KULR Technology Group

KULR Technology Group

KULR Technology Group commercializes battery safety technology that originated inside NASA's space program. The company holds an exclusive license to carbon-fiber thermal management patents developed for the International Space Station and deep-space missions, then adapted that architecture into lightweight shielding that stops thermal runaway in lithium-ion cells. Founder and CTO Dr. Timothy Knowles engineered early versions of the material at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before spinning the technology into a standalone entity. The firm went public via a reverse merger in 2019 and maintains its engineering base in San Diego, California. The company's deployment model spans three lanes: design services for custom battery safety systems, licensing its thermal interface patents to manufacturers, and direct sales of its passive propagation-resistant (PPR) wraps and spacers. Confirmed customers include Lockheed Martin for hypersonic weapon systems, the US Department of Transportation for aircraft battery containment, and Volta Energy Technologies for grid-scale storage testing. KULR also supplies NASA with battery modules for Artemis lunar missions and provides shielding for the International Space Station's lithium-ion battery replacement program. Geographically, its revenue concentrates on US defense and aerospace contractors, with a growing pipeline among Asian electric-vehicle manufacturers testing its technology through regional distribution agreements in South Korea and Japan. KULR scaled through government contracts before expanding into commercial markets. In 2023, the company secured a multi-phase battery-safety testing contract with a major automotive OEM, while continuing to fulfill orders for the US Army's tactical battery program. The firm disclosed a bitcoin treasury strategy in December 2024, allocating surplus cash to bitcoin purchases, though its core operations remain centered on thermal safety engineering. The engineering team operates from a testing laboratory in San Diego that houses calorimetry equipment capable of simulating extreme thermal events across battery form factors. Structurally, KULR functions as a public R&D platform rather than a product company. It retains fewer than 100 employees but accesses an engineering talent pool through its NASA heritage and ongoing federal contracting relationships. The firm's moat lies in its IP portfolio covering carbon-fiber thermal management — a narrow, defensible lane where performance claims are physically testable, not marketing abstractions. That forensic safety posture distinguishes it from broader thermal-management peers and makes every customer engagement a design-partnership rather than a transactional sale.