Say what you will about Carl Berg, he is one determined billionaire. lie built a $1.3 billion commercial real estate fortune by renting office space in Silicon Valley to the likes of Microsoft and Apple. His passion now, however, lies with risky bets on new technologies—especially his two-decade-long wager on developing robust lithium-ion batteries. The 73-year-old Berg has funneled somewhere north of $100 million into Valence Technology, a publicly traded company in Austin, Tex. Alas, it hasn't made a dime in profit yet, despite big spending by automakers on electric cars and batteries. Vows Berg: "If I do nothing else, I'm going to make that company successful."
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