Eli Lilly CEO David A. Ricks speaks at a press conference at Generation Park in Houston, Monday, Sept. 23, 2025. The company announced plans for a $6.5 billion biomanufacturing plant in north Houston. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

Raquel Natalicchio | Houston Chronicle | Getty Images

Eli Lilly on Tuesday said it will spend $6 billion to build a manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama, to help boost production of its closely watched experimental obesity pill and other drugs. 

It is the third facility in a string of new planned U.S. investments by the drugmaker. Eli Lilly announced in February that it would spend at least $27 billion to build four new domestic manufacturing plants, adding to $23 billion in previous investments since 2020.

The company said it expects construction of the Alabama plant to start in 2026 and for it to be completed in 2032. 

“Today’s investment continues the onshoring of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production, strengthening supply chain resilience and reliable access to medicines for patients in the U.S.,” said Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks in a release. 

That added production capacity for Eli Lilly’s obesity pill, orforglipron, is crucial as the company races to file for its approval and tries to maintain its dominance in the booming market for GLP-1s. The company and its chief rival, Novo Nordisk, faced supply shortages for their existing weekly injections after demand skyrocketed in the U.S. in recent years, though they have managed to alleviate those issues.

Eli Lily’s pill in November won a priority review voucher from the Food and Drug Administration, which will significantly speed up the regulator’s assessment of the drug to potentially a few months. 

Drugmakers have been scrambling to boost their production in the U.S. after threats by President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. But concerns about those potential tariffs have eased following recent drug pricing deals with Trump that exempt companies from the levies.

Eli Lilly said the Alabama site will bring 450 jobs to the area, including engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians, as well as 3,000 construction jobs. 

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This image from video provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via DVIDS shows manufacturing plant employees being escorted outside the Hyundai Motor Group’s electric vehicle plant, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga

Corey Bullard/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP

The South Korean government said it is working to return its nationals who were detained in an immigration raid on a Hyundai facility in Georgia last week.

Federal and immigration agents conducted a massive sweep on the plant in Ellabell, Georgia, arresting 475 people as part of an investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices. A South Korean spokesperson told NBC News that more than 300 of the arrests were South Korean nationals.

U.S. authorities, who had a search warrant, said the arrested workers were working or living in the country illegally.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s office said Sunday that detainees will be returned to South Korea on a chartered flight. When asked for comment on Monday, Hyundai directed CNBC to its Friday statement that said it is “committed to full compliance with all laws and regulations in every market.”

Thursday’s raid, the latest in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, marked the Department of Homeland Security’s largest single-site enforcement operation in its history, according to Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia.

White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the Trump administration would continue focusing on workplaces for immigration raids.

“We’re going to do more worksite enforcement operations,” he said. “These companies that hire illegal aliens, they undercut their competition that’s paying U.S. citizen salaries.”

The Georgia plant is home to South Korean companies Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, which are building a battery manufacturing plant together. The $7.6 billion Hyundai plant employs more than 1,200 people. The company began building its manufacturing plant in 2022 and started making electric vehicles less than two years later, making the plant one of the largest economic developments in the state.

LG Energy Solution said on Saturday that 47 of its employees were detained, along with an additional 250 people from “equipment partner companies.”

Schrank said the arrested workers were employed by contractors and subcontractors.

In a Friday statement, U.S. Attorney Margaret Heap said more than 400 agents took part in the raid.

“The goal of this operation is to reduce illegal employment and prevent employers from gaining an unfair advantage by hiring unauthorized workers,” Heap said in the statement. “Another goal is to protect unauthorized workers from exploitation.”

In a statement to NBC News on Friday, Hyundai said it was monitoring the situation and that none of the detainees were direct employees of the auto company.

The South Korean government said on Friday that it conveyed its “concern and regret” to the U.S. Embassy and urged them to ensure the South Korean employees’ rights were not violated.

“In the course of U.S. law enforcement, the economic activities of our investment firms and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed upon,” said Lee Jae-woong, a spokesperson for South Korea’s foreign ministry.

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he is calling on all foreign companies investing in the U.S. to “please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws.”

“Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so. What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers,” he wrote.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump also said the raid had no connection to the economic ties between the two countries, saying that the U.S. has “a great relationship” with South Korea.

Hyundai told NBC News Monday morning that business travel to the U.S. remains in place, with some trips subject to internal review.

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Ultium Cells Spring Hill, TN. September 2022.

Courtesy: Ultium Cells LLC

Ultium Cells, a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, said Monday it’s upgrading its facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee, to make low-cost electric vehicle battery cells.

GM said the lithium iron phosphate battery cells — abbreviated LFP based on the elements’ chemical symbols — could be significantly cheaper than battery packs used in some EVs, in part because they don’t require expensive minerals like cobalt and nickel that are used in standard lithium-ion batteries.

“This upgrade at Spring Hill will enable us to scale production of lower-cost LFP cell technologies in the U.S., complementing our high-nickel and future lithium manganese rich solutions and further diversifying our growing EV portfolio,” Kurt Kelty, vice president of batteries, propulsion and sustainability at GM, said in a release.

GM has 12 EVs in its lineup, spanning a price range of roughly $35,000 to more than $300,000.

The Detroit automaker teamed up with LG to invest $2.3 billion in the Tennessee battery plant when it was announced in 2021. The companies said Monday’s announcement builds on the partnership, but did not disclose an additional dollar amount for the upgrade.

Ultium said it expects commercial production of the LFP cells to begin by late 2027.

The announcement comes as GM has been working on a separate type of new battery technology for its largest electric SUVs and trucks. Different EV battery chemistries impact everything from the range and safety of EVs to energy efficiency and charging capabilities, among other needs.

GM also said Monday that it has invested $900 million for new battery development labs in Michigan.

The same year that GM and LG announced their investment in Tennessee, GM CEO Mary Barra said GM would exclusively offer EVs by 2035. At the time, she said the company would invest $35 billion between 2020 and 2025 on the effort, but GM has since said customer demand — which has been slower than expected — will dictate its EV plans, and it has not disclosed its total EV investment thus far.

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Tesla has inked its first deal to build a grid-scale battery power plant in China amid a strained trading relationship between Beijing and Washington.

The U.S. company posted on the Chinese social media service Weibo that the project would be the largest of its kind in China when completed.

Utility-scale battery energy storage systems help electricity grids keep supply and demand in balance. They are increasingly needed to bridge the supply-demand mismatch caused by intermittent energy sources such as solar and wind.

Chinese media outlet Yicai first reported that the deal, worth 4 billion yuan ($556 million), had been signed by Tesla, the local government of Shanghai and financing firm China Kangfu International Leasing, according to the Reuters news agency.

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Tesla said its battery factory in Shanghai had produced more than 100 Megapacks — the battery designed for utility-scale deployment — in the first quarter of this year. One Megapack can provide up to 1 megawatt of power for four hours.

“The grid-side energy storage power station is a ‘smart regulator’ for urban electricity, which can flexibly adjust grid resources,” Tesla said on Weibo, according to a Google translation.

This would “effectively solve the pressure of urban power supply and ensure the safe, stable and efficient electricity demand of the city,” it added. “After completion, this project is expected to become the largest grid-side energy storage project in China.”

According to the company’s website, each Megapack retails for just under $1 million in the U.S. Pricing for China was unavailable.

The deal is significant for Tesla, as China’s CATL and carmaker BYD compete with similar products. The two Chinese companies have made significant inroads in battery development and manufacturing, with the former holding about 40% of the global market share.

CATL was also expected to supply battery cells and packs that are used in Tesla’s Megapacks, according to a Reuters news source.

Tesla’s deal with a Chinese local authority is also significant as it comes after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on imports from China, straining the geopolitical relationship between the world’s two largest economies.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk was also a close ally of President Trump during the initial stages of the trade war, further complicating the business outlook for U.S. automakers in China.

The demand for grid-scale battery installation, however, is significant in China. In May last year, Beijing set a new target to add nearly 5 gigawatts of battery-powered electricity supply by the end of 2025, bringing the total capacity to 40 gigawatts.

Tesla has also been exporting its Megapacks to Europe and Asia from its Shanghai plant to meet global demand.

Capacity for global battery energy storage systems rose 42 gigawatts in 2023, nearly doubling the total increase in capacity observed in the previous year, according to the International Energy Agency.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed reporting.

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FILE PHOTO: The American flag flutters at a Nissan automobile dealership in Irvine, California, U.S., March 27, 2025. 

Mike Blake | Reuters

Nissan Motor’s new Americas leader said the automaker is aiming to “max out” production at its largest American production plant amid President Donald Trump’s 25% auto tariffs.

Christian Meunier, who started as chairman of Nissan Americas in January, said the tariffs are accelerating already needed plans for the automaker to increase domestic production to assist in a turnaround of its embattled U.S. operations.

“We have big facilities, big capacities and today we don’t have max capacity. We still have more room to improve our capacity,” Meunier told CNBC during a virtual interview Wednesday. “We’re looking into selling more of the U.S. products, and adjusting, along the way, vehicles that are coming from Mexico and from Japan.”

Meunier said his “ultimate goal” is to “max out” capacity at the automaker’s 6-million-square-foot facility in Smyrna, Tennessee. The facility is capable of producing 640,000 vehicles a year on three shifts, he said. It produced more than 314,500 vehicles last year on two shifts with about 5,700 people.

“We’re looking at maxing out capacity and making Smyrna the powerhouse that it used to be,” he said. “That’s my ultimate goal … to get the plant full and make a lot of money again.”

Meunier declined to speculate on a timeframe for hitting that maximum production at the plant, which currently makes four products, including the automaker’s Nissan Rogue – its top-selling vehicle domestically. He said it takes time to change plans and move production.

“We can increase production, as I described on the existing models that we have in the U.S., and commit to a plan to bring a product the next two years … or a couple products to the U.S. market. But it cannot happen overnight,” he said.

Meunier’s comments come two days after Trump said he’s looking to potentially “help” some automakers, saying the companies need time to alter production plans.

Christian Meunier, then-chief executive officer of the Jeep brand at Stellantis NV, during the 2023 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) in New York, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.

Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Nissan is looking at adding hybrid production to Smyrna as well as new products such as an Infiniti model, Meunier said. He also said the company is analyzing production increases for powertrain components such as engines and increasing domestic content.

“The good thing is, we have flexibility. We have an ability for us to to accelerate, to do things faster than we would have normally,” Meunier said. “I was already working on it before the tariff, because I, I’m convinced that localization is the way.”

Tariffs on imported vehicles into the U.S. have been in effect since April 3, despite Trump’s pullback last week on other country-based levies. Additional 25% tariffs on auto parts are scheduled to take effect by May 3.

Meunier said those potential parts tariffs would hurt the company and its plans.

“Hopefully there will be solutions that don’t hurt completely, to a full extent at 25% because that’s a lot,” he said. “Hopefully there will be a compromise in between.”

Nissan has two assembly plants in Mexico that produce a variety of vehicles, including imports such as the Nissan Kicks and Nissan Versa. In 2024, Nissan reportedly produced nearly 670,000 units in Mexico, with over 456,000 being exported, according to UnoTV in Mexico.

Autoworkers at Nissan’s Smyrna Vehicle Assembly Plant in Tennessee, June 6, 2022. The plant employs thousands of people and produces a variety of vehicles, including the Leaf EV and Rogue crossover.

Michael Wayland / CNBC

In the U.S., Nissan says it has assembly facilities capable of producing more than 1 million vehicles, 1.4 million engines, 1.4 million forgings and 456,000 castings annually. Of that full capacity, the automaker produced nearly 525,600 vehicles in the U.S. in 2024.

Other than Smyrna, the company has a large powertrain plant in Tennessee and another large vehicle assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi.

The Canton plant currently produces the Nissan Altima sedan and Nissan Frontier midsize pickup truck. It employs roughly 5,000 workers on a single shift for the Altima and two shifts for the Frontier.

The Rogue and the Pathfinder, as well as the Frontier, which has experienced significant market share declines in recent years to roughly 7% to 8% of its segment, are among the vehicles with the greatest growth potential for Nissan in the U.S., Meunier said.

Nissan lowered pricing of the Rogue and Pathfinder by between $640 and nearly $2,000, depending on the vehicle and model, in response to the tariffs. It also stopped taking new orders from the U.S. for two Mexican-built SUVs for its Infiniti luxury brand.

“Nissan has struggled a little bit lately, but we have a good plan,” he said. “We have good product in the pipeline. We’re launching super good product now that are successful, and we’re gonna turn it around despite the tariff.”

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