"My one concern with Northvolt has been that at some point...

"My one concern with Northvolt has been that at some point they'll decide to take the entire anode process in-house."

I view this as highly improbable. Northvolt's team comes from Tesla. Tesla does not make anode in-house. In fact, none of the major battery producers do - which should tell you a lot about the economics of anode manufacturing. The market has largely determined its more economical for battery manufacturers to buy refined anode than do it in-house.

If Northvolt did try to make anode in-house, it would be synthetic. It would make no sense to do natural anode, because Talga can produce natural anode cheaper from Vittangi than the prices Northvolt could hit buying natural graphite on the open market and refining it in-house. It's doubtful they would even be able to beat Chinese natural anode manufacturers on price.