Why would they be in a rush to secure TLGs graphite. No permits, no mine built, no financing. Securing a binding offtake with TLG isent worth the paper its written on till these things happen.
And to the big players TLG is an hours revenue on a slow day. There will be no made rush to secure TLG as a partner when they can easily talk to the biggest graphite suppliers in the world. When Tesla needed Nickel they went to BHP not some small company. NVX are an ASX200 listed company and they struggle to negotiate and you think TLG is gonna boss Volkswagen around to lock in offtakes. All 10 of those EV companies would be talking to 20 other producers at the same time expressing the same interest.
And when they do sign an offtake watch them squeeze TLG margins or threaten to walk away annd go to the next guy.
TLG couldent even get this agreement binding. So allow me to paraphrase "We don't trust you can deliver so we won't sign anything binding until you get some proof"
(20min delay)