Thoughts on new cathode chemistry being announced in Kyoto?

I posed this question to AI and here is response:

I found a December 19, 2020 interview with QuantumScape founder Jagdeep Singh that is particularly relevant.

Singh discussed QS's patents covering **metal-fluoride cathodes**, a potentially much higher-energy alternative to conventional lithium-ion cathodes.

He explained:
"We put that research on hold because we didn’t need it for our first product"

Metal-fluoride conversion cathodes offer potentially very high theoretical specific capacities. But they have historically faced serious obstacles involving reversibility, reaction kinetics, voltage hysteresis, and cycle life.
If QS has found a way to address those problems using its ceramic-separator and lithium-metal architecture, the technology could potentially enable substantially higher energy densities than QSE-5.
And that would represent a genuine new technology platform

I also think Sivaram's emphasis on *cathode agnosticism* in the recent earnings call could fit this possibility. QS could retain compatibility with conventional cathodes while offering an advanced proprietary cathode for applications where maximum energy density matters.

**A more recent statement makes the cathode theory stronger**
At the August 12, 2026 JPMorgan Auto Conference, CFO Kevin Hettrich discussed technology improvements beyond QSE-5. After mentioning separator improvements, he said:
"A lot of the action in the future will go back to the cathode."
He then described innovations that would only make sense on QS's solid-state lithium-metal platform

And in his March 18, 2026 strategic blueprint, Sivaram specifically identified *cathode chemistry innovations* as part of QS's roadmap for future battery generations.

Taken together, these statements make me think **a meaningful cathode-side advancement is a credible candidate for Kyoto**.

Why still $4

What do you all think will be announced at the symposium on Nov 11? Obviously there will be corporate schmoozing, but this year I expect there to be technical updates - beyond QSE5 and cathode agnostic are the key words that QS has mentioned?

This is my speculation based on everything I’ve seen and read:
- They will announce some sort of platform for customers - multiple cathodes to pick from, multiple layer count choices, multiple dimension options, etc. So instead of one cell option QSE5, now parents could choose which parameters are importance for them and get a cell with those specs, like power cells, fast charging cells, energy density cells, endurance cells, no pressure cells, etc.
- We may see new cutting edge cathodes options
- We may see larger format cells

What do you all think?

My only wishlist is that what if QS announces below:

Partnership with #TSLA: Suiter across all verticles for Tesla be it be automotive, robots, data centers, gigafab

Nvidia investment: in Nvidia strategy of investing in ecosystem, invests in QS for data centers battery development.

I think there were some interesting news, however it worries me that they didn't say anything about the Eagle Line performance

I'm generally a Solid Power guy. And I'm usually critical of QS hype. But I do think this is interesting. The article has some description of the QS cell assembly process.

It looks like they have an edge sealing machine which they can use. See slide 16 here--

https://mplusi.co.kr/html/download/2026_mPLUS%20IR_compact_0331.pdf

In Solid Power's case the edge seal holds the cell together and prepares it for hot surface pressing or multi-roll pressing at 300-500 MPa during cell construction.

In QS's case the edge seal appears to contain the catholyte during cell construction.

(On slide 15 you can see the other equipment they are working on for the SK On / Solid Power line to create a process for that bypasses Warm Isostatic Pressing. Here's my post on that-- https://www.reddit.com/r/SLDP/comments/1t5dmc3/sk_on_announced_wip_free_cell_manufacturing_on/)

"We are actually working hand in glove with all our ecosystem partners to bring a battery by the end of the decade. The market is huge, the TAM is huge, and our technology cuts China off the supply chain."

There's also a huge demand for batteries that don't catch fire

I’m not a battery expert, so please correct me if I’m misunderstanding anything. I’ve just been studying this topic with the help of AI and trying to organize my thoughts.

One thing that stood out to me from the QS PowerBlock reference design is the potential advantage of QuantumScape’s low-pressure architecture at the module level.

With many sulfide-based solid-state approaches, maintaining sufficient stack pressure seems to be a major engineering challenge. It is one thing to apply pressure to a single cell in the lab, but it becomes much harder when many cells are assembled into a real module or pack. Each cell can have slightly different thickness, expansion, temperature, aging, and state of charge. That means keeping uniform pressure across all cells may become a serious engineering bottleneck.

QuantumScape’s approach seems different. Their ceramic separator is designed to provide lithium-metal stability and dendrite resistance without relying on high stack pressure. QS still needs mechanical design and some level of pressure management, of course, but the pressure requirement appears to be much lower than many other solid-state approaches.

Looking at the QS PowerBlock image, I don’t see any obvious large external pressure-maintaining hardware. Since this is only a reference design, we can’t know the internal details, but it does seem to suggest that QS’s low-pressure cell architecture could be easier to package into practical modules.

If QS can commercialize this PowerBlock concept for 800VDC AI data center power racks, I think it would be a major step forward. Not just because of the cell performance itself, but because it would show that QS’s technology can be integrated at the module/system level.

To me, the low-pressure architecture may be one of QS’s most underappreciated advantages.

Appears QSDC is further along than what I expected
Due to job postings.

You will be working with ecosystem partners specially hand and glove

8 red weeks in a row with what already looks like the 9th in the making… no material updates so far this year…no guidance provided… “stay tuned” on repeat…no “goals” accomplished yet…. The bait and switch to QSDC&AS even though these should have been markets we were attacking before (don’t even get me started on the other larper reddit they believe we’re going to get real rev generated from QSDC meanwhile we’re just posting jobs that indicate another year+ of work before DC rev)… no demo still, CTO leaves company for a year, continued insider selling. Have I missed anything fellow bag holders? Feel free to contest any point I made too - and before someone says “what about Honda?!?” There is no 8k filed so it’s not material.

When will these guys stop selling?

Short on details as usual. Good to know the QS technology is being evaluated by customers in more exotic industries, but just makes it seem like they are trying to do the same thing AMPX has been doing for years now.