Georgia Closes The Battery Loop

Happy Tuesday.

The build this week: Princeton NuEnergy is preparing a $110 million cathode-recycling facility in Commerce, Georgia, with 3,000 tonnes of annual capacity.

Underneath: an Army tactical power grid advances, a $65 million medical-electronics tender lands, Colorado adds stored-energy manufacturing, and eight industrial transactions move capital into physical systems.

The Lead

Princeton NuEnergy was selected to enter negotiations for a $50 million Department of Energy grant toward a $110 million direct-recycling plant in Commerce, Georgia. The company will supply a $60 million cost share for a first line designed to process 3,000 tonnes of battery-manufacturing scrap each year under DOE's seven-project battery and critical-minerals program.

The plant keeps the useful architecture of a battery cathode intact. Instead of breaking scrap all the way down into elemental material and rebuilding it, Princeton NuEnergy's process separates contaminants and rejuvenates the cathode active material for another manufacturing run. The company says that loop can return material to battery production in about seven days at roughly 45% below the cost of comparable virgin material.

That speed makes Commerce more than a recycling stop. A plant placed beside battery manufacturing can receive scrap, restore its most engineered component and feed it back into production inside the same regional system. The first line is expected to create 70 full-time manufacturing jobs and about 100 construction jobs.

Princeton NuEnergy expects more than 90% of the Commerce line to use standard industrial equipment. After a successful demonstration, the company plans as many as ten additional privately financed lines, taking total potential capacity to about 30,000 tonnes per year by 2035.

The award is still subject to negotiation, but the capital stack is already legible: $50 million of public support brings $60 million of company money to a named plant, capacity and workforce. If the module performs as designed, Georgia gets a closed battery-material loop and the wider industry gets a factory package it can repeat wherever cell production creates enough scrap.

Defense & Space

• Chariot Defense secured a DIU contract to build an Army tactical power grid that links modular generation, storage and distribution in the field.

• Collins Aerospace completed altitude testing for its EPACS electric-power and thermal-management system, clearing another integration milestone for more-electric aircraft.

• LI-S Energy shipped its first lithium-sulfur cells to the Army's DEVCOM C5ISR Center for evaluation in soldier and tactical-power applications.

Maritime & Shipbuilding

• MacGregor earned DNV certification for its Horizon gangway to handle floating-to-floating personnel transfer between offshore vessels.

• MacGregor introduced an LCO2 bow-transfer system that adapts 50 years of bow-loading experience for ship-to-well and ship-to-rig transfer.

Semiconductors & Electronics

• PCB Technologies won a $65 million tender to supply medical PCB assemblies across 2027 and 2028, giving the electronics manufacturer a two-year production book.

• Advantech introduced Dragonwing IQ9-based modules and systems that put edge AI, camera inputs and industrial interfaces into a deployable machine-vision platform.

Manufacturing & Automation

• SENS opened a new Longmont manufacturing facility that expands Colorado production for stored-energy systems used in industrial and infrastructure applications.

• FANUC America launched an integrated 5-axis technology initiative to package controls, machining and automation for complex aerospace, defense and medical parts.

Energy & Materials

• Coreshell Technologies was selected for a $50 million DOE award negotiation to scale metallurgical-silicon anodes for domestic battery manufacturing.

• USA Rare Earth completed a $1.55 billion capitalization of a government-backed vehicle supporting Serra Verde rare-earth offtake into a U.S. downstream platform.

• NKT qualified a 525 kV subsea HVDC cable system for operation at 90 degrees Celsius, enabling more power transmission through a proven cable architecture.

Supply Chain & Freight

• Genye Technology opened a Los Angeles-area branch and demonstration center to put warehouse-automation demos, local service and customer support closer to Southern California logistics operators.

• Sealed Air expanded its paper-cushioning portfolio with ProPad Mini to give smaller fulfillment operations a compact protective-packaging system.

Dealbook

• XPENG Robotics raised more than $900 million at a post-money valuation above $6.3 billion to accelerate physical-AI development and deployment.

• Chase Corporation acquired Hylomar, adding an industrial-sealants brand serving aerospace, automotive and heavy-equipment customers.

• RPC acquired the Peracidin product line from Angelini Pharma, expanding its portfolio of peracetic-acid disinfection products.

• NexTech Solutions acquired BOOMSLANG Aerospace to add unmanned-aircraft and counter-UAS capabilities for U.S. defense and security customers.

• Integrate paired a new Space Force contract with a venture-debt facility to expand its secure program-management platform across complex defense work.

• Starcloud added a $250 million extension to its Series A to open a larger manufacturing facility and advance its Starcloud-3 orbital data-center spacecraft.

• Princeton NuEnergy paired a proposed $50 million federal grant with $60 million of company cost share for its first 3,000-tonne Commerce production line.

• Coreshell Technologies was selected for a $50 million federal award negotiation to move metallurgical-silicon anodes toward domestic scale.

Back Thursday.