Automakers such as Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, as well as many promising startups, could be affected by the Trump administration’s decision, as the Energy Department considers cutting billions of dollars more in federal funding.
The proposed cuts would result in the cancellation of more than $500 million in contracts with more than a dozen startups, according to a TechCrunch analysis of internal documents that have not yet been made public. All of the proposed cuts are grants made under the bipartisan infrastructure law. Many of the proposed cancellations have not been previously reported, but they come on top of more than $7.5 billion in contracts that the Trump administration announced last week it would cut.
Start-ups may not be the only losers. Other companies set to lose hundreds of millions of dollars worth of subsidies include Daimler Trucks North America, Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Stellantis and Volvo Technology of America, according to documents seen by TechCrunch. Sources confirmed to TechCrunch that these are proposed cuts.
General Motors could lose at least $500 million in subsidies issued by the federal government’s Domestic Manufacturing Transformation Subsidy Program. The money was to be used to renovate the Lansing Grand River assembly plant in Michigan. The company announced plans to produce electric vehicles, including hybrid vehicles, at the plant in July 2024.
Some of the awards are important and if they are cut, it will definitely affect the management of startups. The list of proposed cuts leaked last week included several, but many are new and have not yet been announced. TechCrunch has reached out to several companies and will update this article if we hear back.
Two cutting board awards totaled more than $100 million, including $189 million awarded to materials startup Brimstone. Those funds would have helped the company build factories that produce Portland cement, alumina and other materials using less carbon dioxide.
The other was with Anovion, a Chicago-based startup working to build a factory to domestically produce synthetic graphite for lithium-ion batteries. Currently, the graphite market is dominated by Chinese companies.
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Lee Industries, a battery materials startup, received $55.2 million to recycle LFP batteries under the bipartisan infrastructure law in an effort to wrest some of its supply chain away from China.
Other cement startups are also on the list. Somerville, Massachusetts-based Sublime Systems was awarded an $86.9 million award to build an ultra-low carbon cement plant. Furno, a Mountain View-based manufacturer of novel modular cement kilns, will lose a $20 million grant to build a demonstration plant in Chicago.
Several building materials companies also made the list. CleanFiber and Hempitecture, which make insulation materials for homes and commercial buildings, are at risk of losing $10 million and $8.4 million, respectively. Skyven Technologies, which makes industrial heat pumps, and Luxwall, which makes super-insulated windows, will lose $15 million and $31 million, respectively.
At least one of the proposed cancellations appears to run counter to the administration’s goals of energy and AI dominance. TS Conductor could lose $28.2 million in grant funding, but it makes advanced conductors for power lines that can double or triple the capacity of existing power lines. This technology could reduce bottlenecks on the power grid and improve the likelihood that data centers receive power sooner.
