• New public private platform turns industrial demand into investable opportunities: Ford and future industry partners define specific supply chain and manufacturing needs; Newlab translates those needs into Open Calls, sources, assesses and supports industrial validation of  companies; the State of Michigan aligns public resources, and JPMorganChase evaluates opportunities for financing as credible demand and pathways to scale emerge.

• Michigan LIFT creates a repeatable model for expanding domestic industrial capacity: by aligning industrial demand, public-sector resources, private capital, and industrialization support around specific opportunities that can scale in Michigan and strengthen critical U.S. supply chains.

• The platform is open for participation: Michigan LIFT is launching with four initial Open Calls. Newlab is also seeking additional industrial partners to define challenges that will inform the next open calls.

Generational imperative to scale strategic capabilities and production capacity in the U.S.

The United States needs to expand domestic production of critical components and advanced manufacturing capabilities. Concentrated supply chains create vulnerabilities for industry and limit the country’s ability to scale technologies essential to its economic and national security.

Many of the ingredients required to build that capacity are already in place.

• Hundreds of high-growth companies are developing technologies that could fundamentally change the economics of domestic production.
• Industry leaders are making significant investments in U.S. manufacturing and supply chain resilience. Ford Motor Co. has positioned domestic production at the center of its growth strategy, invested $1 billion to establish Michigan Central as a platform for next-generation industrial technologies, and stated an aspiration to award up to $1 billion in new supplier business through Michigan LIFT. 
• JPMorganChase launched the Security and Resilience Initiative (SRI), committing to facilitate and finance $1.5 trillion over 10 years to support industries critical to U.S. economic security and resilience.

Increasingly, the constraint is not the availability of technology or capital. It is converting market intent into investable opportunities.

Industry needs confidence that capacity can be built; high-growth companies need credible demand to scale; capital providers need commercial certainty to underwrite; and the government needs confidence that public resources will catalyze private investment.

Michigan LIFT exists at the intersection of these needs.

Michigan LIFT is a demand-led platform designed to address the coordination failures that prevent strategically important industrial opportunities from advancing. It mobilizes stakeholders around specific supply chain and manufacturing challenges and aligns the industrial demand, public-sector resources, private capital, and commercialization support needed to scale validated solutions.

For industry, the platform provides a way to translate persistent supply chain gaps into actionable opportunities and collaborate on challenges that no single company can solve alone. For high-growth companies, it creates a structured pathway to customer validation, investment, and scaled production. For the public sector, it provides a systematic way to attract and scale high-growth companies and established suppliers that can create high-value jobs and strengthen long-term economic resilience. For capital providers, it creates a continuous pipeline of investable opportunities grounded in validated industrial demand.

A repeatable model to advance our mission

Newlab’s mission has always been to accelerate the commercialization of critical technologies, and public-private partnerships have always been central to the model we have built to do that. As we have scaled globally, we have seen how these partnerships can create powerful vehicles for coordinating markets around specific opportunities and aligning the resources high-growth companies need to scale in place.

Michigan LIFT establishes a precedent and a playbook for doing this at a greater scale.

We intend to apply the public-private partnership model represented by Michigan LIFT across our global network.

We will work with industry to identify specific supply chain gaps and manufacturing capabilities where expanding domestic or regional capacity can reduce vulnerability, improve competitiveness, or support future growth. We will translate those needs into actionable opportunities and help establish quantifiable demand signals that give public- and private-sector stakeholders the confidence to act.

We will collaborate with public-sector partners to mobilize industry and deploy resources strategically to close financing gaps, improve bankability, and unlock substantially larger amounts of private investment.

We will identify and collaborate with private capital providers to structure equity- and debt-based financing against credible industrial demand and public-sector commitments, helping scale critical technologies and production capacity across our locations.

Starting today in Michigan

Michigan LIFT launches today. Here is how it works:

Newlab will collaborate with Ford Motor Co. and future industrial partners to identify supply chain gaps and manufacturing needs and translate them into actionable problem statements and sourcing criteria that can anchor Open Calls for solutions with the potential to scale in Michigan.

Newlab will collaborate with the State of Michigan to source and assess companies against defined requirements and connect qualified companies with relevant industrial partners for evaluation and validation.

Where a credible demand signal emerges, Michigan LIFT will help coordinate potential financing, state resources, and commercialization support needed to move viable opportunities toward scaled production.

Michigan LIFT launches with four initial Open Calls:

• Flexible and non-rigid material assembly
• Advanced metal components
• Brownfield manufacturing equipment
• Qualification of alternative manufacturing inputs

If you are a high-growth company developing a relevant solution, please respond to the Open Calls. Even if your solution does not meet every stated criterion, we encourage you to submit your information. We will use these inputs to help shape future Open Calls with industry.

Ford Motor Co. is the first industrial partner for Michigan LIFT, but Ford’s demand alone is not sufficient to scale the breadth of technologies and capabilities needed to strengthen long-term U.S. industrial competitiveness. Newlab is collaborating with MEDC and Michigan Central to identify and onboard additional industrial partners, with the goal of securing more than $1 billion in annualized industrial demand through the platform.

If you are an industry stakeholder interested in joining Michigan LIFT, participating in one of the initial Open Calls, or helping define future Open Calls, please submit your information here: https://www.michiganlift.org/contact/join. Note industry stakeholders do not need to be based in Michigan so long as the capacity catalyzed through the platform is scaled in Michigan.