A North Carolina battery factory built for the defense supply chain
Forge Nano, a Colorado based battery materials company, broke ground on August 19 2026 on an expansion of its battery factory in Morrisville, North Carolina, creating more than 250 jobs and growing the facility from about 100,000 square feet to nearly 315,000 square feet. Forge Nano frames the plant as part of a domestic, defense grade battery supply chain, and the 2028 date it is targeting to start production matches new National Defense Authorization Act rules on battery sourcing that take effect the same year.
Today's groundbreaking marks an important step toward building a battery supply chain in America.
Paul Lichty, chief executive officer of Forge Nano. Source 1.
More than 250 jobs, after a federal delay
Forge Nano originally planned to hire more than 200 workers by the end of 2027, chief executive officer Paul Lichty told the News and Observer. A 6 month federal administrative review of the funding behind the project, tied to the change in presidential administration between 2023 and 2025, pushed that timeline back before the project was approved. The expanded plant that broke ground in August 2026 now plans for more than 250 jobs, at least 25% more than the original target. The expansion is paid for by up to 100,000,000 dollars in non dilutive funding from the Department of Energy, meaning money Forge Nano does not have to repay or trade for ownership of the company, on top of 300,000,000 to 330,000,000 dollars of its own money and a 20,000,000 dollar investment from the South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI.
Forge Nano states its own investment as a range, 300,000,000 to 330,000,000 dollars, and this bar uses the top of that range, since the chart form takes 1 number per bar.
Show the numbers
| Forge Nano own investment | 330,000,000 |
| Department of Energy funding | 100,000,000 |
| Samsung SDI investment | 20,000,000 |
What 3 gigawatt hours a year could supply
At full production the expanded plant is designed to make up to 3 gigawatt hours of battery cells a year, a unit that measures how much energy a large batch of cells can store, equal to about 150 million individual battery cells. Forge Nano states that same yearly capacity could instead supply 20 million drone batteries, 6 million radio batteries of the type the military calls BB 2590, or 34,000 electric military vehicles, depending on which product the factory makes. These are alternative uses of the same capacity, not a production plan, since the plant does not make all 3 products at once at these volumes.
Each row shows what the same 3 gigawatt hours of yearly capacity could make if all of it went to that 1 product, not a production plan the plant is following. The plant does not make all 3 products at once at these volumes. 2 smaller alternative uses, 900 type 2 batteries and about 275 energy storage containers, are left off this chart because they are too small to plot against millions on the same scale.
Show the numbers
| Drone batteries, high end of range | 20,000,000 |
| BB 2590 radio batteries | 6,000,000 |
| Electric military vehicles | 34,000 |
The first cells will use Samsung design, not Forge Nano own
Samsung SDI invested 20,000,000 dollars in Forge Nano and has agreed to buy 250 megawatt hours of battery cells a year from the plant starting in 2028, a purchase figure reported by the German financial news outlet ad hoc news and not stated in any Forge Nano press release. Samsung SDI also states that United States rules keeping Chinese sourced materials out of military supply chains make local production the only way to reach the defense and aerospace market, which pays higher margins than commercial battery sales. The plant will not start by making the patented battery coating Forge Nano calls Atomic Armor. Its first cells out of Morrisville will use the existing cell design Samsung SDI already makes instead, a sequencing choice Lichty explained to the News and Observer as a way to get the factory running and build customer trust before introducing Forge Nano own technology.
It allows us to get a factory up and running, get credibility, get customers.
Paul Lichty, chief executive officer of Forge Nano. Source 3.