Briefs: Deals in Electronics, GaN, Batteries, and Nuclear

ABB, Gamesa Electric, Onsemi, Innoscience, Desert Mountain Energy, and Antares Nuclear have been busy making deals and plans to strengthen their companies.

News Dec 04, 2025 by Karen Hanson

From major corporations to startups, companies are making significant moves to keep pace with the changing energy landscape. ABB has acquired a power electronics business, while Onsemi and Innoscience are partnering to develop gallium nitride (GaN) devices. Desert Mountain Energy is planning to produce sodium-nickel-chloride batteries and support a huge AI data center complex. Antares Nuclear has raised $96 million for its nuclear reactors. Finally, the Department of Energy has changed the name and purpose of a major national laboratory.

Recent changes could impact wind turbine electronics, GaN devices, data centers, and nuclear reactors.

ABB Acquires Gamesa Electric’s Power Electronics

ABB has acquired Gamesa Electric’s power electronics business in Spain from Siemens Gamesa. The portfolio includes power conversion products, including wind converters for doubly-fed induction generators, battery energy storage systems, and utility-scale solar inverters. ABB and Siemens Gamesa also entered a supply and services agreement.

The deal brings ABB about 400 employees, two converter factories in Madrid and Valencia, and key resources in China, India, Australia, and the U.S. The deal will increase the total capacity of ABB’s serviceable installed base of wind converters by around 46 GW. Financial details were not disclosed, but Gamesa Electric reported €145 million in revenue in its 2025 fiscal year.

The SG 7.0-170 wind turbine. Image used courtesy of Siemens Gamesa

Onsemi and Innoscience To Collaborate on GaN Power Rollout

Onsemi and Innoscience have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to assess strategies to accelerate GaN power devices and expand adoption in industrial, automotive, AI data centers, and more. The partnership will first focus on 40 to 200 V devices.

The non-binding MOU brings together Onsemi’s GaN Power solutions and Innoscience’s wafer manufacturing. The companies hope to combine Onsemi’s expertise in drivers, systems integration, and packaging with Innoscience’s wafer manufacturing capabilities. They aim to create smaller and more efficient GaN solutions in applications such as solar microinverters, DC-DC converters, bus converters, and battery backup units.

Innoscience GaN components. Image used courtesy of Innoscience

Onsemi states the projected market for GaN power devices may be as high as $2.9 billion by 2030.

Desert Mountain Plans SNC Battery Plant in Roswell, New Mexico

Desert Mountain Energy has signed a letter of intent to build and operate a sodium-nickel-chloride (SNC) battery plant in Roswell, New Mexico. The facility will produce batteries and support a planned AI data center.

The operations for battery production and the data center complex will use water produced by nearby oil and gas wells for cooling and processing. The water treatment process will involve separating and extracting salts and rare earth elements.

Data center facility concept. Image used courtesy of Desert Mountain Energy

Desert Mountain, a natural gas and helium producer, states that water repurposing will reduce the amount taken from the aquifer and lower costs for oil and gas producers. The extracted sodium will be used in producing the SNC batteries. The rare earth elements will be shipped to other facilities for refinement.

Antares Raises $96M for Nuclear Reactor Technology

Antares Nuclear has raised $96 million in Series B funding for capital to accelerate the design, build, and test nuclear reactors. The Los Angeles-based startup stated the funds will be used for hardware, fuel fabrication, subsystem testing, manufacturing, and infrastructure.

Antares plans to conduct its first low-power reactor demonstration next year at the Idaho National Laboratory. The test will validate the reactor physics and reactivity controls of the R1 reactor design and establish steps for further testing. The company plans to build a full-power, electricity-producing reactor in INL in 2027.

Concept of a space-based reactor. Image used courtesy of Antares Nuclear

Antares is working on projects with the Department of the Army, NASA, and other federal agencies.

'Renewable' No More? NREL Changes Name and Mission

The U.S. Department of Energy has erased renewables from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. DOT has renamed the Colorado-based lab the “National Laboratory of the Rockies.”

The lab’s focus will change along with the name. Rather than exclusively researching and developing solar, wind, and other renewable sources, scientists will now, according to DOE, embrace “a broader applied energy mission.”