One of the world’s most valuable battery startups is raising $3.4 billion in debt from the European Union and a group of banks including JPMorgan Chase, accelerating a race to build more batteries outside China and take advantage of a tidal wave of clean-energy subsidies.

Europe’s Northvolt plans to use the funding to grow battery production at a factory in northern Sweden for customers such as Volkswagen and BMW. It also plans to expand a recycling facility next door that will convert scrap metal and old batteries into reusable battery materials.