The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed in 2025 is already showing up in investments in U.S. manufacturing. The first few weeks of 2026 witnessed about a billion dollars in announcements about new facilities and expansion in areas such as heavy equipment, electronics, industrial components, and automation. A few examples:
John Deere plans to open a new distribution center in Indiana, and a factory in North Carolina.
Radar manufacturer Echodyne is establishing a new 86,000-square-foot radar equipment manufacturing site in Washington.
Applied Optoelectronics has broken ground on a 200,000-square-foot facility in Texas that will make optical networking products for AI data centers.
Sanko Texas is putting a plastics manufacturing plant in Texas.
Preciball USA is investing in a new factory in Georgia that will make balls used in bearings, pumps and valves.
Rockwell Automation has chosen Wisconsin as the location for its 1 million square foot “factory of the future.”
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories has announced a 250,000-square-foot electronic device manufacturing plant destined for Idaho.
Tovala announced a 140,000 square-foot food processing facility being built in Illinois.
That’s a lot of investment in a period of a month or so and this pace is expected to continue. The OBBBA is a key driver of this momentum, with several incentives designed to make domestic manufacturing investment more financially attractive:
Permanent 100% bonus depreciation for machinery, equipment, and infrastructure placed in service on or after January 19, 2025, allowing for a full, immediate, first-year deduction.
100% deduction for costs associated with building or upgrading U.S.-based manufacturing facilities, applicable to structures placed in service before 2031.
Immediate deduction for all domestic R&D expenses starting from 2025, rather than amortizing R&D costs over five years.
Expansion of IRC Section 179, increasing the maximum deduction limit for equipment purchases to $2.5 million.
Tax credits for domestic semiconductor and electronics production raised from 25% to 35%.
Expanded qualified business income (QBI) deductions intended to help small businesses compete more effectively with larger corporations.
This is all adding up to a big year ahead for U.S. manufacturing.
FABTECH 2026 will help businesses of all sizes understand and take advantage of these incentives. The program will cover strategies for expansion, key technologies worth investing in, and other critical factors shaping manufacturing and fabrication in the year ahead. For more information visit: FABTECH - The Future of Manufacturing is Here