Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced on Tuesday that it has worked with a US national laboratory to use artificial intelligence (AI) to rapidly identify a material that could mean producing batteries that require 70% less lithium.
The method, which would replace of much of the lithium required with sodium, still needs extensive evaluation by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington to determine whether it will be suitable for mass production, Reuters reported.
Microsoft used a combination of AI models trained on molecular science data and traditional scientific supercomputers, while being able to narrow down more than 32 million possibilities to 18 candidates that the PNNL scientists then examined to decide which ones to synthesize and test in a lab, the media outlet noted.
Their discovery thus far is a new kind of solid-state electrolyte, a type of material that could lead to a battery that’s less likely to burst into flames than the lithium-ion batteries currently on the market.
Shares of Microsoft inched up 0.2% to $375.37 in midday trading on Tuesday.