Samsung SDI backs Forge Nano's defense battery push
Samsung SDI's money and engineering help would give Forge Nano manufacturing credibility as it courts defense buyers for U.S.-sourced cells.
By Ryan Merket ยท Published
Why it matters
Forge Nano is using defense procurement rules and Samsung SDI's manufacturing expertise to turn a materials platform into a U.S. battery production story.
Paul Lichty's Forge Nano has lined up funding and engineering support from Samsung SDI as the Colorado-born materials startup tries to turn a North Carolina battery factory into a defense supply-chain asset, Bloomberg reported on June 25.
The tie-up gives Forge Nano more than capital. Samsung SDI is a global battery manufacturer with the kind of high-volume production expertise Forge Nano does not yet have at scale. Bloomberg reports Samsung SDI agreed to provide funding and engineering support to Forge Nano, which is seeking Pentagon funding and aims to build cells for the U.S. defense and aerospace markets at a new North Carolina plant.
For Lichty, a University of Colorado Boulder-trained engineer who co-founded Forge Nano out of atomic layer deposition research, the Samsung SDI relationship is the latest attempt to answer the question that follows almost every advanced-manufacturing startup: can the science survive the factory? In a CU Boulder interview, Lichty described building an early ALD reactor prototype while working at Sun Drop Fuels. That origin story matters because Forge Nano's pitch has always been less about inventing a new battery chemistry from scratch than about coating materials at atomic scale so existing products perform better.
The Samsung SDI piece
Forge Nano has said its North Carolina battery plan will require significant capital and manufacturing know-how. In 2023, the company announced a U.S. battery manufacturing business in Morrisville, North Carolina, with plans for a gigawatt-hour-scale facility to produce lithium-ion cells using its Atomic Armor surface technology, targeting defense, aerospace and specialty electric vehicle markets (announcement).
Samsung SDI says it develops and produces batteries for EVs, energy storage systems and IT devices, as well as electronic materials for semiconductors and displays. For Forge Nano, Samsung SDI's engineering help is potentially more important than the headline dollar amount, because the gap between a promising battery cell and a defensible, repeatable manufacturing line is where hardware startups lose years.
Why defense is the forcing function
Forge Nano is not trying to enter the broad EV battery market through the front door. It is using defense and aerospace as the wedge, where U.S.-sourced supply, performance and procurement compliance can matter as much as cost per kilowatt-hour.
That wedge has a deadline behind it. Under 10 U.S.C. 4865, the Secretary of Defense is directed to procure advanced batteries and cells whose functional components and technology are not owned, sourced, refined or produced by a foreign entity of concern, with phased deadlines beginning in 2028 and extending into 2031.
Forge Nano has been positioning directly into that window. In August 2025, the company said it was developing fully U.S.-sourced lithium-ion cells for Department of Defense testing, using its Atomic Armor coatings and materials sourced solely from the United States (announcement).
That is the commercial logic behind the Samsung SDI agreement. Forge Nano wants Pentagon-linked demand, but Pentagon-linked demand will require evidence that it can supply cells at quality, volume and compliance thresholds. Samsung SDI's engineering support is a way to borrow operating knowledge while keeping the manufacturing footprint and product story centered on U.S. supply.
The SPAC backdrop
The timing also lands inside Forge Nano's public-market pitch. In April 2026, Forge Nano and Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners II announced a proposed merger to take Forge Nano public (transaction announcement). The company framed itself as manufacturing ALD nanocoating equipment and lithium-ion batteries in the U.S., using a predominantly domestic supply chain, with defense applications alongside semiconductor manufacturing use cases.
That dual-market story is attractive because it gives Forge Nano more than one route to revenue. It is also complicated. Investors are being asked to underwrite semiconductor equipment, battery cell manufacturing, defense procurement, DOE-backed industrial expansion and a de-SPAC transaction in one package. Samsung SDI's involvement narrows one of the obvious execution questions: whether Forge Nano can recruit enough manufacturing expertise to ramp a battery facility without learning every lesson the hard way.
The unanswered question is how much Pentagon funding Forge Nano can actually secure and on what timetable. Bloomberg reports Forge Nano is seeking Pentagon money, but the specific program and target award amount are not established in the public materials around the Samsung SDI agreement. That gap matters because Samsung SDI's funding is a strategic signal, not a factory-financing solution by itself.
Still, the signal is meaningful. Lichty built Forge Nano around the belief that atomic-scale coatings could move beyond lab equipment and into products with unforgiving operating requirements. Defense batteries are one of the cleaner tests of that belief: the buyer has a looming sourcing mandate, the applications need reliable power, and the procurement system is being pushed toward domestic alternatives. Samsung SDI's backing gives Forge Nano a better shot at proving that its coating technology can become a manufacturing business, not just a materials story.