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Monolith Announces Additional Funding from Investor Consortium

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Latest round of financing will support Monolith’s commercial growth, as it continues to advance toward expanding operations

LINCOLN, Neb., Sept. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Monolith Materials, Inc. (Monolith), a global leader in clean hydrogen and carbon black, today announced a closed funding round from existing investors, including Azimuth V Energy Evolution Fund and Azimuth Capital Management’s Development Company Platform, Cornell Capital, Decarbonization Partners, TPG Rise Climate, and Warburg Pincus. This is the latest round following Monolith’s capital raise in July 2022 and conditional approval for a loan from the Department of Energy Loan Programs Office to expand its production facilities in Nebraska.

“It is an exciting time for Monolith, and we are incredibly proud of the work we are doing to scale the business supported by world-class investors,” said Rob Hanson, co-founder and CEO of Monolith.  

Monolith uses clean energy to power a commercial-scale proprietary plasma pyrolysis process that electrifies carbon black and hydrogen production. The carbon black produced from Monolith’s low-emission process is an essential input for tires, plastics, inks, paints and other uses. Today, the carbon black that Monolith produces at its existing facility (OC1) goes into tires across North America. The clean hydrogen to be produced at Monolith’s expansion facility (OC2) will be converted to ammonia and is expected to be supplied as fertilizer to farmers in America’s Corn Belt to help feed and fuel the world.

“This funding continues our decade-long partnership with Monolith as the company builds a high energy, low emissions future,” said Roy Ben-Dor, Managing Director and Head of Energy Transition & Sustainability, Warburg Pincus. “The company’s proprietary approach to producing sustainable hydrogen, carbon black, and ammonia is critical to decarbonizing the energy and materials sectors.”

“The Monolith team continues to move at pace in tackling emissions from some of the most widely used, yet most difficult to decarbonize materials. Since our initial investment in 2022, we’ve seen strong demand from top brands in Monolith’s end markets and we look forward to continuing that momentum with our latest investment,” said Jonathan Garfinkel, a Managing Partner of TPG Rise Climate.

“Rob and the team at Monolith continue to successfully navigate the road toward launching their expansion, which will significantly scale their operations and put more clean tires on the road,” said Dr. Meghan Sharp, Global Head of Decarbonization Partners. “We look forward to continuing to support the company.”

About Monolith
Monolith is a next-generation cleantech company that uses clean energy to power a commercial-scale proprietary plasma pyrolysis process that electrifies the production of carbon black and hydrogen, which provides environmental advantages over conventional production processes. Monolith is backed by Azimuth Capital Management, Cornell Capital, Decarbonization Partners, Elda River Capital Management, LLC, Imperative Ventures, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, Perry Creek Capital LP, SK Inc., TPG Rise Climate and Warburg Pincus. For more information on Monolith, visit www.monolith-corp.com.

About Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global growth investor. The firm has more than $83 billion in assets under management. The firm’s active portfolio of more than 225 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector, and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Since its founding in 1966, Warburg Pincus has invested more than $117 billion in over 1,000 companies globally across its private equity, real estate, and capital solutions strategies. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information please visit www.warburgpincus.com.

About Azimuth Capital Management
Founded in 2000, Azimuth is an energy transition private equity manager focused on late stage growth equity and development opportunities in North America and Europe. Azimuth is an international leader in energy operating and project development experience, which enables differentiated results across five funds in addition to in-house development company origination. Azimuth V targets low carbon fuels, battery materials, and baseload clean power and storage with a focus on efficient carbon mitigation. For more information, please visit www.navigatingenergy.com.

About Cornell Capital
Cornell Capital is a U.S.-based private investment firm with ~$6 billion of AUM and offices in New York and Hong Kong. Leveraging decades of global investment experience, the firm takes a disciplined approach to investing across the consumer, financial services, and industrials/business services sectors, often in companies that can benefit from the firm’s Asia presence and cross-border expertise. Founded in 2013 by Senior Partner Henry Cornell, the former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking Division, the firm is led by a highly seasoned team with significant shared investment experience. For more information, visit www.cornellcapllc.com

About TPG Rise Climate
TPG Rise Climate is the dedicated climate investing strategy of TPG’s $19 billion global impact investing platform. TPG Rise Climate pursues climate-related investments that benefit from the diverse skills of TPG’s investing professionals, the strategic relationships developed across TPG’s existing portfolio of climate-focused companies, and a global network of executives and advisors. The fund takes a broad-based sector approach to investment types, from growth equity to value-added infrastructure, and focuses on climate solutions in the following thematic areas: clean electrons, clean molecules and materials, and negative emissions. Jim Coulter, TPG Founding Partner and Executive Chairman, serves as a Managing Partner of TPG Rise Climate. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson serves as TPG Rise Climate’s Executive Chairman. For more information, please visit www.therisefund.com/tpgriseclimate.

About Decarbonization Partners
Decarbonization Partners is a joint venture between Temasek and BlackRock focused on late-stage venture capital and early growth private equity investing in next-generation companies that provide solutions and technologies to help accelerate global efforts to achieve a net zero global economy by 2050. Decarbonization Partners combines Temasek and BlackRock’s complementary platforms and expertise in sourcing and underwriting private investments, portfolio and risk management, and sustainable technology and analytics. Decarbonization Partners invests in a wide range of companies that have proven technology and need capital to scale. The partnership attracted $1.40bn in capital from a diverse set of over 30 institutional investors across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. 

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SOURCE Monolith

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Fox ESS Ranks No. 1 Globally in Residential Energy Storage

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WENZHOU, China, April 23, 2026 /CNW/ — Fox ESS, a global leader in renewable energy solutions, has been ranked No. 1 among residential energy storage providers worldwide for 2025, based on MWh shipments in S&P Global Energy’s Residential Energy Storage Market Tracker.

The report also places Fox ESS at No. 1 in Germany and the UK, highlighting the company’s momentum in key markets and expanding distribution footprint.

Compared with 2024, Fox ESS’s global market share rose 50% in 2025, reinforcing its position in a rapidly growing residential storage sector. The company has continued to scale internationally, with global headcount doubling from the end of 2024. As of April 2026, Fox ESS employs more than 5,000 people worldwide, and has added local support through new offices, including in Sydney, Australia.

“We’re thrilled for this remarkable achievement. It reflects our commitment to innovation and product quality, and to making clean, reliable energy practical for households around the world,” said Michael Zhu, CEO of Fox ESS. “We will continue pushing the boundaries to deliver solutions that help homes and businesses move toward energy independence.”

Notably, Fox ESS has launched the Champion’s Choice campaign globally, combining the endorsement of sports champions with recognition from prestigious organizations. With the first stop in Australia, the company signed Ian Thorpe, a five-time Olympic champion last December. The campaign underscores Fox ESS’s ambition to deliver better value for customers and partners.

Fox ESS is committed to building long-term trust with customers and partners. The company delivers reliable, high-quality energy storage systems engineered for consistent performance, supported by rigorous quality-control processes designed to help ensure every product meets the highest standards.

Fox ESS develops solutions that serve both installers and end users. With ongoing investment in R&D, the company stays ahead of evolving market needs, helping installers work more efficiently while enabling homeowners to move toward energy transition and reduce electricity costs.

With a team of more than 400 experts in R&D, Fox ESS continues to refine its product design for easier transportation, installation, and everyday use. The AI-powered FoxCloud app also makes energy management more intuitive, enabling users to monitor and control home energy consumption, manage smart devices, and track detailed generation and usage data in a single streamlined platform, delivering greater peace of mind.

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SOURCE Fox ESS

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Deepvein Mining Tech Wins NY Product Design Gold for Exploration Robotics

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SHANGHAI, April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Deepvein Mining Tech, a developer of robotic systems for mining operations, has received Gold at the 2026 NY Product Design Awards for its Intelligent Geological Mapping and Geochemical Sampling Quadrupedal Robots, a robotics series developed for mineral exploration in remote and high-risk field environments.

The NY Product Design Awards, organized by the International Awards Associate (IAA), recognize achievements in product design and industrial innovation worldwide.

Mining exploration has become increasingly costly and technically challenging as easily accessible deposits are depleted, particularly in remote and geologically complex regions where fieldwork can be slow, labor-intensive and operationally demanding.

Deepvein’s award-winning robotics series was developed to address those constraints through a combination of quadrupedal robotic hardware and integrated software systems. The solution supports route planning, equipment coordination, sample logging and geological data management, helping standardize field operations and reduce manual workloads.

Designed for geological mapping and geochemical sampling, the robotic units can autonomously perform targeted collection tasks while reducing repeated manual fieldwork. A single operating cycle can gather approximately 30 to 50 samples.

According to deployment data from company-operated mining assets in Africa, exploration data collection cycles were reduced from around 12 months to one week, while overall workflow costs fell by approximately 40%.

Beyond efficiency gains, the use of robotic systems in steep, high-temperature or hard-to-access areas can help reduce personnel exposure to hazardous conditions. Improved targeting and digital workflow management can also limit unnecessary surface disturbance during early-stage exploration.

Deepvein is developing a broader portfolio of mining robotics covering the industry lifecycle, with future applications expected in transport support, inspection, maintenance and site rehabilitation, alongside continued iteration of its exploration-stage systems.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deepvein-mining-tech-wins-ny-product-design-gold-for-exploration-robotics-302752483.html

SOURCE Deepvein Mining Tech

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SK Group Establishes Foundation for AI Collaboration with Vietnam

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SK Telecom and SK Innovation sign separate MOUs with Vietnam’s Nghe An Province and the National Innovation Center (NIC) to foster artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem development.From AI data center (AIDC) construction to stable power supply, Korea’s full-stack AI is poised for its first overseas expansion.SK Chairman Chey Tae-won: “SK Group will contribute to the advancement of Vietnam’s AI industry through its comprehensive AI portfolio.”

SEOUL, South Korea, April 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SK Group announced it will collaborate with Vietnam to build the country’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry ecosystem and develop core AI infrastructure.

At the Korea–Vietnam Business Forum held in Hanoi on April 23, SK Group signed separate memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the Nghe An Provincial Government and Vietnam’s National Innovation Center (NIC) to foster AI ecosystem development.

The signing ceremony was held in the presence of Kim Jung-kwan, Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources of Korea, and Ngo Van Tuan, Minister of Finance of Vietnam.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee and SK Group was signed by Vo Trong Hai, Chairman of the Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee; Choo Hyeong-wook, President & CEO of SK Innovation; and Jung Jai-hun, President & CEO of SK Telecom.

Another MOU between the National Innovation Center (NIC) and SK Group was signed by Vu Quoc Huy, Director General of NIC; Choo Hyeong-wook, President & CEO of SK Innovation; and Jung Jai-hun, President & CEO of SK Telecom.

Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group and Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), also attended the ceremony.

Earlier, at the Korea–Vietnam Summit, the two countries agreed to expand cooperation in future growth sectors such as AI, semiconductors, and energy. SK Group’s MOUs with Vietnam represent this bilateral cooperation being put into action by the private sector.

Through these partnerships, SK Group plans to support Vietnam’s growth as a key partner in its national AI strategy. In addition, building on AI data center development and stable power supply, SK Group is expected to lay the groundwork for the first overseas expansion of its “Korean-style AI full-stack” model, linking AI model development and validation with the rollout of industry-specific AI services.

Joint AIDC feasibility study in Nghe An linked to the Quynh Lap LNG Power Project

SK Innovation and SK Telecom signed an MOU with the Nghe An provincial government to jointly explore developing an AIDC and related infrastructure projects in the region. Nghe An is a major economic hub in north-central Vietnam and has emerged as a fast-growing region for manufacturing, energy and advanced industries, supported by its port and logistics infrastructure.

SK Innovation will explore broad cooperation opportunities in energy solutions, including supplying electricity to the data center and building dedicated generation facilities connected to the Quynh Lap LNG Power Project, for which it was recently selected as the developer.

SK Telecom plans to review options for developing, building, and operating the AIDC while also seeking to secure global demand. The Nghe An provincial government agreed to discuss support measures to help advance the partnership, including permits, administrative procedures, inter-ministerial coordination and incentive programs.

In February, SK Innovation was selected as a developer for the Quynh Lap LNG power project in Nghe An Province, together with PV Power, a power generation subsidiary of Vietnam’s state-owned oil and gas group PVN, and local company NASU. The project is a large-scale energy infrastructure initiative that includes the development of a 1,500-MW gas-fired combined cycle power plant, an LNG terminal, and a dedicated port, with construction scheduled to begin in 2027 and completion targeted for 2030. From the proposal stage, SK Innovation also presented a model to foster high value-added industries by integrating SK Group’s AI and semiconductor capabilities in areas near the power plant, thereby laying the foundation for the current partnership.

At the forum, the Nghe An government also presented the SK Innovation consortium with the Investment Registration Certificate (IRC) for the Quynh Lap Power Project, reaffirming its commitment to the development.

“Drawing on SK Group’s experience in operating large-scale power generation and diverse energy solution businesses, we will ensure the successful development of the local power infrastructure,” said Choo Hyeong-wook, President & CEO of SK Innovation, during a presentation titled “Vietnam’s Economic Leap through AI + Energy Innovation.”

Cooperation with NIC to Build Vietnam’s AI Ecosystem

SK Telecom and SK Innovation also signed a comprehensive MOU with Vietnam’s NIC to support the development of the country’s AI ecosystem.

The two sides agreed to cooperate on AIDC development, energy infrastructure development and the establishment of policy and institutional frameworks to foster the AI industry.

Under the agreement, SK Telecom will support AI ecosystem development in Vietnam through technology collaboration and investment promotion, and SK Innovation will provide energy solutions for AIDCs and related industries. The NIC will provide institutional support, such as coordinating with government agencies, improving regulations and developing policy, while also identifying and connecting local partners to facilitate project execution.

Established in 2019 by the Vietnamese government, NIC serves as the country’s national innovation hub, leading initiatives in AI, semiconductors and investment promotion. SK Group has maintained a close partnership with NIC, including a previous $30 million contribution toward its establishment.

Jung Jai-hun, President and CEO of SK Telecom, said, “AI data centers are key infrastructure that underpins the growth of the AI industry. Building on SK Group’s accumulated capabilities in the development, construction, and operation of AI data centers, we will further refine a collaboration model tailored to the Vietnamese market.”

First Overseas Expansion of Chairman Chey Tae-won’s “AI Full-Stack Provider” Vision

This partnership in Vietnam is significant as it could mark SK Group’s first overseas expansion of the “AI full-stack provider” strategy, integrating capabilities in AIDC, power, and energy solutions.

Chairman Chey Tae-won has consistently articulated his vision of transforming SK Group into an “AI full-stack provider.” Leveraging SK Group’s strengths across the AI value chain—including semiconductors, data centers, power and energy solutions, and AI services—the Group aims to build the most efficient AI infrastructure model.

Under this vision, SK Group is advancing the development of the 100-MW hyperscale “SK AI Data Center Ulsan,” targeted for completion in 2027. The Group has also been laying the groundwork for Korea to emerge as an Asia-Pacific AI hub by engaging in discussions with OpenAI on collaboration for AI data center development in Korea.

Ahead of the Korea–Vietnam Business Forum, Chairman Chey Tae-won said at a business roundtable, “AI will play a critical role in Vietnam’s continued growth. SK Group has a portfolio spanning the entire AI ecosystem—from energy and semiconductors to AI models and applications—and we will leverage this to make tangible contributions to the development of Vietnam’s AI industry.”

About SK Telecom 

SK Telecom has been leading the growth of the mobile industry since 1984. Now, it is taking customer experience to new heights by extending beyond connectivity. By placing AI at the core of its business, SK Telecom is rapidly transforming into an AI company with a strong global presence. It is focusing on driving innovations in areas of AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX) and AI Service to deliver greater value for industry, society, and life. 

For more information, please contact skt_press@sk.com or visit our LinkedIn page www.linkedin.com/company/sk-telecom

About SK Innovation

Founded in 1962 as Korea Oil Corporation, SK Innovation has been at the forefront of Korea’s energy industry for over six decades. The company has pioneered numerous milestones, including Korea’s first overseas oil field development, the vertical integration of its energy and chemical businesses, the nation’s first private LNG import, and a strategic entry into the electric vehicle battery business.

Now, SK Innovation has reached a transformative turning point in its journey to become a Comprehensive Global Energy Company. Extending beyond its traditional oil business to encompass the entire energy value chain -spanning LNG & Power, Renewable Energy, and Energy Solutions- the company is driving global expansion, including in Vietnam.

For more information, please visit the official SK Innovation website at www.skinnovation.com.

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SOURCE SK Group; SK Telecom

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