Stardust Power Inc. 10-K/A

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 10-K/A Amendment No. 1 (Mark One) ☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the fiscal year ended December 31 , 2024 ☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the transition period from to Commission file number: 001-39875 STARDUST POWER INC. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) Delaware 99-3863616 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification Number) 15 E. Putnam Ave , Suite 378 Greenwich , CT 06830 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code) Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (800) 742-3095 Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Title of Each Class: Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered: Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share SDST The NASDAQ Global Market Redeemable warrants, each whole warrant exercisable for one share of Common Stock at an exercise price of $11.50 SDSTW The NASDAQ Global Market Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒ Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes ☐ No ☒ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer, “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐ Non-accelerated filer ☒ Smaller reporting company ☒ Emerging growth company ☒ If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐ If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐ Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒ The aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, as of December 31, 2024, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed year end, was $ 38,684,080 (based on the closing price for shares of the registrant’s common stock as reported by The Nasdaq Global Select Market on that date). As of July 10, 2025, there were 84,447,421 shares of common stock, par value $ 0.0001 per share, issued and outstanding. DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE None. Auditor Name Auditor Location Auditor Firm ID KNAV CPA LLP Atlanta, GA 2983 EXPLANATORY NOTE This amended report on Form 10-K/A (the “Amendment”) amends the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Stardust Power Inc. (the “Company”) for the year ended December 31, 2024, initially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 27, 2025 (the “Original Filing”), for the purpose of updating the disclosure in Item 9A “Controls and Procedures.” The Original Filing inadvertently omitted (a) a statement disclosing the conclusions of the Company’s principal executive and principal financial officers regarding the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2024 and (b) management’s assessment of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting, including as to whether or not such internal control was effective, as of December 31, 2024. This Amendment corrects such omission and amends and replaces Item 9A “Controls and Procedures” in its entirety. Except as described above, no other changes are being made to the Original Filing, and this Amendment consists only of the facing page, this explanatory note, Item 9A “Controls and Procedures” and the signature page to the Amendment. Further, except as expressly stated, this Amendment does not reflect events occurring after the filing of the Original Filing or modify or update in any way any of the other items or disclosures contained in the Original Filing, including, without limitation, the consolidated financial statements and the related footnotes. Accordingly, this Amendment should be read in conjunction with the Original Filing and the Registrant’s other filings with the SEC subsequent to the filing of the Original Filing. 2 Item 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures We are required to comply with the internal control requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for the period ending December 31, 2024, and thereafter. Only in the event that we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company would we be required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement on internal control over financial reporting. Further, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirement. Disclosure controls are procedures with the objective of ensuring that information required to be disclosed in our reports under the Exchange Act, such as this report, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time period specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls are designed with the objective of ensuring that information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. As required by Rules 13a-15 and 15d-15 under the Exchange Act, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2024. Based upon their evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) were effective. Accordingly, management believes that the financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K present fairly in all material respects our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the period presented. Background and Remediation of Material Weaknesses During the period from March 16, 2023 (inception) to December 31, 2023, the Company’s management identified material weaknesses in the implementation of the COSO 13 Framework (which establishes an effective control environment), lack of segregation of duties and management oversight, and control surrounding maintenance of adequate repository of contracts, appropriate classifications of expenses and complex financial instruments. We designed and implemented measures to improve our controls over financial reporting process and remediated these material weaknesses. Our ability to comply with the annual internal control report requirements will depend on the effectiveness of our financial reporting controls across our Company. We expect these systems and controls to involve significant expenditures and may become more complex as our business grows. To effectively manage this complexity, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, and our reporting systems and procedures. For more information, please refer to “ Risk Factors - We identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to remediate these material weaknesses, or if we experience additional material weaknesses or other deficiencies in the future, or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial results, which could result in loss of investor confidence and adversely impact our stock price ” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. 3 Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting As required by SEC rules and regulations implementing Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15- d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our financial statements for external reporting purposes in accordance with GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that: (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of our Company, (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors, and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect errors or misstatements in our financial statements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree or compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting on December 31, 2024. In making these assessments, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013). This evaluation included review of the documentation of controls, evaluation of the design effectiveness of controls, testing of the operating effectiveness of controls and a conclusion on this evaluation. Based on that assessment, management concluded that we maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024 and our disclosure controls and procedures had no material weakness as of December 31, 2024. See “Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting”, below. Accordingly, our management believes that the financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K present fairly in all material respects our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented. This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include an attestation report of internal controls from our independent registered public accounting firm due to our status as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act. Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting Other than the material weakness remediation efforts undertaken during the year, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. We do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures will prevent all errors and all instances of fraud. Disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the disclosure controls and procedures are met. Further, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all disclosure controls and procedures, no evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures can provide absolute assurance that we have detected all our control deficiencies and instances of fraud, if any. The design of disclosure controls and procedures also is based partly on certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Internal Controls An effective internal control system, no matter how well designed, has inherent limitations, including the possibility of human error overriding of controls, and therefore can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to reliable financial reporting. Because of its inherent limitations, our internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect all misstatements, including the possibility of human error, the circumvention or overriding of controls, or fraud. Effective internal controls can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to the preparation and fair presentation of the consolidated financial statements. 4 EXHIBIT INDEX Exhibit No. Description 31.1* Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to SEC Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. 31.2* Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to SEC Rule 13a-14(a)/15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. 101 INS* Inline XBRL Instance Document - the instance document does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document. 101 SCH* Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document. 101 CAL* Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document. 101 DEF* Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document. 101 LAB* Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document. 101 PRE* Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document. 104* Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101). *Filed herewith. SIGNATURES Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized. Date: July 11, 2025 STARDUST POWER INC. By: /s/ Roshan Pujari Name: Roshan Pujari Title: Chief Executive Officer and Chairman