Sila Nanotechnologies' Moses Lake, Wash., plant is the largest silicon anode plant in the "Western World," according to the company. Photo: Sila Nanotechnologies

The Defense Department late Friday afternoon announced more than $2 billion in potential loans and equity investments to strengthen supply chains for batteries, critical minerals and magnets used by the U.S. defense industrial base. Most of the planned investments are conditional loan commitments by DoD’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), with the largest being a $1.4 billion deal with California-based Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc., to expand the company’s silicon-carbon anode manufacturing capacity in Washington and to build out a lithium-ion battery…