Chairman and CEO of Cartesian II. The partnership aims to provide InoBat the resources to scale its manufacturing and accelerate its technology roadmap, leveraging a Nasdaq listing for global visibility and access to capital.

The Unquenchable Thirst of AI

The strategic pivot towards data centers is a direct response to a seismic shift in global energy consumption. The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently projected that electricity demand from data centers could more than double by 2030, an increase equivalent to the entire power consumption of Germany. This surge is driven almost entirely by the computational demands of AI models.

This explosive growth is creating unprecedented challenges. Utility companies report multi-year backlogs for connecting new hyperscale data centers to the grid. A single large AI campus can require as much power as a large industrial city, and the volatile, high-intensity workloads of AI training can destabilize local power grids. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are emerging as the critical solution. They can be deployed far more quickly than new power plants or transmission lines, providing stable, high-quality power, managing peak demand to lower costs, and ensuring the uninterrupted uptime that AI operations require.

InoBat is already an established player in this field. Through its BESSMONT platform, the company has delivered or contracted 875 MWh of utility-scale battery capacity from its assembly facility in Voderady, Slovakia. With the new capital and market access, it plans to aggressively scale this platform to specifically target the AI infrastructure market, which is projected to see the BESS segment grow at a compound annual rate of over 14% in the next decade.

Geopolitical Resilience and the Sodium-Ion Future

Beyond its immediate commercial strategy, InoBat’s long-term vision addresses one of the most significant geopolitical challenges of the energy transition: supply chain security. While its current systems utilize lithium-ion technology, the company is aggressively developing next-generation sodium-ion batteries in partnership with industry leaders like Clarios and Altris.

Sodium-ion chemistry represents a powerful hedge against the volatile and geographically concentrated supply chains for lithium, cobalt, and nickel. By utilizing abundant and inexpensive sodium, this technology offers a path to what the company calls a “geopolitically resilient chemistry.” This focus has earned InoBat strategic backing from the European Union as an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI), highlighting its role in the continent's quest for energy and technological sovereignty.

With strategic investors like mining giant Rio Tinto and battery manufacturer Gotion High-Tech (a partner of Volkswagen), InoBat is deeply embedded in the creation of a localized European battery ecosystem. The move to list on Nasdaq is not an abandonment of its European roots, but rather a strategic amplification of its mission on a global stage, seeking to build a transatlantic bridge for a technology critical to both economic competitiveness and national security.