Forge Nano, a U.S. chip maker specializing in advanced materials and manufacturing, received a $100 million grant from the Trump administration to expand its lithium-ion battery operations in Morrisville, North Carolina. The facility will grow from 100,000 square feet to nearly 315,000 square feet, with full production capacity reaching 3 gigawatt-hours annually when operational in 2028. The expansion ceremony earlier this week was attended by Audrey Robertson, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Energy overseeing the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, signaling administration backing despite the President’s stated priorities around fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
The $100 million grant was allocated from the Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing program, authorized by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The funding focuses on applications for heavy-duty trucks, off-road vehicles, aerospace, and national defense rather than consumer electric vehicles. Democratic Representative Deborah Ross and Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd all supported the project. Forge Nano’s own investment in the expansion ranges between $300 million and $330 million.
The company projects that at full capacity, the facility will produce 150 million battery cells annually. Depending on product mix and customer demand, this could supply approximately 10-20 million drone batteries, 34,000 electric military vehicles, or 6 million radio batteries per year. The expansion timing aligns with new National Defense Authorization Act battery sourcing requirements taking effect in 2028.
Samsung SDI, a South Korea-headquartered firm, is supporting the expansion through a conditional agreement reached in June. Under the partnership, Forge Nano will produce Samsung SDI battery cells at the new facility and serve as an authorized distributor of Samsung SDI cells in the United States. Samsung SDI’s cells will serve automotive applications on the commercial rather than consumer side. Company CEO Paul Lichty characterized the partnership as a first-of-its-kind arrangement in the U.S. battery manufacturing sector, combining a domestic technology company with a tier-1 battery manufacturer producing cells on American soil.
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