Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is accelerating the expansion of its Arizona manufacturing campus by committing an additional $100 billion to the project, on top of previous investments. The acceleration is driven by sustained demand for advanced artificial intelligence chips.
Indian makers of solar panels are being forced to shut factories as they face waits stretching up to eight months for domestic components to replace Chinese imports as the government pushes to beef up domestic manufacturing.
Standard Nuclear announced construction is substantially complete for SN-TN and for SN-ID, two new identical facilities capable of collectively adding up to 5 metric tons of uranium per year of additional TRISO production capacity. The company also received approval of Preliminary Documented Safety Analyses for both facilities from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Plibrico Company acquired F.S. Sperry, a well-respected refractory service and materials supplier that has served industrial customers throughout the mid-Southern United States for more than 80 years.
USA Rare Earth Inc. entered into definitive agreements to acquire strategic minority stakes representing approximately 13.6% each in Carester SAS, a French rare earth processing and separation company. USA Rare Earth and its subsidiary Less Common Metals Europe will have the ability to purchase a portion of Carester’s oxide output from its Caremag facility.
CuspAI announced the launch of the AI Materials Foundry, bringing together a global network of data, labs, compute, and scientific expertise for the design of new materials, orchestrated by a single agentic platform. More than 45 organizations joined as founding members, including NVIDIA, Meta, Samsung, Hyundai Motor Group, and Tokyo Electron.
Kogakuin University and the Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad initiated a collaborative research framework to advance the development and fundamental understanding of next-generation multifunctional glass-ceramic materials for energy-related applications.
Intel Corporation and Lens Technology announced a strategic collaboration focused on accelerating the development of glass substrate-based packaging solutions that can help enable higher performance, increased interconnect density, and improved power efficiency for future computing platforms.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia reached a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that could allow the Middle Eastern country to develop civilian nuclear infrastructure and provide a new commercial market to the U.S. nuclear industry. The agreement might allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium without adopting the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol.
Sweden declared the mining of critical minerals and rare earths a national security interest. This declaration is expected to ease and expedite the permit process.
GreenVibe has raised $12 million to date to develop a platform that verifies hardened concrete actually matches what was specified. They embed wireless sensors into concrete before the pour that deliver strength and status readings every 30 minutes.
Ardagh Glass Packaging-North America, an operating business of Ardagh Group, celebrated the 130th anniversary of its Port Allegany, Pa. glass manufacturing facility. Originally built in 1896 by Olean Glass Co., the facility was the first glass factory established in McKean County, and the only one still standing today.
The International Energy Agency’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 finds that after declining in recent years, the prices of critical minerals rebounded in 2025 and early 2026 as supply conditions tightened. Price volatility and geopolitical tensions have also weighed on investment, which fell by 9% in 2025, ending several consecutive years of growth.
