Coreshell Technologies has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Deployment Office for a $50 million award to expand domestic battery manufacturing using metallurgical silicon (MGS) anodes as an alternative to graphite.
The award, provided under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will support the expansion of Coreshell’s manufacturing facilities and the establishment of what the company describes as the first U.S. gigafactory dedicated to lithium-ion batteries using anodes made entirely from metallurgical silicon.
Coreshell said its technology is designed to replace graphite, a critical battery material whose global supply chain remains heavily concentrated in China. The company’s patented technology uses abundant metallurgical silicon (MGS) as the anode material, with the objective of reducing dependence on Chinese graphite processing.
As part of the project, Coreshell will work with AM Batteries (AMB), which will contribute its dry-electrode manufacturing technology for cathode production. Together, the companies plan to establish approximately 2 GWh of electrode manufacturing capacity and 1.5 GWh of cell assembly capacity.
The project is expected to create more than 100 domestic jobs spanning production, technical and administrative functions. Hiring is expected to be phased alongside facility construction and equipment ramp-up.
Replacing Graphite With Metallurgical Silicon
Coreshell’s technology focuses on replacing conventional graphite anodes with domestically sourced metallurgical silicon. According to the company, graphite remains one of the most difficult battery supply-chain dependencies for the U.S. to eliminate because more than 93% of global graphite supply is concentrated in China.
“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,” said Jonathan Tan, CEO and co-founder of Coreshell. “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.”
Coreshell said domestic mineral producers, including its supply partner Ferroglobe, already produce more than 100,000 tonnes of MGS annually. The company intends to use this domestic feedstock to establish an onshore supply chain spanning anode material and battery-cell production.
The project is also intended to serve the electric vehicle and U.S. defense sectors, where reducing exposure to foreign-controlled battery supply chains has become an increasingly important manufacturing and national-security objective.
AM Batteries to Provide Dry-Electrode Technology
AM Batteries will participate in the project as a subrecipient, supplying its Powder-to-Electrode™ dry-coating process for cathode manufacturing.
Unlike conventional wet-electrode production, the dry-coating approach eliminates solvent-based coating and the associated solvent-recovery and management infrastructure. AM Batteries said its process can reduce capital and operating costs while lowering safety risks and supporting higher-performance battery cells.
“This project is about proving that a 100% domestically produced high-performance battery cell can be cost-competitive with mass-market cells from Asia.” said Hieu Duong, CTO of AM Batteries. “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.”
The planned manufacturing expansion brings together two approaches aimed at reducing dependence on conventional battery manufacturing inputs and processes: Coreshell’s metallurgical-silicon anode technology and AM Batteries’ dry-electrode manufacturing platform.
Coreshell said the resulting facility will support domestic production of battery electrodes and cells while providing a pathway toward batteries that are less dependent on Chinese graphite and overseas cell manufacturing.
The company said the batteries produced through the project will be designed to meet requirements under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and support applications across automotive and defense markets.
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