San Leandro battery maker Coreshell has been selected for a $50 million award from the US Department of Energy's Manufacturing Deployment Office to build the first US gigafactory dedicated to lithium-ion cells with metallurgical-silicon (MGS) anodes, the company confirmed on 24 August 2026. The funding, drawn from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, ranks in the top 1% of comparable federal awards on record and pairs Coreshell with subrecipient AM Batteries on the electrode-manufacturing side.
Replacing Chinese graphite at gigafactory scale
The project will build roughly 2 GWh of electrode-manufacturing capacity and 1.5 GWh of cell assembly at Coreshell's San Leandro campus. Instead of graphite — a critical mineral where China controls more than 93% of global supply — the plant will use metallurgical silicon sourced domestically, coated with Coreshell's patented particle chemistry so it can survive hundreds of cycles inside standard 21700 and pouch cells.
Coreshell CEO Jonathan Tan has previously said the technology unlocks “the true capacity of lithium ion batteries” without forcing customers to retool automotive assembly lines. The company has raised roughly $88 million to date from investors including Zeon Ventures, Lightrock, Alpha Wave and Helios Climate Ventures.
AM Batteries brings dry electrodes to the party
Billerica-based AM Batteries is the DOE subrecipient and will contribute its solvent-free dry electrode coating platform, eliminating the ovens and NMP recovery infrastructure typical of wet slurry manufacturing. The combined process is designed to slash capex, energy use and factory footprint versus incumbent Chinese and Korean lines.
National security and 100 US jobs
The San Leandro project is expected to create more than 100 domestic jobs across production, technical and administrative roles. The award lands as Washington accelerates efforts to onshore battery materials for both EVs and defence applications, following related moves such as Sungrow's 10 GWh Egypt BESS factory and CATL's first sodium-ion grid storage deliveries. Public markets have also rewarded storage plays like Flex's $4.4B EPC Power acquisition.
Reporting based on coverage from PR Newswire, Interesting Engineering, 3DPrint.com, Fuel Cells Works, The Registry SF and DealRoom.