Amprius Technologies (NYSE:AMPX) chief executive Tom Stepien spoke to CNBC. He said on September 28, 2026 that the silicon anode battery maker received “a $75 million grant from the Department of War and its Industrial Base Program, to make batteries at home.” Outside reporting confirms this. The award has been corroborated by multiple sources. MarketScreener reported the stock gaining on a $75 million grant to produce drone batteries, TipRanks reported a $75M award for battery production, and Dealroom reported Amprius winning a $75M defense grant to build U.S. drone batteries.
Stock Titan reported on September 25, 2026 that most funding on this government deal is still pending.
A Retrofit Puts Drone Cells on a Faster Track
Stepien said deliveries from the new factory start in early 2028. He described the project as a retrofit, meaning Amprius will skip pouring concrete and putting up steel. Stock Titan reported that the line being converted is an EV battery line, with expected capacity of 12 million drone battery cells a year. Amprius has partnered with a South Korean manufacturer on the conversion.
Retrofits move faster than building a plant from scratch, but early 2028 is far off and nothing about the production ramp can be verified now.
A $150 Million Projection From a Line That Has Yet to Run
Stepien said those 12 million cells represent approximately $150 million in incremental annual revenue. That is a company projection tied to a factory that has not started producing, and he added that Amprius is seeing strong adoption for drones and delivery.
Stepien also said the battery is “twice as energy dense as anything else out there” and that the company is making them at high volume. This is a chief executive’s claim about his own product measured against unnamed competitors and has not been independently verified.
Why Battery Internals Decide Who Qualifies for Federal Money
The most substantive part of the interview concerned sourcing. Stepien said the anode, cathode, separator, electrolyte and all the components must sit outside a foreign entity of concern. In plain terms, a foreign entity of concern restriction keeps federally funded products from depending on suppliers owned, controlled or directed by governments Washington considers adversaries.
Final cell assembly is the easy step to move. The components are specialized materials that come from deep upstream suppliers, and every one must be tracked, qualified and tested in the finished cell. Changing a single material can mean revalidating performance. Stepien said Amprius set up a brand new supply chain, with vendors from Korea, Japan, the US and Europe for the components.
AMPX Stock Today and Across the Longer Stretch
AMPX traded at $10.09 as of 10:30 a.m. ET on September 28, 2026, up 3.49% in a session that is still underway. Benzinga published a piece today asking why Amprius stock was gaining Monday, and SimplyWall.st published one on what the $75 million award means for shareholders, tying the move to this news.
Shares are up 6.21% over the past week and up 27.88% year to date, but down 1.08% over the past month and down 8.85% over the past year. The stock is up 0.90% since September 15, 2022.
What Investors Can Check Now and What Waits Until 2028
Three things are verifiable today: the award itself, the stock’s move and the reality of the components requirement, while four things remain promises: the production ramp, the energy-density claim, the $150 million revenue projection and how much of the $75 million actually arrives. Early 2028 is when the first of those becomes verifiable.
Until then, investors can keep an eye on the stock and on Amprius’s filings with the SEC, where updates on award funding and the retrofit timeline would be disclosed.