QuantumScape Corporation (QS): Who It Depends On
QuantumScape is a pre-commercial developer of solid-state lithium-metal batteries for electric vehicles, and its dependency story is less about a diversified supplier and customer base than about one dominant relationship: Volkswagen Group, its largest shareholder, whose PowerCo battery subsidiary holds the only publicly disclosed license to manufacture QuantumScape's cells at volume. On the supply side, QuantumScape designs and builds most of its own core manufacturing equipment in-house, so its most consequential named external dependencies are the two partners it has publicly enlisted to help scale production of its proprietary ceramic separator, Corning and Murata. On the customer side, Volkswagen/PowerCo remains overwhelmingly dominant even as QuantumScape has begun signing joint development agreements with a handful of other, still-undisclosed top-10 global automakers.
Supply-chain dependency
QuantumScape is pre-commercial and designs and builds most of its core manufacturing equipment (the Raptor, Cobra, and Eagle production lines) in-house at its San Jose facilities, so it does not disclose a traditional multi-tier, multi-supplier raw-material concentration table the way an operating manufacturer would. The chart below instead reflects the two manufacturing partners QuantumScape has publicly named as essential to scaling production of its ceramic separator, the hardest-to- replicate component of its solid-state battery, beyond pilot-line volumes.
Corning and QuantumScape announced a September 2025 agreement to jointly develop and commercialize high-volume manufacturing of QuantumScape's ceramic separator, the layer that enables its lithium- metal anode and is the hardest part of the battery to mass-produce. QuantumScape has said Corning is investing directly in production systems built around its proprietary "Cobra" separator process, making Corning's ceramics manufacturing expertise difficult to replace as QuantumScape scales beyond pilot-line output.
Murata, a Japanese electronics-ceramics manufacturer, signed an earlier-stage framework agreement with QuantumScape in April 2025 to explore high-volume manufacturing of the ceramic film used in its separator, leveraging Murata's precision-ceramics production expertise. Murata's shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange; its US ADR (MRAAY) trades only thinly over the counter, with no proper US-listed ticker.
Customer concentration
Companies that make up an outsized share of QS's revenue - who QS relies on to buy from it.
Volkswagen is QuantumScape's largest shareholder, with a stake of roughly 16%, and its only publicly disclosed commercial partner. Volkswagen's battery subsidiary PowerCo paid a $130 million upfront license fee in 2024 for a non-exclusive right to manufacture up to 40 gigawatt-hours of QuantumScape's solid-state cells annually (expandable toward 80 GWh), and in 2025 the two expanded the collaboration with up to $131 million in additional milestone-based payments tied to joint scale-up of the QSE-5 production line. Volkswagen's primary listing is on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (VOW3); its US ADR (VWAGY) trades only thinly over the counter, with no proper US-listed ticker.
QuantumScape has disclosed that several other top-10 global automakers across Europe, North America, and Japan are actively engaged with its technology, including at least two joint development agreements signed in 2025 and one signed in late 2025, alongside ongoing cell-sampling programs. The identities of these automakers and the financial terms of these agreements have not been disclosed. Not a single company.
The percentages shown are editorial estimates based on public research (company disclosures, earnings commentary, and industry reporting) meant to illustrate relative reliance, not precise or audited figures. Companies without a proper, reliably tradable ticker on this site are shown without stock/earnings links. This is not financial advice.