Many researchers have focused in recent years on resolving the crucial problem of capacity fading in Li ion batteries when carbon anodes are replaced by other group-IV elements (Si, Ge, Sn) with much higher capacities. Some progress was achieved by using different nanostructures (mainly carbon coatings), with which the cycle numbers reached 100-200. However, obtaining longer stability via a simple process remains challenging. Here we demonstrate that a nanostructure of amorphous hierarchical porous GeOx whose primary particles are similar to 3.7 nm diameter has a very stable capacity of similar to 1250 mA h g(-1) for 600 cycles. Furthermore, we show that a full cell coupled with a Li(NiCoMn)(1/3)O-2 cathode exhibits high performance.