Happy Thursday.
The current thing in the industrial base is customer-financed capacity.
A data-center buyer just put $165M into Modine's factory calendar. Johnson Matthey is buying Cormetech for the emissions-control layer around U.S. power generation. DTE is putting $1.6B into Michigan-made battery storage. BorgWarner is adding 378 jobs in Henderson County. And X-Bow is bringing energetic manufacturing systems online in Texas.
Markets
S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
752.75 ▲
ITA (Aerospace & Defense)
235.07 ▲
SOXX (Semiconductors)
565.50 ▲
XLI (Industrials)
173.72 ▼
WTI Crude
$89.28/bbl ▲
Copper
$6.3690/lb ▲
The Lead
Modine signed a long-term capacity agreement worth more than $4B with a strategic data-center customer for Airedale cooling systems through 2029.
The AI story usually starts with the data center. This one starts a few steps behind it, in the places that have to make the equipment before the servers can turn on.
Last summer, Modine said it would put $100M into U.S. manufacturing capacity for Airedale data-center cooling products. The plan included a new Dallas-area facility, an expansion in Grenada, Mississippi, and potential reuse of existing Modine sites in Franklin, Wisconsin, and Jefferson City, Missouri. It was also supposed to create jobs, add testing and engineering capacity, and retrain existing employees.
This week's customer agreement gives that map a customer-backed reason to grow. Modine will guarantee capacity for Airedale products during 2027, 2028, and 2029, and the customer is putting about $165M upfront into the expansion needed to serve that demand.
The data-center boom lands in places with power and fiber, then reaches back into manufacturing towns that can build the invisible hardware around the rack: chillers, indoor air systems, liquid cooling, controls, service, and modular cooling platforms.
For North Texas, Grenada, and the other Modine sites under consideration, AI infrastructure becomes less abstract when it turns into production lines, test capacity, retraining, and a backlog big enough for a customer to help finance. The customer is buying cooling equipment later and helping make sure the factory system exists when the data centers are ready.
Manufacturing & Automation
BorgWarner announced a $100M Hendersonville expansion that will add 140,000 square feet, 378 jobs, and potential JDIG reimbursements tied to performance.
International Paper broke ground on a $225M Rankin County packaging facility expected to support 150 manufacturing jobs in Mississippi.
Stratasys agreed to acquire MarkForged for $42.5M, adding composite 3D-printing and Digital Forge capabilities for aerospace, defense, and industrial production.
Advantive acquired Insequence, adding Smyrna, Tennessee automotive sequencing and MES software for supplier and OEM production environments.
Bron Tapes Holdings announced a South Denver headquarters and manufacturing super-site for pressure-sensitive tapes, adhesives, converting, and distribution.
Semiconductors & Electronics
Polar Semiconductor and Nexperia partnered on U.S. power MOSFET manufacturing at Polar's Bloomington, Minnesota wafer foundry for AI servers, robotics, industrial, automotive, aerospace, and defense customers.
TDK Ventures and C2i Semiconductors disclosed a $16.7M Series A for software-defined voltage regulators targeting AI data-center power and heat losses.
FuriosaAI and Broadcom announced a third-generation AI inference accelerator partnership around a multi-die chiplet architecture with 2nm compute die, HBM4 or HBM4E, Ethernet, and PCIe.
ASE launched an automated 310mm panel-level packaging line for fan-out and chip-scale packages, with production targeted for the first half of 2027.
SEMI Foundation and NSF launched the first four regional microelectronics education nodes, with potential support of up to $20M per node over five years.
Defense & Space
AeroVironment won a $20.2M U.S. government investment to add Huntsville manufacturing and integration capacity for Freedom Eagle-1.
X-Bow completed end-to-end energetic operations for two solid rocket motor manufacturing systems at its Texas facility under AFRL's RE-ARM program.
Raytheon and Northrop Grumman won DARPA Burn n' Go Phase 2 work to develop composable solid rocket motor technology for flexible missile propulsion.
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin delivered first Javelin lightweight launch units after a $22M modernization of Raytheon's Tucson factory to increase annual production.
AMETEK completed its acquisition of First Aviation Services, adding six U.S. aviation MRO centers and proprietary component manufacturing.
Energy & Materials
DTE Energy announced a $1.6B battery-storage investment with LG Energy Solution Vertech systems made in Holland, Michigan for eight projects across the state.
Johnson Matthey agreed to acquire Cormetech for $360M, adding U.S. selective catalytic reduction catalyst capacity for stationary power generation and industrial applications.
Thea Energy raised a $100M Series B to expand magnet manufacturing, add a second Northern New Jersey facility, and advance its Eos integrated stellarator.
J-Star Holding secured a $60M financing facility to fund part of its planned $122.5M lithium-ion battery production line in Baytown, Texas.
NANO Nuclear acquired Secured Transportation Services, adding U.S.-based radioactive and nuclear materials logistics to its microreactor fuel platform.
Supply Chain & Industrial Infrastructure
Stord raised a $250M Series F at a $3B valuation to expand Stord Labs and its physical commerce network across nearly 100 facilities.
I Squared Capital agreed to buy 10 Cogent data-center facilities for $225M, forming an AI inference and edge colocation platform with a $1B commitment.
TMV launched a $200M early-stage fund backed by ABS, Prologis, and other LPs for maritime, logistics, infrastructure, and industrial technology.
Compal and GMI Cloud announced an AI infrastructure collaboration using high-performance GPU server platforms for large-scale training and inference workloads.
ID Logistics took over three Southeast logistics operations, expanding its regional footprint around high-performance contract logistics sites.
Dealbook
Stord raised $250M in Series F funding at a $3B valuation for logistics infrastructure, AI, robotics, and commerce operations.
DTE Energy committed $1.6B to Michigan battery storage using LG Energy Solution Vertech systems made in Holland.
Johnson Matthey agreed to buy Cormetech for $360M, adding a U.S. stationary-emissions catalyst business with a $1B medium-term project pipeline.
I Squared Capital agreed to acquire 10 Cogent data centers for $225M as the base of a U.S. AI inference and edge colocation platform.
Thea Energy raised a $100M Series B for magnet manufacturing, a second Northern New Jersey facility, and Eos construction work.
TMV closed a $200M fund with ABS and Prologis among LPs for maritime, logistics, infrastructure, and industrial technology startups.
J-Star Holding secured up to $60M for its planned Baytown battery production line.
Applied Aerospace & Defense launched its IPO roadshow for 32.5M shares at an expected $18 to $21 range.
AMETEK completed its acquisition of First Aviation Services, adding defense and aviation MRO plus proprietary component manufacturing.
Hadron Energy completed its business combination with GigCapital7, receiving about $31M and beginning Nasdaq trading under HDRN.
Back Tuesday.
