Happy Thursday.
The build this week: Oklahoma Primary Aluminum released the first renderings of a $4 billion-plus smelter at the Tulsa Port of Inola, the first new U.S. primary aluminum plant since 1980.
Underneath: an $876 million jammer award, a first torpedo shot from an unmanned submarine, 2,500 electric trucks on order and $580 million for drone maker Tekever.
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The Lead
The big picture: America imports about 85% of the primary aluminum it uses and has not built a new smelter since 1980. On Wednesday, Oklahoma Primary Aluminum released the first renderings and an economic impact study for a proposed $4 billion-plus smelter at the Tulsa Port of Inola.
Driving the news: The 441-acre plant, a joint venture of Century Aluminum and Emirates Global Aluminium, is designed to make 750,000 metric tons a year, enough to double U.S. primary capacity. The study projects more than 1,000 permanent jobs averaging about $100,000, roughly 4,000 construction workers and a peak of more than 10,600 Oklahoma jobs in 2029.
Why it matters: Inola gets an anchor for a full aluminum cluster. The port already hosts the announced U.S. Aluminum project, and $400 million to $500 million in separately funded upgrades would add port work, wastewater treatment and a new substation. Rogers State, Oklahoma State, Northeast Tech and Tulsa Tech are building training pathways, and apprentices are slated to fill 375 to 500 construction positions.
What's next: State officials call it the largest single economic development project in Oklahoma history. A construction start is the milestone that turns the study's numbers into payroll in Rogers County.
Defense & Space
L3Harris received an $876 million Navy contract modification to continue Next Generation Jammer Low Band work for the U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Air Force.
Trideum won a $400 million Army contract to find gaps and vulnerabilities in cyber and electromagnetic activities for the Huntsville, Alabama company.
Impulse Space won a $28 million Space Force award to fly a Mira spacecraft on a space-domain-awareness mission carrying an MIT Lincoln Laboratory payload.
Gaylord Chemical won a $46.6 million DLA Energy contract to manufacture, purify and blend hypergolic propellants for the Air Force, Space Force, Navy and Missile Defense Agency.
Northrop Grumman will anchor a new secure facility in Rapid City after South Dakota put $1 million toward the $18 million Elevate Rapid City build-out near Ellsworth Air Force Base.
Vast launched a Lunar Programs division to build habitats, power and communications infrastructure for NASA's Moon Base effort.
ZAPATA Black & Veatch won a $21.8 million Army design contract for a modernized pre-mix and nitrocellulose dehydration facility at Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia.
Maritime & Shipbuilding
HII expanded its Pocasset, Massachusetts unmanned-systems facility by 25% with a 10,000-square-foot addition as demand grows for its REMUS underwater vehicles.
Skanska won a $271.2 million contract to build the Coast Guard's Offshore Patrol Cutter homeport pier at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island.
The U.S. and U.K. navies fired a heavyweight torpedo from an unmanned submarine for the first time, advancing allied undersea autonomy under AUKUS.
Massa Products won a $61.8 million Navy contract to design, build and test DT-574 hydrophones at its Hingham, Massachusetts operation.
VACCO Industries received a $16.8 million Navy award for 42 depth-control and vent valves for Virginia-class submarines, built in South El Monte, California.
Mike Hooks received a $22.1 million Army Corps contract to dredge the waterway serving Port Neches, Texas.
Semiconductors & Electronics
Synopsys and TSMC expanded their design partnership to bring agentic AI design flows to TSMC's A14 process and new IP to its N2P and N3P nodes.
Cognex launched the In-Sight 1750 wafer and panel reader to help chipmakers keep wafer traceability as they scale production.
IonQ will install its Superion 256 quantum processor at NVIDIA's Accelerated Quantum Research Center in 2027, the center's first QPU.
Manufacturing & Automation
Helicon emerged from stealth with a $16 million seed round and is moving into a 36,000-square-foot Torrance, California facility to automate carbon-fiber composites production.
Qualcomm agreed to acquire PickNik and will fold the open-source MoveIt manipulation framework into its Dragonwing robotics platforms.
C.E. Niehoff won a $95 million DLA contract to supply HMMWV engine accessory generators over a five-year ordering period.
Triumph Gear Systems received a $23.9 million contract for V-22 pylon conversion actuators from its Park City, Utah operation.
Energy & Materials
Vulcan Elements was selected by the Army to supply rare-earth magnets for its SkyFoundry drone program as it builds a 1.1 million-square-foot magnet plant in Benson, North Carolina.
Mercuria committed $500 million to VaultCo, the U.S. critical-minerals stockpile built in partnership with the Export-Import Bank.
Energy Vault ordered 275 megawatts of power generation systems from 2G Energy for U.S. AI data-center projects, with deliveries starting in late 2027.
Blue Moon Metals agreed to acquire the Turner copper-gold deposit near O'Brien, Oregon to grow its Western U.S. critical-minerals hub.
Supply Chain & Freight
ZET SCALE ordered 2,500 battery-electric Class 8 trucks, with Tesla as primary supplier, for deployment across 10 U.S. freight hubs.
Greenbrier booked $600 million in new railcar orders in its fiscal fourth quarter, including 780 cars for Saudi Railway Company.
Parallel Systems began a second commercial test phase for its autonomous battery-electric railcars on Genesee & Wyoming short lines in Georgia.
Wegmans is building a temperature-controlled distribution center in Rochester, New York as it modernizes its East Coast supply chain.
Dealbook
Tekever raised a $580 million Series D at a $6.4 billion valuation, led by UC Investments and Baillie Gifford.
Glencore secured a $500 million EXIM Bank commitment to help stock the VaultCo critical-minerals reserve.
Highlander Silver mandated a $330 million project-finance facility with Natixis to build its Corani silver mine in Peru.
Hubble Network raised $200 million to expand its Bluetooth satellite constellation.
USD.AI closed a $128.9 million GPU financing facility backing 32 NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems.
Flotek secured a $120 million senior secured term loan to fund continued growth.
Blue Moon Metals agreed to pay up to $38.7 million in cash, shares and milestones for the Turner deposit.
Helicon raised a $16 million seed round led by AlleyCorp.
Qualcomm agreed to acquire PickNik on undisclosed terms.
Alvys acquired Optym's LoadOps customer base, adding to a platform that moves about $9 billion in freight a year.
Back Tuesday.
