XBM USA, a US-based battery cathode, anode and advanced cell development company, has announced a technology collaboration with SiCAM Technologies, through which the two companies are to develop a silicon-sulfur (Si-S) battery materials platform. Under the arrangement, which was made public in Los Angeles on 8 October 2026, SiCAM's silicon-carbon (Si-C) anode material will be coupled with XBM's lithium-sulfur (Li-S) cathode materials and advanced cell technologies, so that US battery OEMs can be offered an integrated platform.

Of the two halves, the anode is the one SiCAM has described as unique among the Si-C anode products made today. Whereas most other developers use silane in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, SiCAM uses chlorosilane (TCS) silicon in a fluidized-bed CVD process. The approach, according to the release, creates a true bonded silicon-composite primary structure, and it thereby helps to reduce the 300% silicon swelling that is experienced during the charge and discharge cycles.

The cathode, for its part, is to come from XBM. Its high-capacity Li-S material draws on sulfur, a byproduct of US petroleum refining, and on lignin, which is left over from US paper pulping; with these inputs, the company is seeking to improve sulfur utilization, cycle life and cell-level energy density. Silicon, likewise, is plentiful, since it is the second-most-abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the pairing is expected to offer a substantially higher theoretical energy density than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

Those domestic inputs have been given particular weight, because Asia, and predominantly China, currently controls about 80-95% of the global battery cell and materials supply chain. US battery manufacturers are, therefore, seeking lower-cost and domestically sourced chemistries, and the companies have presented that shift as an opening for US OEMs to leapfrog legacy technologies. Jon Shan, the Chief Technology Officer of XBM USA, said, "Our near-term objective is to optimize our high-capacity Li-S cathode and SiCAM's Si-C anode in a first-of-its-kind silicon-sulfur battery platform, initially targeting high-energy-density, lightweight eMobility battery applications such as eVTOLs and drones."

The same reasoning has, moreover, been traced to the companies' founding vision. Phillip Roberts, who is a co-founder of SiCAM Technologies as well as of its partner, has described the collaboration as the natural evolution of a US-centric Sustainable Battery vision, which avoids the longstanding battery chemistries "that are mined, more expensive, and foreign sourced and controlled".

XBM USA is a US sustainable high-capacity battery cathode, anode and advanced cell development company, and its flagship product is a Li-S cathode active material based on its proprietary CarbonX porous carbon sol-gel process. SiCAM Technologies, meanwhile, is the exclusive licensee of the patented SiCAM Si-C composite anode material, and it is working to establish production operations in the US.