Salt can become a hot commodity amid a boom in demand for sodium-ion batteries, according to Morgan Stanley. Analyst Jack Lu and his team at the bank predict sodium-ion batteries will account for 20% of total battery deployment market share by 2030 and 37% in 2035. Currently, his team expects it to make up around 2% of the market next year. “We characterize the incipient sodium-ion battery era as the ‘New Oil Age,'” Lu wrote to clients. Lu said sodium-ion batteries are gaining traction because they are 30% to 40% more affordable than those made from lithium iron phosphate. On top of that, Lu said they perform better in cold weather. Given these benefits, Lu said the sodium-ion battery market is slated to grow from today’s pilot stage to having an annual global market of 830 gigawatt hours by 2030. That number could then balloon to 2.4 terawatt hours by 2035, he said. To power this growth, Lu said to expect around $800 billion in new investments by 2035. “In an AI-driven, power-intensive world, sodium-ion batteries address the critical bottleneck where energy security meets AI,” Lu wrote. “This chemistry is much more than a mere niche experiment. The new breed of batteries could redefine energy security and disrupt both new deployments and installed base.” Lu said to expect industry winners to take more in the emerging space. “These incumbents can leverage existing customer relationships, global capacity footprints, and R & D depth to rapidly capture the low-end market while simultaneously pushing sodium-ion batteries into higher-value applications,” the analyst wrote. How to play Andrew Percoco, another Morgan Stanley analyst, said sodium is widely available and inexpensive in the U.S. Another plus: Using this type of battery will allow companies to bring part of their production back to domestic soil, he said. Percoco said that General Motors has an “early foothold” in the U.S. market through its partnership with Peak Energy to develop next-generation sodium-ion batteries. The deal gives GM exclusive rights for manufacturing in the U.S., with the additional opportunity to license to a contract manufacturer. GM YTD mountain GM in 2026 GM expects deployment on grid-scale energy storage projects to begin after 2028, Percoco noted. The automaker can also use the sodium-iron technology for applications in the defense or mobility sectors. General Motors shares have dropped almost 4% this year, giving up some ground after surging more than 52% in 2025 and 48% in 2024. But Wall Street sees a rebound ahead: The average analyst has a buy rating and anticipates shares can jump 20%, per LSEG.
Morgan Stanley says salt is the new oil. Here’s why and how to play it
