DOE Awards Coreshell $50M to Build First US Gigafactory Using Metallurgical Silicon Anodes

US Department of Energy Selects Coreshell Technologies for $50 Million Award to Scale Domestic Battery Manufacturing with Metallurgical Silicon (MGS) Anodes

Award will fund expansion of production capacity, creating more than 100 operational jobs and strengthening U.S. supply chain independence for American mobility and defense applications

SAN LEANDRO, Calif., Aug. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Coreshell Technologies announced that it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Manufacturing Deployment Office (MDO) for a $50 million award under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The award will fund the expansion of Coreshell’s manufacturing facilities, establishing the first U.S. gigafactory dedicated to producing lithium-ion batteries with anodes made entirely from metallurgical silicon (MGS) that supplants graphite, the most challenging Chinese critical mineral to remove from battery supply chains.

Coreshell’s patented technology leverages abundant MGS to completely replace graphite, a critical mineral that is heavily concentrated in China (>93% of global supply). Coreshell pairs this innovation with dry-coating cathode technology developed with subrecipient AM Batteries. Together, the two companies will build out approximately 2 gigawatt-hours of electrode manufacturing capacity and 1.5 gigawatt-hours of cell assembly capacity.

The project is expected to create more than 100 domestic jobs across production, technical, and administrative roles, with hiring phased alongside construction and equipment ramp-up. These batteries will not only comply with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), but they will be the first scalable cells in the US to fully eliminate supply chain vulnerabilities from China.

Jonathan Tan, CEO and co-founder of Coreshell, said:

This award is about more than building a factory. It’s about liberating the batteries that power America from a supply chain we don’t control,

“Today, the anode material in nearly every lithium-ion battery traces back to Chinese graphite processing. By proving that domestically sourced metallurgical silicon can replace that graphite at scale, we’re giving the U.S. automotive and defense industries a path to energy storage that isn’t hostage to a foreign supply chain. This DOE award lets us build that capability right here in the US.”

Domestic mineral producers, including Coreshell’s supply partner Ferroglobe, already produce more than 100,000 tons of MGS per year, giving Coreshell’s approach a secure, scalable U.S. feedstock in a segment of the battery supply chain that is almost entirely foreign-controlled today. By anchoring both anode active material and cell production onshore, the project is designed to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign batteries for the electric vehicle industry while also supporting specialized applications for the U.S. military, where secure, domestically sourced battery supply chains are a growing national security priority.

AM Batteries will contribute its Powder-to-Electrode™ dry coating process for cathode manufacturing as a subrecipient, eliminating solvent-based wet coating and the associated solvent-recovery and management infrastructure. AM Batteries’ dry electrode manufacturing reduces capital costs, operating costs, and safety risk while enabling higher performance cells.

Hieu Duong, CTO of AM Batteries, said:

This project is about proving that a 100% domestically produced high-performance battery cell can be cost-competitive with mass-market cells from Asia.

“The U.S. will not win by simply replicating existing technologies or the status quo; we must create fundamental advantages in manufacturing and materials. By combining AMB’s platform with Coreshell’s MGS anode technology, we can lower cost, improve performance, and help build a globally competitive battery industry in the West.”

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US Department of Energy Selects Coreshell Technologies for $50 Million Award to Scale Domestic Battery Manufacturing with Metallurgical Silicon (MGS) Anodes, source