Defense Department backs a Tennessee plant for microwave-made battery materials

6K has conditional approval for a $250M Defense Department loan to build a cathode-materials plant in Tennessee, but the loan isn't final.

6K, a 12-year-old battery materials company based in North Andover, Massachusetts, says it has won conditional approval for a $250 million loan from the US Department of Defense. The money is meant to fund a factory in Tennessee that would make battery materials without relying on Chinese suppliers.

The company's process uses microwaves to heat metals into a plasma, then deposits them onto a surface. That cuts the number of steps needed to make cathode material, a key battery component. 6K says the approach works across several battery types, including lithium iron phosphate (LFP).

Fewer manufacturing steps are the main route to cheaper batteries here. If the process holds up at factory scale, cathode material gets less costly to make, and a domestic source shortens supply chains for storage, vehicles and defense uses. Battery cost affects many basic needs, from grid power to transport.

The path so far has been uneven. 6K was awarded a $50 million Department of Energy grant in 2023, but the Trump administration canceled it in a sweep of Biden-era awards, so the company had to reapply. The factory was first planned to open in 2024, and the cancelation plus uncertainty in the EV market forced a change of plans. TechCrunch's related coverage notes that Sila received a $1.4B Pentagon loan on Aug 10, 2026.

What to watch: whether the loan is finalized, and when a new opening date is set. None has been given. The claim that the process works across battery types is the company's own, and the scale-up is unproven.

Source: TechCrunch