Happy Tuesday.
The build this week: Honda is putting its next American car plant in central Ohio, between its East Liberty factory and the Marysville plant where it started building cars in 1982. The $3 billion plant will create more than 2,000 jobs and build up to 240,000 vehicles a year starting in 2029.
Underneath: Shield AI agreed to buy radar maker Echodyne for up to $5.3 billion, the Army lined up 11 firms for up to $4.17 billion of ammunition plant work, BWXT committed $714.5 million to a uranium metal plant in Tennessee, and CesiumAstro raised $730 million to grow in Austin.
| S&P 500 (SPY proxy) | $752.69 | ▲ 2.37% |
| Honda (HMC) | $35.84 | ▲ 0.17% |
| Industrials (XLI) | $168.89 | ▲ 3.82% |
| Aerospace & Defense (ITA) | $71.67 | ▲ 3.90% |
| Uranium (URA) | $34.34 | ▲ 6.18% |
| Semiconductors (SMH) | $487.41 | ▲ 5.05% |
The Lead
The big picture: A hybrid car takes more than an assembly line. It needs an engine built to run alongside electric motors, a hybrid system that holds those motors and the electronics that manage them, and suppliers close enough to keep parts moving every shift. An automaker that wants to build more hybrids in America can put a new assembly plant next to the engine plants, transmission plants and suppliers it already runs, so the parts and the people are already in place.
Driving the news: On Monday Honda said it will spend $3 billion on a new auto plant in central Ohio, on land between its East Liberty and Marysville plants, and create more than 2,000 jobs to run it. The plant is designed to build 240,000 vehicles a year and can switch between hybrid, gasoline and battery-electric models, with production expected to start in 2029, pending final government approvals. It will be Honda's fourth auto plant in Ohio and lifts its U.S. capacity to about 1.3 million vehicles a year.
Why it matters: Honda chose the site for what already surrounds it: a skilled workforce, a large share of its U.S. supplier base, its North American vehicle development center and the Transportation Research Center nearby, and the L-H Battery joint venture plant, which can make cells for hybrids and EVs. The rest of the announcement feeds that network. Honda is retooling its Anna Engine Plant, its largest engine plant in the world, for a next-generation four-cylinder engine, and converting a line at its Ohio transmission plant so the state's hybrid system capacity rises 250%. Alabama gets new equipment for a V6 hybrid engine, and Honda's Georgia transmission plant adds a line for hybrid systems in larger vehicles. Behind all of it sits a supply base Honda has built for four decades: more than 750 original equipment suppliers in North America, with a large concentration of them close to the new site.
What's next: The first pieces arrive well before the new plant does. The Ohio transmission plant starts making a next-generation hybrid system next year, and a parts consolidation center at Anna is expected to open next year too. The plant itself follows in 2029, pending final government approvals. Honda plans 15 new Honda and Acura hybrid models worldwide by 2030, with North America the main market for many of them, and Honda says the new plant will have the flexibility to adapt production as demand and electrification trends change.
Defense & Space
The Army picked 11 firms to compete for up to $4.17 billion in orders to design, build and commission government-owned, contractor-operated ammunition plants through 2031, including BAE Systems' ordnance unit in Kingsport, Tennessee.
MSM Group North America received a $105.8 million contract modification for the modern 155mm artillery load, assemble and pack facility it is building at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown, Iowa, bringing the contract to about $741 million.
NASA named eight companies to a lunar delivery contract worth up to $10 billion over 10 years and gave Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin and Impulse Space about $1.3 billion in separate task orders for its Moon base plans.
Viasat won a Space Force contract worth up to $450 million to field the operations center for the Space Data Network, a satellite relay layer for the Golden Dome missile defense plan.
AST SpaceMobile agreed to pay about $400 million in cash plus stock upfront for a perpetual license to build Firefly Aerospace's rocket engines, plus $250 million for engines for its first three launches.
Amentum won a $609 million Army contract to supply at least 500 full-time workers to sustain operations at Army depots, with the work based in Texarkana, Texas.
Maritime & Shipbuilding
Vigor Marine won a $222.5 million Navy contract to modernize the destroyer USS Gridley (DDG 101) in Seattle through December 2028, with options that could lift it to $232.5 million.
The Maritime Administration approved the license for the $1 billion Blue Marlin Offshore Port, an Energy Transfer affiliate's crude export terminal about 99 miles off Cameron Parish, Louisiana, that can load up to 2 million barrels a day and support up to 1,052 construction jobs.
Austal USA won a $43.4 million Navy contract to repair and modernize the littoral combat ship USS Canberra (LCS 30) in San Diego, worth up to $44.9 million with options.
Senesco Marine teamed with the Community College of Rhode Island and Polaris MEP on a 14-week welding program at its Quonset yard that moves graduates straight into shipyard jobs.
Manufacturing & Automation
ABB will spend $50 million on a new 120,000-square-foot plant in McNairy County, Tennessee, adding 227 jobs to make busway and bus plug systems that carry power through large buildings.
Robinson Carbon will build a $16.3 million biochar plant in Alexandria, Louisiana that turns about 100,000 metric tons a year of pine residue into biochar, with 42 jobs and production starting in 2027.
Energy & Materials
BWXT will invest $714.5 million in Jonesborough, Tennessee, adding 181 jobs to make high-purity depleted uranium metal for the National Nuclear Security Administration, with a grant from the state's Nuclear Energy Fund.
Rio Tinto approved $144 million for the next development phase of Resolution Copper near Superior, Arizona, paying for shaft equipment design, water treatment and long-lead electrical gear and adding about 50 roles at the joint venture with BHP.
Alphamin agreed to supply up to 3,600 tonnes of tin a year for two years to Nathan Trotter's $65 million Tin Ridge smelter in Henry County, Virginia, which targets first production in 2027 and about 118 jobs at full capacity.
Oklo reserved forging capacity at U.S. Forged Rings' planned campus in Hertford County, North Carolina for its reactor vessels and lids, with first deliveries in 2030.
X-energy picked Fluor to engineer the nuclear island for four Xe-100 reactors at Energy Northwest's Cascade site near Richland, Washington.
DTE Energy set a $44.2 billion capital plan for 2027 to 2031 that adds 7.6 gigawatts of solar and wind, 2.1 gigawatts of gas and 2.7 gigawatts of storage in Michigan.
PPL raised its capital plan by $2 billion to $25 billion, including a proposed 645-megawatt gas plant in Kentucky.
Dealbook
Shield AI agreed to buy Kirkland, Washington, radar maker Echodyne for up to $5.3 billion, funded by a $1 billion Series H at a $28.8 billion valuation, $1 billion in Blackstone structured equity and $500 million in JPMorgan-led debt.
CesiumAstro raised a $730 million Series D led by Janus Henderson plus $100 million in debt from EXIM and JPMorgan, and plans to spend $500 million over five years on 270,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 550 jobs in Austin.
Zipline raised $1.5 billion at a $21.5 billion valuation to expand U.S. drone manufacturing as Walmart adds 300 more Zipline delivery sites.
6K received a $250 million conditional loan commitment from the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital for its battery cathode material plant in Jackson, Tennessee.
Harbinger raised $240 million, with existing backer FedEx participating, to take its vehicle electrification technology into defense, autonomy software and energy storage.
Nominal raised a $240 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation led by Lightspeed for hardware engineering software used by about 80 commercial and government customers, including Anduril.
LS Power agreed to buy six gas plants totaling about 4.9 gigawatts from NRG for $4 billion, from Jack County, Texas, to Ravenswood in New York City.
Forge Nano closed its all-stock purchase of HZO, adding HZO's protective coatings for electronics and its Morrisville, North Carolina, operations.
Back Thursday.
