Battery Startup Sila Raises $300M; Will Expand Washington Plant
Jul 21, 2026, 10:57 AM
South Sound Business
Originally published on South Sound Business.
California-based battery startup Sila, which opened a manufacturing facility last year in Moses Lake, recently announced that it received $300 million in new funding.
Founded in 2011, the startup produces next-generation battery materials — specifically a silicon-carbon material that replaces the graphite traditionally used in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries. It also helps improve performance and results in higher energy capacity, according to the company.
Sila’s Moses Lake facility was, notably, the nation’s first automotive-scale silicon-anode plant.
“This is not just about building a factory. It is about closing the gap between innovation and manufacturing in America,” said Gene Berdichevsky, Sila’s CEO and co-founder, said in a release at the time. “If we do not execute, innovation will flow to places that can … .”
Currently, the Moses Lake plant has a production capacity of about two gigawatt-hours of material that has the ability to supply 20,000-50,000 electric vehicles. The business’s newest financial boost will fund an expansion of Sila’s Washington-based operations, potentially increasing the existing volume to 10s of gigawatt-hours.
Electric-car sales have slowed in recent years, but demand is climbing for other varieties of battery application, such as drones, space hardware, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.
“Anything that AI is touching right now is driving tremendous need for better batteries,” said Berdichevsky in a statement to GeekWire.
