Deepak Ahuja, who served as Tesla’s chief financial officer for 11 years across two separate stints, is joining Redwood Materials as CFO. The move reunites him with Tesla co-founder and former CTO JB Straubel.
The hire comes at a pivotal moment for Redwood, which recently laid off 10% of its workforce and lost several senior executives as it restructures around a fast-growing energy storage business.
Tesla reunion at Redwood
Ahuja was one of Tesla’s most consequential early hires. He joined the automaker in 2008 — when it was still a scrappy startup trying to survive — and helped navigate the company through a near-death cash crisis that same year. He retired from Tesla for the first time in 2015, returned in 2017 to replace Jason Wheeler, and then retired again in early 2019, handing the reins to Zach Kirkhorn.
Before Tesla, Ahuja spent 15 years at Ford Motor Company in a range of finance and operations leadership roles. After leaving Tesla, he served as CFO at Alphabet’s Verily and then as chief business and financial officer at drone delivery company Zipline.
Now he’s joining Straubel at Redwood Materials, the battery recycling and materials company Straubel founded in 2017 after leaving his role as Tesla’s CTO. Straubel still sits on Tesla’s board of directors, making this a tight-knit Tesla alumni circle at the top of one of the most important battery supply chain companies in North America.
Redwood in transition
The timing of Ahuja’s appointment is significant. Redwood has been going through a major restructuring over the past few weeks. In late April, the company laid off approximately 135 employees — roughly 10% of its workforce — as it pivots resources toward its growing energy storage division, Redwood Energy.
The company also lost its COO, Chris Lister, who retired after joining in late 2023. Several vice presidents across engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing also departed in recent months. Bringing in a seasoned CFO with Ahuja’s credentials sends a clear signal that Straubel is rebuilding his leadership team for the next phase of growth.
Redwood is currently valued at over $6 billion after raising $350 million in October 2025 and closing a $425 million Series E in January 2026 with participation from Google and Nvidia. The company generated $200 million in run-rate revenue in 2024 and holds roughly 70% of the US battery recycling market.
From recycling to energy storage
Redwood’s business has evolved well beyond its original battery recycling roots. The company now produces cathode and anode materials — the most valuable components in a lithium-ion battery — and has built a domestic supply chain that partners with major automakers including Toyota, GM, and Rivian.
The newest and fastest-growing piece is Redwood Energy, launched in mid-2025, which repurposes retired EV batteries into grid-scale energy storage. Redwood has already deployed a 12 MW/63 MWh installation in Sparks, Nevada, supporting AI infrastructure company Crusoe, and has signed deals with both Rivian and GM for second-life battery systems.
The company has stockpiled over 1 GWh of batteries suitable for energy storage and plans to scale to 20 GWh by 2028. The AI data center boom is driving massive demand for exactly this kind of fast-deployable grid storage.
Ahuja’s financial expertise — particularly his experience scaling Tesla through hypergrowth while managing capital-intensive manufacturing operations — makes him a natural fit for this phase of Redwood’s development.
Electrek’s Take
This is one of those hires that makes perfect sense. Ahuja knows the battery industry’s financial dynamics better than most, having helped build Tesla from a company that nearly went bankrupt in 2008 into the most valuable automaker in the world. He understands battery economics, manufacturing scale-up costs, and the capital markets appetite for clean energy companies.
Redwood needs exactly that right now. The company is sitting on a strong market position — 70% of US battery recycling — but it’s at an inflection point. The energy storage business is growing fast, the leadership team has been shuffled, and the company will likely need to raise more capital or consider going public in the next few years. Having the CFO who took Tesla through its IPO and multiple capital raises is a significant asset.
The Tesla reunion angle is also worth noting. Straubel and Ahuja worked together for over a decade at Tesla. That kind of trust and shared experience at the executive level is hard to replicate. Redwood is building one of the most critical pieces of the US battery supply chain, and this hire suggests Straubel is serious about taking it to the next level.
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