Sila, the battery technology company co-founded by Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering professor Gleb Yushin, has received a conditional loan commitment of up to $1.4 billion from the U.S. Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) to support the expansion of advanced battery manufacturing in the United States. The financing would help scale production at Sila's Moses Lake, Washington facility and support the development of a lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant.
The investment is intended to strengthen domestic battery supply chains and increase production capacity for technologies critical to sectors including aerospace, autonomous systems, robotics, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and defense applications, according to Sila. The announcement marks another milestone for a company that began as a Georgia Tech startup. Yushin reflected on Sila's origins and the significance of the federal commitment.
"The level of government support for U.S. manufacturing is absolutely incredible," Yushin said. "It is such an enormous honor for our team to invent, commercialize, and scale up the next-generation battery material technology and have the U.S. government recognize this technology's potential and its critical strategic importance for domestic manufacturing and supply chain resiliency."
Founded in 2011, Sila originated from research and innovation developed at Georgia Tech. Yushin noted that the company pioneered modern chemical vapor deposition (CVD) silicon-carbon (Si/C) nanocomposite anode technology, which is increasingly being adopted throughout the lithium-ion battery industry. The technology delivers significant performance improvements while reducing dependence on graphite supply chains concentrated internationally.
The path from laboratory discovery to commercial-scale manufacturing took years of development. According to Yushin, Sila remained a small company for several years and required more than 10,000 material iterations to demonstrate the concept and over 100,000 iterations to develop its current generation of products. Along the way, the company developed the microstructures, manufacturing processes, and battery integration methods necessary to bring silicon-carbon anodes to market.
Sila's latest financing is intended to support a substantial expansion of its manufacturing operations in Moses Lake using the company's next-generation modular production technology. The funding would also support the buildout of a battery cell manufacturing facility focused on specialty applications with demanding performance requirements, including industrial, agricultural, and military drones. The company views continued investment in domestic manufacturing as critical to maintaining U.S. leadership in battery technology.
"We are ensuring American leadership in not only the invention of breakthrough technologies like Si/C, but in the giga-scale manufacturing of these essential materials," Yushin wrote, emphasizing the importance of new jobs, economic opportunity, and battery supply chain security.
In announcing the federal commitment, Sila Co-Founder and CEO Gene Berdichevsky highlighted the broader significance of scaling advanced battery production in the United States. "We solved the hardest problem in battery materials with the invention of the modern silicon anode," Berdichevsky said. "But invention is only the first step. Manufacturing it at gigascale, here in America, proves that technology sovereignty is possible," Berdichevsky said.
The company says high-performance, domestically manufactured batteries will be increasingly important for emerging technologies ranging from robotics and autonomous vehicles to aerospace systems, drones, and AI infrastructure. For Yushin, the announcement represents more than a financial milestone. It reflects growing national recognition of the strategic importance of battery innovation and manufacturing.
"I am very proud that America places such a high value on technology and supply chain sovereignty," Yushin said. "A secure, domestic battery supply chain is fundamental to the world's most critical industries, including physical AI, space exploration, drones, data centers, and robotics."
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