Kobe Steel, Ltd.

Malta Inc. announced a capital and business alliance agreement with Kobe Steel, Ltd., under which Kobe Steel has made a strategic investment in the cleantech company and joined its global investor base. The alliance pairs Malta's proprietary ultra-high temperature heat pump technology with Kobe Steel's decades of experience in compression solutions, with the companies intending to combine their technologies, expertise, and know-how to accelerate development, commercialization, and widespread adoption of Malta's solutions for industrial energy cost reduction, process reliability, decarbonization, waste heat recovery, and energy storage. Philippe Delleville, President and CEO of Malta Inc., said Kobe Steel's leadership in steam compression technology is highly complementary to Malta's steam management platform and will help accelerate commercialization of its heat pump technology for industry and its implementation in grid-scale energy storage. For Kobe Steel, the investment aligns with green transformation initiatives under its KOBELCO-X strategy, while for Malta the partnership strengthens its investor base as it scales commercial deployment. Malta, which originated from X, formerly Google X, is backed by Kobe Steel, Cox Energy, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, X, Siemens Energy Ventures, Alfa Laval, Proman, and Chevron Technology Ventures, among other investors.