💥 $11B JV break up: Ford and South Korea’s SK On are dismantling their BlueOval SK battery joint venture. Ford takes over two plants in Kentucky, while SK On gains full control of the Tennessee site. Closing is targeted for Q1 2026.
🏭 Gigafactory hits the brakes: The sites were designed for up to 1.2 million EVs per year with 120 GWh of annual capacity. Kentucky Plant 1 is operating, but Kentucky Plant 2 and Tennessee were delayed due to weaker EV demand.
🔁 Ford rebuilds instead of expands: Ford is dialing back EV risk, postponing projects and leaning more on combustion engines and cheaper EVs. LFP batteries move to center stage. SK On still mainly supplies costly NCM cells and is only gradually scaling LFP.
🔌 Tennessee goes multi-use: SK On plans to run the Tennessee plant not just for Ford, but also for other customers and energy storage systems. The goal is higher utilization, more flexibility and profit focus rather than pure EV volume.
💸 Shift toward profitability: SK On says the split cuts debt and fixed costs and stabilizes finances. The backdrop is a slowdown in EV battery demand and rising losses, increasing pressure on cash flow and efficiency.
Background
From South Korea and China to India and Southeast Asia, Big Tech and governments are pouring tens of billions of dollars into data centers, fiber networks, and AI infrastructure.
Microsoft alone has now committed a total of $20.5 billion to AI and cloud investments in India. In October, Google announced it would invest $15 billion over the next five years to build its own AI hub in the country. At the same time, New Delhi is pushing its “AI-first” strategy with subsidies for chips, data centers, and local AI models.
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