For years, battery innovation has largely focused on chemistry. Companies have chased longer-lasting lithium-ion cells, safer solid-state batteries, and cheaper materials. But a quieter revolution is now gaining momentum, and it could fundamentally change how batteries are designed, manufactured, and integrated into devices.
Instead of improving what goes inside a battery, a growing number of startups and researchers are trying to change the battery itself through 3D printing. The idea is simple yet ambitious: create batteries that can fit into virtually any shape or structure rather than being limited to traditional cylindrical or pouch designs.
The potential applications are significant. Researchers believe 3D-printed batteries could allow manufacturers to fill unused spaces inside devices with energy storage, making products lighter, thinner, and more efficient. Smart glasses could hide batteries inside their frames, while drones could use their entire structure to store energy instead of relying on separate battery packs.
One advantage of the technology is its flexibility. Unlike many battery breakthroughs that depend on a specific chemistry, additive manufacturing techniques can work with lithium-ion, sodium-ion, and solid-state batteries, and potentially future battery technologies.
Interest in the field is growing rapidly. According to the report, researchers published roughly 25,000 papers related to 3D-printed batteries and battery components in 2025 alone. However, only a small number of companies have begun exploring commercial applications.
Several startups are now attempting to bring the concept from research labs into the real world.
One of them is Material Hybrid Manufacturing, a Miami-based company founded by former Formula One engineer Gabe Elias and battery researcher Christopher Reyes. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the company has developed a custom 3D-printing system capable of producing batteries in unconventional shapes and configurations.
Material recently secured a $7.1 million seed funding round and a $1.25 million contract with the U.S. Air Force. The company is developing prototype batteries for Teledyne FLIR’s SkyRaider drone and claims its printed battery approach could increase energy storage by as much as 35 percent compared to conventional battery packs occupying the same space.
Another company, Sakuu, is taking a different approach. Instead of printing complete batteries, it aims to improve battery manufacturing by eliminating energy-intensive drying ovens used during electrode production. The company says its additive manufacturing process can create battery components without solvents, potentially reducing production costs and energy consumption.
Researchers are also exploring more radical concepts, including batteries made from simulated moon dust for future lunar bases and structural batteries that form part of a vehicle’s frame.
While commercial adoption remains years away, experts believe military and aerospace applications could serve as the first proving grounds. If successful, the technology may eventually make its way into everyday consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and wearable devices.
For decades, fusion energy has been the ultimate promise of clean energy. It’s the process that powers the sun, capable of producing enormous amounts of energy without the carbon emissions associated with fossil fuels. Scientists have spent generations trying to recreate it on Earth, convinced that if they can make it work at scale, it could fundamentally reshape the world’s energy future. The problem is that fusion is incredibly difficult, not just from a scientific perspective, but from an economic one. Building and testing experimental reactors costs vast amounts of money, and progress often comes through a frustrating cycle of trial and error. Researchers develop a theory, build hardware to test it, gather data, tweak the design, and repeat the process. Sometimes that cycle takes years. Now, a Chinese startup called VeloAlpha believes artificial intelligence could help break that pattern.
Founded earlier this year by fusion scientist Xie Huasheng, the Beijing-based company is developing FusionAlpha, a simulation platform that lets researchers test fusion reactor designs digitally before committing to expensive physical experiments. It may not sound as exciting as a giant reactor generating limitless clean power. But if VeloAlpha’s technology delivers on its promise, it could end up solving one of fusion’s most expensive and persistent challenges.
Robots can pick up boxes, sort packages, and screw in bolts without breaking a sweat. Some of them can even walk and run like humans. Hand one a floppy, slippery piece of raw salmon, though, and everything starts falling apart.
A team at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology set out to solve that problem. The result is the Sashimi-Bot, a three-armed robot that can prepare sashimi from a raw salmon loin without a chef in sight.
Getting AI to write emails or debug code is one thing. Getting it to convince people to part with their money is another matter entirely. According to a new report by The Washington Post, a new study from researchers at the University of Oxford and other institutions found that Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 outperformed professional human fundraisers when it came to persuading people to donate, raising fresh questions about the growing influence of AI.
Claude beat human fundraisers, but there is an important catch
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