The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed in 2025 is already showing up in investment 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. Here are 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. This pace is expected to continue. That’s the value of some of the investments built into the OBBBA. Benefits include a permanent 100% bonus depreciation for machinery, equipment, and infrastructure placed in service on or after January 19, 2025. This incentive allows for a full, immediate, first-year deduction. There is also a temporary 100% deduction for costs associated with building or upgrading U.S.-based manufacturing facilities, applicable to structures placed in service before 2031.
Further benefits and incentives: Instead of amortizing R&D costs over five years, the Big Beautiful Bill allows an immediate deduction for all domestic R&D expenses starting from 2025; the IRC Section 179 expansion increases the maximum deduction limit for equipment purchases from $1 million to $2.5 million; and tax credits for domestic semiconductor and electronics production are raised from 25% to 35%. The OBBBA also has provisions intended to make it easier for small businesses to compete with larger corporations such as its qualified business income (QBI) deduction.
This is all adding up to a big year ahead for U.S. manufacturing. The FABTECH 2026 program is being designed around how to help businesses, large and small, take full advantage of the many clauses and incentives covered in the Big Beautiful Bill. Further, FABTECH will lay out the best strategies for expansion, the most important technologies for investment, and many other factors to consider in manufacturing and fabrication in the coming year.
Don’t miss out on FABTECH 2026. Register here.