I-80 CORRIDOR

Among the approximately 858 corporate end-user facility projects tracked along the 2,900 miles of Interstate 80 by the Conway Projects Database between January 2023 and July 2024 are billions of dollars’ worth of data centers. Read more about them in this expanded web edition.

MID-ATLANTIC

Offshore wind doubles down against adversity.

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Another battery gigafactory alights in Nevada. Walmart will construct a completely automated distribution center in Mexico. Hyundai Mobis sites its third European electrification hub in Slovakia.

Photo courtesy of Lithium Americas

Following up on an agreement originally announced in January 2023, General Motors is investing $625 million in a joint venture with Lithium Americas Corp. to develop the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada in order to supply lithium for EV battery cells. The JV arrangement allows Lithium Americas to avoid common equity dilution associated with a Tranche 2 investment from GM in the previous arrangement, said the mining company, which expects to make a final investment decision on the project by the end of the year.

Lithium Americas has estimated the lithium extracted and processed from the project can support production of up to 1 million EVs per year. “The JV Transaction will deliver $625 million of cash and letters of credit from GM to Thacker Pass alongside the conditional commitment for a $2.3 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan announced earlier this year,” said a Lithium Americas announcement released last week.

Site Selection has reported multiple times on Thacker Pass and Nevada’s lithium play, including in the September 2024 Nevada spotlight and a September 2022 piece asking, “Can Nevada Become the Lithium Capital of America?”

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Workers from Canada and the United States complete engineering work on the deck of the Gordie Howe International Bridge across the Detroit River.

Photo courtesy of Gordie Howe International Bridge

A report issued earlier this month by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Business Data Lab (BDL) “highlights just how mutually beneficial the Canada-U.S. trade relationship is,” a Canadian Chamber release stated. Among the findings in Partners in Prosperity: Canada is the top export destination for 34 states.

“Several U.S. state economies are surprisingly dependent on Canadian trade,” said University of Calgary Professor Trevor Tombe, the report’s author. “In Montana, trade with Canada accounts for 16% of the state economy, in Michigan it’s 14% and in Illinois it’s 10%. Even as far away as Texas, trade with Canada still accounts for 4% of the state economy.” How dependent are provincial economies on trade with the U.S.? For New Brunswick, it accounts for 62% of the economy, with Manitoba and Alberta at 42%, Ontario at 41% and Quebec at 23%. Find more evidence in the Canada’s Best Locations report from Site Selection’s September issue.

Photo courtesy of Komatsu

In the lead-up to the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, yesterday, Williams Racing Formula One drivers Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto earlier this month visited the Arizona Proving Grounds operated by team sponsor Komatsu in Tucson to try driving a vehicle with a little different center of gravity: Komatsu’s “power agnostic” 930E electric drive mining trucks, which stand as tall as a two-story house.

“Just like our factory at Grove, the site is a vibrant hub of innovation and progression, but here it is on an incredible scale,” said Williams Racing Team Principal James Vowles, referencing the team’s experience center in the UK. Komatsu Mining announced a 100-job manufacturing investment in Mesa, Arizona, earlier this year.

“The size of the machines we had the chance to operate was mind blowing, so I’m grateful for the Komatsu trainer I had alongside me,” Albon said. “While the skillset is different, the level of expertise needed to drive a Formula 1 car and a giant excavator is more similar than I expected.”