SES AI Corporation (“SES AI”) (NYSE: SES), a global leader in the development and manufacturing of high-performance Li-Metal batteries, today announced a groundbreaking initiative to accelerate material discovery in electric transportation. By mapping the universe of small molecules using a cutting-edge supercomputer optimized for artificial intelligence (“AI”), this pioneering project aims to revolutionize the understanding of battery chemistry, enhance energy storage solutions, and advance energy efficient technology. The initiative will leverage Crusoe’s innovative and purpose-built AI cloud platform, powered by NVIDIA and Supermicro, showcasing a unique collaboration at the intersection of science, computing, and sustainable computing.
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SES, NVIDIA, and Industry Leaders Collaborate to Accelerate Li-Metal Battery Innovations for Electric Vehicles (Photo: Business Wire)
The Untapped Potential in Battery Chemistry
Optimizing electrolytes--composed of small molecules--is critical to unlocking the full potential of lithium-metal batteries. Over the past 30 years, the battery industry has studied roughly 1,000 (103) organic molecules and achieved a coulombic efficiency of over 99.6%. However, there are an estimated 1012 organic molecules under 20 atoms and 1060 organic molecules under 30 atoms, indicating vast untapped potential for discovering new molecules that could revolutionize battery technology and have significant implications for all of science.
Revolutionizing Battery Innovation with AI
SES AI, known for its cutting-edge lithium-metal batteries used in electric vehicles (“EV”) and urban air mobility (“UAM”), has been at the forefront of battery technology since its founding in 2012. SES AI has continually pushed the envelope in battery safety and performance, leveraging AI to accelerate innovation. SES AI’s AI-driven initiatives include:
- AI for Manufacturing: Analysing manufacturing data to ensure quality and safety.
- AI for Safety: Predicting battery incidents to ensure nearly 100% battery safety in the field.
- AI for Science: Mapping the molecular universe to discover next-generation materials.
"AI is changing everything. Our AI for Manufacturing, AI for Safety, and AI for Science models are accelerating the commercialization, time to revenue, and profitability of Li-Metal for EV and UAM," said Qichao Hu, CEO of SES AI.
Harnessing the Power of AI
The AI for Science initiative begins with the use of NVIDIA HGX H100 GPU clusters to generate a comprehensive database, predicting the electronic structures and properties of each molecule. This database will be the foundation for the construction, pre-training, and fine-tuning of physics-informed machine learning (“ML”) models leveraging Crusoe Cloud H100 virtualized instances built with NVIDIA HGX technology." Expanding upon the capabilities of the foundation model, SES AI will next construct, train, and fine-tune an advanced generative model. These efforts are uniquely supported by Crusoe’s sustainable computing infrastructure, helping ensure that the intensive computational tasks are carried out efficiently and with minimal environmental impact.
The final phase will involve the creation of a multimodal large language model (LLM) and AI agent, training a 70-billion-parameter Llama 3 model on approximately 200 billion tokens from various battery-related texts and literature. This is enabled by the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform and Supermicro’s high-performance hardware, significantly broadening the scope and accuracy of SES AI’s predictive capabilities. The most promising candidates from this AI-driven analysis will undergo rigorous laboratory testing in SES AI’s Electrolyte Foundry, where the candidates will be synthesized, evaluated in battery cells, and assessed for real-world performance.
“With access to more NVIDIA GPUs, we expect to map a large enough molecular universe that our AI model training will reach sufficient accuracy. Once we have this map, we believe we can accelerate material discovery for any battery problem. This includes not just Li-Metal for EVs and UAMs, but also Li-ion batteries for consumer electronics, grid storage, automotive, and other applications,” added Hu.
Powering AI for Science with Crusoe
Crusoe® Cloud is a purpose-built AI-cloud platform that offers the latest NVIDIA GPUs, high-performance networking and storage solutions. Crusoe powers its cloud platform by developing, building, and utilizing a differentiated portfolio of clean energy solutions to minimize the environmental impacts of both energy production and computing.
This project will leverage Crusoe’s climate-aligned cloud platform, powered by NVIDIA and Supermicro.
“By collaborating with Crusoe, NVIDIA, and Supermicro, we combine cutting-edge AI with sustainable computing infrastructure to drive breakthroughs in battery innovation. This project embodies our commitment to sustainability and technological advancement,” noted Hu.
Statements from Key Partners
Chase Lochmiller, CEO, Crusoe: “Crusoe is dedicated to aligning the future of computing with the future of the climate. By providing a sustainable and cost-effective AI cloud platform, we are supporting SES AI’s vision to map the molecular universe and create ground-breaking AI models that could accelerate a sustainable future. This collaboration showcases how advanced computing can drive scientific progress while minimizing environmental impact.”
Matt McGrigg, Director of Global Business Development for Cloud Partners, NVIDIA: “Energy efficiency and minimal environmental impact are crucial in advancing computational workflows. As part of its collaboration with Crusoe, SES AI is using NVIDIA’s GPUs and AI technology to harness powerful compute capabilities that will help unlock new potential in battery innovation and energy storage solutions.”
Cenly Chen, Chief Growth Officer, Supermicro: “Supermicro’s high-performance computing solutions are designed to support intensive workloads and innovative projects like SES AI’s initiative in AI for Science. We are excited to contribute to this effort with our advanced and energy-efficient hardware.”
A Vision for the Future
SES AI’s initiative to map the molecular universe represents a significant leap forward in battery technology. By harnessing the power of AI and sustainable computing, the project is set to uncover significant breakthroughs in battery technology, helping drive widespread adoption of clean, sustainable electric transport, and innovation and industrial applications across materials science, technology, and pharmaceuticals.
For more information about SES AI and its initiatives, please visit the SES AI website.
About SES AI:
SES AI Corp. (NYSE: SES) is powering the future of global electric transportation on land and in the air with the world’s most advanced Li-Metal batteries. SES AI is the first battery company in the world to accelerate its pace of innovation by utilizing superintelligent AI across the spectrum of its business, from research and development; materials sourcing; cell design; engineering and manufacturing; to battery health and safety monitoring. Founded in 2012, SES AI is an Li-Metal battery developer and manufacturer headquartered in Boston and with operations in Singapore, Shanghai, and Seoul. Learn more at SES.AI.
SES AI may use its website as a distribution channel of material company information. Financial and other important information regarding SES AI is routinely posted on and accessible through the Company’s website at www.ses.ai . Accordingly, investors should monitor this channel, in addition to following SES AI’s press releases, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and public conference calls and webcasts.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements that SES AI believes are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to expectations for future financial performance, business strategies or expectations for our business. These statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of the management of SES AI. Although SES AI believes that its plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot provide assurance that it will achieve or realize these plans, intentions or expectations. These statements constitute projections, forecasts and forward-looking statements, and are not guarantees of performance. Such statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. When used in this press release, words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “can”, “continue”, “could”, “estimate”, “expect”, “forecast”, “intend”, “may”, “might”, “plan”, “possible”, “potential”, “predict”, “project”, “seek”, “should”, “strive”, “target”, “will”, “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.
You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Should one or more of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties materialize, or should any of SES AI’s assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to the following risks: risks related to the development and commercialization of SES AI’s battery technology and the timing and achievement of expected business milestones; risks relating to the uncertainty of achieving and maintaining profitability; risks relating to the uncertainty of meeting future capital requirements; the ability of SES to integrate its products into electric vehicles (“EVs”) and Urban Air Mobility (“UAM"), drones and other applications; the risk that delays in the pre-manufacturing development of SES AI’s battery cells could adversely affect SES AI’s business and prospects; the market for air mobility, and for use of Li-Metal technology in air mobility applications, is still emerging and may not achieve the growth potential we expect; risks relating to the development of the UAM market and demand for batteries from the UAM industry; potential supply chain difficulties; the ability of SES AI to engage target original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) customers successfully and integrate SES AI’s products into EVs manufactured by OEM customers; the ability to obtain raw materials, components or equipment through new or existing supply relationships; SES AI’s use of artificial intelligence and machine learning may result in legal and regulatory risk; risks resulting from SES AI’s joint development agreements and other strategic alliances and investments; product liability and other potential litigation, regulation and legal compliance; SES AI’s ability to attract, train and retain highly skilled employees and key personnel; developments in alternative technology or other fossil fuel alternatives; risks related to SES AI’s intellectual property; business, regulatory, political, operational, financial and economic risks related to SES AI’s business operations outside the United States; SES AI has identified material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting and may identify material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to develop or maintain an effective system of internal controls; the volatility of SES AI’s common stock and value of SES AI’s public warrants; and the other risks described in “Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 27, 2024 and other documents filed from time to time with the SEC. There may be additional risks that SES AI presently knows and/or believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect SES AI’s expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views only as of the date of this press release. SES AI anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause its assessments to change. However, while SES AI may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, SES AI specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing SES AI’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.
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“By collaborating with NVIDIA, Crusoe, and Supermicro, we combine cutting-edge AI with sustainable computing to drive battery innovation, not just Li-Metal for EVs and UAMs but also Li-ion for electronics, grid storage, and automotive uses.”
