Johnson Matthey’s 2025 Hydrogen Pivot: From Broad Investment to Profitable Focus

Industry Adoption: Johnson Matthey’s Evolving Role in the Global Hydrogen Economy

Between 2021 and 2024, Johnson Matthey (JM) pursued an aggressive, expansionist strategy to establish a leadership position across the nascent hydrogen economy. The company’s approach was defined by large-scale partnerships and significant capital commitments aimed at accelerating market development. Key moves included a strategic partnership with Plug Power in January 2023 to co-invest in the world’s largest catalyst coated membrane (CCM) manufacturing facility in the US, targeting 5 GW of initial capacity. This was complemented by supply agreements with electrolyzer-maker Hystar and fuel cell supplier SFC Energy, positioning JM as a critical component supplier for both green hydrogen production and consumption. The strategy was clear: build manufacturing scale ahead of demand and embed its technology across the value chain, from blue hydrogen production with Honeywell to leveraging quantum computing with Microsoft for next-generation catalyst research. This broad-based approach signaled a belief in rapid, widespread adoption of hydrogen technologies.

Beginning in 2025, a dramatic strategic pivot occurred, shifting the focus from broad market acceleration to disciplined, profitable growth in high-value niches. This change was driven by a slower-than-expected market ramp-up and shareholder pressure for capital discipline. The most telling move was an 83% cut in green hydrogen spending, effectively halting further growth investments in electrolyzer CCMs. Instead, JM doubled down on applications with clearer near-term commercial pathways. The company secured a long-term collaboration with automotive giant Bosch in February 2025 to produce CCMs specifically for mobility fuel cells, a direct validation of its core technology in a key end-market. Simultaneously, JM signaled a strong push into hydrogen internal combustion engines (H₂ICE) by opening a dedicated 600kW testing center in Sweden. This pivot from a general supplier to a specialized technology partner in mobility and heavy-duty transport reflects a maturation of the market, where broad-based bets are giving way to focused commercial execution in segments demonstrating real-world demand.

Table: Johnson Matthey’s Hydrogen-Related Investments and Capital Events

Table: Johnson Matthey’s Key Hydrogen Technology Partnerships

Geography: Mapping Johnson Matthey’s Hydrogen Footprint

Between 2021 and 2024, Johnson Matthey’s geographic strategy for hydrogen was one of global expansion to build a worldwide manufacturing and supply chain footprint. The key focus was on the United States and China, the world’s two largest markets. The co-investment with Plug Power for a massive 5-10 GW CCM facility was a landmark move to capture the North American market, incentivized by policies like the Inflation Reduction Act. This was mirrored by the July 2023 announcement of a new CCM factory in China to capitalize on the region’s rapidly growing hydrogen demand. European activities, such as the partnership with Norway’s Hystar and Germany’s SFC Energy, served to establish supply channels into the continent’s burgeoning green hydrogen ecosystem. This geographic spread was designed to place JM at the center of hydrogen development in every major economic bloc.

From 2025, the geographic focus has contracted and sharpened, concentrating primarily on Europe as the lead market for near-term commercial applications. The new long-term collaboration with Germany’s Bosch firmly roots JM’s fuel cell ambitions in the heart of the European automotive industry. Even more significantly, the decision to open a dedicated H₂ICE testing center in Gothenburg, Sweden—a hub for heavy-duty vehicle manufacturing—signals a targeted effort to capture the European heavy transport market. While projects in Spain (Reolum) show continued involvement in e-fuels, the primary shift is away from building global capacity and toward deploying specific technologies in regions with mature industrial partners and clear regulatory drivers, like the EU’s push to decarbonize trucking.

Technology Maturity: Johnson Matthey’s Path from R&D to Commercialization

In the 2021-2024 period, Johnson Matthey’s strategy was centered on scaling up production of commercially ready technologies while advancing a pipeline of next-generation solutions. The clear leader in maturity was its catalyst coated membrane (CCM) technology. This moved decisively into the scaling phase with the landmark Plug Power agreement to build a 10 GW factory and the Hystar supply deal, demonstrating that CCMs were a bankable, commercial product. In parallel, technologies for low-carbon hydrogen production, such as the LCH™ process for blue hydrogen (with Honeywell) and ammonia cracking (KATALCO™ catalysts), were being packaged and licensed for commercial projects. Further down the maturity curve, the HyRefine PGM recycling technology was successfully demonstrated at the lab scale, showing a pathway to a circular economy but not yet ready for commercial deployment. At the earliest stage, the partnership with Microsoft Azure Quantum for catalyst simulation represented pure R&D, aiming for future breakthroughs.

The 2025 period marks a significant shift in technology focus, driven by commercial reality. The core CCM business for fuel cells was further validated as a mature, commercial technology through the Bosch collaboration, cementing its role as a key revenue driver. The most important development is the rapid maturation of solutions for hydrogen internal combustion engines (H₂ICE). The opening of the 600kW Gothenburg testing center moves H₂ICE emissions control systems from a development concept squarely into the commercialization and validation phase, targeting heavy-duty vehicle OEMs. Conversely, the 83% spending cut on green hydrogen signifies a deliberate de-emphasis on scaling electrolyzer components, pushing that technology back into a slower development track pending stronger market pull. The strategy has pivoted from scaling everything possible to selectively commercializing applications with the strongest and nearest-term revenue potential, primarily in mobility.

Table: SWOT Analysis of Johnson Matthey’s Hydrogen Business Evolution

Forward-Looking Insights and Summary

The data from 2025 paints a clear picture: Johnson Matthey has traded its role as a broad evangelist for the hydrogen economy for that of a pragmatic, profit-focused specialist. The year ahead will be a critical test of this new strategy. The most important signal for market actors to watch is the company’s progress towards its goal of making the hydrogen technologies unit break-even by the end of the 2025/26 fiscal year. Achieving this would be a powerful validation of its leaner approach and a sign that niche hydrogen markets are becoming commercially viable.

Traction is clearly gaining in hydrogen for mobility. The Bosch partnership and the new H₂ICE testing center are not speculative plays; they are targeted investments in sectors with established players and pressing decarbonization needs. Expect to see further announcements related to qualifying JM’s catalyst systems with heavy-duty truck and bus manufacturers. Conversely, momentum has stalled in JM’s push into the electrolyzer market. The 83% spending cut is a strong signal that the company sees the green hydrogen production market as too immature for further large-scale investment at this time. For investors and competitors, JM’s journey provides a real-time case study in the maturation of a clean-tech sector, where the initial hype cycle gives way to the disciplined pursuit of profitable revenue streams.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What was the biggest change in Johnson Matthey’s hydrogen strategy in 2025?
In 2025, Johnson Matthey executed a major strategic pivot, shifting from a broad, expansionist approach aimed at accelerating the entire hydrogen market to a disciplined focus on profitable growth in high-value niches. This involved significantly cutting investment in some areas to double down on applications with clearer near-term commercial pathways, such as mobility.

Why did Johnson Matthey change its strategy?
The company changed its strategy primarily due to a slower-than-expected market ramp-up for hydrogen technologies and pressure from shareholders to improve capital discipline. The initial, capital-intensive strategy of building manufacturing capacity ahead of demand was no longer seen as viable given the market’s pace of development.

Which specific hydrogen applications is Johnson Matthey now prioritizing?
Following its strategic shift, Johnson Matthey is prioritizing applications in the mobility and heavy-duty transport sectors. Key initiatives include a long-term collaboration with Bosch to produce catalyst coated membranes (CCMs) for automotive fuel cells and the opening of a dedicated testing center in Sweden for hydrogen internal combustion engines (H₂ICE).

What happened to Johnson Matthey’s investments in green hydrogen?
Johnson Matthey dramatically reduced its focus on green hydrogen production components. In January 2025, the company announced an 83% cut in spending on green hydrogen, which effectively halted further growth investments in manufacturing CCMs for electrolyzers, signaling a move away from this segment due to its slower market development.

How did Johnson Matthey’s partnerships change between the two strategic periods?
Initially (2021-2024), partnerships were broad and aimed at building scale across the value chain, such as the co-investment with Plug Power for a massive CCM factory. From 2025, partnerships became more focused on specific commercial applications. The collaboration with automotive giant Bosch, for instance, is a targeted move to validate and commercialize JM’s CCM technology in the mobility end-market, shifting from a general supplier to a specialized technology partner.