Inola Unveils A $4 Billion Aluminum Smelter

Happy Thursday.

The build this week: Oklahoma Primary Aluminum released the first renderings of a $4 billion-plus smelter at the Tulsa Port of Inola, the first new U.S. primary aluminum plant since 1980.

Underneath: an $876 million jammer award, a first torpedo shot from an unmanned submarine, 2,500 electric trucks on order and $580 million for drone maker Tekever.

The Lead

The big picture: America imports about 85% of the primary aluminum it uses and has not built a new smelter since 1980. On Wednesday, Oklahoma Primary Aluminum released the first renderings and an economic impact study for a proposed $4 billion-plus smelter at the Tulsa Port of Inola.

Driving the news: The 441-acre plant, a joint venture of Century Aluminum and Emirates Global Aluminium, is designed to make 750,000 metric tons a year, enough to double U.S. primary capacity. The study projects more than 1,000 permanent jobs averaging about $100,000, roughly 4,000 construction workers and a peak of more than 10,600 Oklahoma jobs in 2029.

Why it matters: Inola gets an anchor for a full aluminum cluster. The port already hosts the announced U.S. Aluminum project, and $400 million to $500 million in separately funded upgrades would add port work, wastewater treatment and a new substation. Rogers State, Oklahoma State, Northeast Tech and Tulsa Tech are building training pathways, and apprentices are slated to fill 375 to 500 construction positions.

What's next: State officials call it the largest single economic development project in Oklahoma history. A construction start is the milestone that turns the study's numbers into payroll in Rogers County.

Read the Oklahoma Primary Aluminum announcement.

Defense & Space

• L3Harris received an $876 million Navy contract modification to continue Next Generation Jammer Low Band work for the U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Air Force.

• Trideum won a $400 million Army contract to find gaps and vulnerabilities in cyber and electromagnetic activities for the Huntsville, Alabama company.

• Impulse Space won a $28 million Space Force award to fly a Mira spacecraft on a space-domain-awareness mission carrying an MIT Lincoln Laboratory payload.

• Gaylord Chemical won a $46.6 million DLA Energy contract to manufacture, purify and blend hypergolic propellants for the Air Force, Space Force, Navy and Missile Defense Agency.

• Northrop Grumman will anchor a new secure facility in Rapid City after South Dakota put $1 million toward the $18 million Elevate Rapid City build-out near Ellsworth Air Force Base.

• Vast launched a Lunar Programs division to build habitats, power and communications infrastructure for NASA's Moon Base effort.

• ZAPATA Black & Veatch won a $21.8 million Army design contract for a modernized pre-mix and nitrocellulose dehydration facility at Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia.

Maritime & Shipbuilding

• HII expanded its Pocasset, Massachusetts unmanned-systems facility by 25% with a 10,000-square-foot addition as demand grows for its REMUS underwater vehicles.

• Skanska won a $271.2 million contract to build the Coast Guard's Offshore Patrol Cutter homeport pier at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island.

• The U.S. and U.K. navies fired a heavyweight torpedo from an unmanned submarine for the first time, advancing allied undersea autonomy under AUKUS.

• Massa Products won a $61.8 million Navy contract to design, build and test DT-574 hydrophones at its Hingham, Massachusetts operation.

• VACCO Industries received a $16.8 million Navy award for 42 depth-control and vent valves for Virginia-class submarines, built in South El Monte, California.

• Mike Hooks received a $22.1 million Army Corps contract to dredge the waterway serving Port Neches, Texas.

Semiconductors & Electronics

• Synopsys and TSMC expanded their design partnership to bring agentic AI design flows to TSMC's A14 process and new IP to its N2P and N3P nodes.

• Cognex launched the In-Sight 1750 wafer and panel reader to help chipmakers keep wafer traceability as they scale production.

• IonQ will install its Superion 256 quantum processor at NVIDIA's Accelerated Quantum Research Center in 2027, the center's first QPU.

Manufacturing & Automation

• Helicon emerged from stealth with a $16 million seed round and is moving into a 36,000-square-foot Torrance, California facility to automate carbon-fiber composites production.

• Qualcomm agreed to acquire PickNik and will fold the open-source MoveIt manipulation framework into its Dragonwing robotics platforms.

• C.E. Niehoff won a $95 million DLA contract to supply HMMWV engine accessory generators over a five-year ordering period.

• Triumph Gear Systems received a $23.9 million contract for V-22 pylon conversion actuators from its Park City, Utah operation.

Energy & Materials

• Vulcan Elements was selected by the Army to supply rare-earth magnets for its SkyFoundry drone program as it builds a 1.1 million-square-foot magnet plant in Benson, North Carolina.

• Mercuria committed $500 million to VaultCo, the U.S. critical-minerals stockpile built in partnership with the Export-Import Bank.

• Energy Vault ordered 275 megawatts of power generation systems from 2G Energy for U.S. AI data-center projects, with deliveries starting in late 2027.

• Blue Moon Metals agreed to acquire the Turner copper-gold deposit near O'Brien, Oregon to grow its Western U.S. critical-minerals hub.

Supply Chain & Freight

• ZET SCALE ordered 2,500 battery-electric Class 8 trucks, with Tesla as primary supplier, for deployment across 10 U.S. freight hubs.

• Greenbrier booked $600 million in new railcar orders in its fiscal fourth quarter, including 780 cars for Saudi Railway Company.

• Parallel Systems began a second commercial test phase for its autonomous battery-electric railcars on Genesee & Wyoming short lines in Georgia.

• Wegmans is building a temperature-controlled distribution center in Rochester, New York as it modernizes its East Coast supply chain.

Dealbook

• Tekever raised a $580 million Series D at a $6.4 billion valuation, led by UC Investments and Baillie Gifford.

• Glencore secured a $500 million EXIM Bank commitment to help stock the VaultCo critical-minerals reserve.

• Highlander Silver mandated a $330 million project-finance facility with Natixis to build its Corani silver mine in Peru.

• Hubble Network raised $200 million to expand its Bluetooth satellite constellation.

• USD.AI closed a $128.9 million GPU financing facility backing 32 NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems.

• Flotek secured a $120 million senior secured term loan to fund continued growth.

• Blue Moon Metals agreed to pay up to $38.7 million in cash, shares and milestones for the Turner deposit.

• Helicon raised a $16 million seed round led by AlleyCorp.

• Qualcomm agreed to acquire PickNik on undisclosed terms.

• Alvys acquired Optym's LoadOps customer base, adding to a platform that moves about $9 billion in freight a year.

Back Tuesday.