A major piece of Ontario’s planned electric-vehicle supply chain has reached a financing crossroads. Norwegian battery-materials producer Vianode, which signed a multibillion-dollar graphite supply agreement with General Motors in 2025, is now looking for a new strategic or financial partner and is open to a full takeover. The company has hired JPMorgan to help with that process as it works to fund its large-scale Via TWO synthetic graphite plant in St. Thomas. The proposed facility remains unusually ambitious: at full build-out, it is designed to produce as much as 150,000 tonnes of synthetic graphite annually, enough for roughly two million EVs. But the latest timetable has slipped to 2029, and the need for additional capital shows how difficult the transition from promising battery technology to large-scale North American manufacturing has become.
Vianode Has Put Everything From a Partnership to a Full Sale on the Table
Vianode is no longer simply raising money for another factory phase. Chief executive Burkhard Straube told Reuters that the company is seeking a partner able to contribute capital, industrial expertise or a broader strategic relationship, while leaving the door open to everything from a partnership to a full takeover. JPMorgan has been brought in to help identify candidates, and Vianode hopes to have a partner in place by the end of 2026. That breadth matters. A financial investor could help fill the funding gap, while an industrial buyer or strategic shareholder could offer procurement muscle, project-development experience and deeper connections to automakers or battery manufacturers. For a plant of this scale, the identity of the next backer could shape not just the financing structure, but how quickly the Ontario project can move from site work to full construction.
The search also highlights a basic reality of battery manufacturing: strong customer interest does not eliminate the need for enormous amounts of patient capital. Vianode already operates Via ONE in Norway and has spent years qualifying its graphite technology with customers, giving it a commercial foundation that many early-stage projects lack. Yet Via TWO is a different order of magnitude. The Ontario facility is meant to move the company from thousands of tonnes of annual output to industrial-scale North American production. Reuters reported that additional funding is still required to complete the project. That makes the current process less about proving graphite has a market and more about finding an owner or partner willing to finance the long, capital-intensive build-out needed before the plant can generate output at the scale promised to customers.
Billions in Government Support Still Do Not Fully Finance the Ontario Plant
Ontario has already attached major public support to Via TWO, but the announced financing package does not mean every dollar needed for construction is locked in. The province announced an anticipated C$3.2-billion investment by Vianode in St. Thomas and said it would provide a loan of up to C$670 million, subject to a definitive agreement. Federal efforts have also helped assemble potential financing: Export Development Canada issued a letter of interest for up to US$500 million, the Canada Infrastructure Bank issued its own letter of interest, and Germany indicated potential support through an export credit guarantee of up to US$300 million. Those are meaningful signals of government backing, but letters of interest and conditional loans are not the same as fully closed project financing. Vianode still needs enough capital to fund construction, equipment, commissioning and the working capital required before large-scale production begins.
The size of the St. Thomas plan explains why that final funding gap matters so much. Ontario said the plant is being developed in phases and is intended to reach up to 150,000 tonnes of annual synthetic graphite capacity at full build-out, an amount Vianode says could support about two million electric vehicles per year. The first phase was expected to create roughly 300 skilled jobs, with employment potentially rising to 1,000 at full capacity. Site preparation formally began in November 2025 at the Yarmouth Yards Industrial Park. For St. Thomas, that means the project is already more than a line on an investment map: land preparation, workforce expectations and local economic planning have started to form around it. The financing question now determines how quickly those plans can turn into a functioning industrial operation.
GM Gives Vianode a Major Customer — but the Production Timeline Has Slipped
The strongest commercial argument behind Via TWO remains Vianode’s relationship with General Motors. In January 2025, the companies announced a multibillion-dollar master supply agreement running toward 2033 for synthetic anode graphite to be used in batteries made by Ultium Cells, GM’s joint venture with LG Energy Solution. Vianode said the agreement included a minimum offtake commitment and followed a multi-year qualification process. That matters because battery materials cannot simply be produced and substituted into an automotive cell overnight; customers require extensive testing and validation for performance, consistency and safety. A large automaker contract therefore gives Vianode something valuable in negotiations with new investors: evidence that its material has moved beyond the laboratory and through a demanding commercial qualification process with one of North America’s biggest vehicle manufacturers.
The uncomfortable part is the timetable. When the GM agreement was announced in January 2025, Vianode said its North American large-scale plant would begin production in 2027. By November 2025, company and Ontario materials pointed to a 2028 start in St. Thomas. Reuters reported on September 30, 2026 that production is now scheduled to begin in 2029. A two-year shift from the original 2027 expectation does not automatically mean the project will fail, but it does show how financing, construction planning and changing EV-market conditions have affected the schedule. It also raises a practical supply-chain question for GM and other prospective customers: until Via TWO is operating, Vianode’s North American-scale ambitions remain dependent on future construction rather than existing Canadian output. That makes securing a well-capitalized partner increasingly important.
Vianode Is Trying to Raise Money in a Much Tougher Battery Market
Vianode’s ownership history helps explain why the company is now looking outside its existing shareholder base. In 2024, Norsk Hydro said it would reduce its stake in Vianode, leave the board and stop providing additional capital as it redirected money toward other strategic priorities. Reuters now describes Swedish private-equity firm Altor as Vianode’s sole financial backer. That leaves one investor carrying the burden of a company trying to scale from a Norwegian production base into a multibillion-dollar North American manufacturing program. Even a committed private-equity owner can face limits when a project requires years of construction spending before reaching full commercial output. Bringing in another industrial or financial partner would spread that risk and could give Via TWO a deeper pool of capital than Altor alone is prepared to provide.
The broader market has also become less forgiving. Reuters linked Vianode’s search to a difficult battery-funding environment shaped by the collapse of Sweden’s Northvolt and slower-than-expected EV demand growth in parts of the market. GM itself has reduced some EV ambitions, while several global automakers have adjusted production plans as they balance electric models with hybrids and combustion vehicles. None of that means demand for batteries or graphite is disappearing. It does mean investors are scrutinizing the timing, customer commitments and cash requirements of new plants more closely than during the earlier rush to build gigafactories. In that environment, a project can be strategically important and commercially validated while still struggling to close the financing needed for construction. Vianode’s search for a new partner is a clear example of that tension.
Graphite Is One of the Battery Industry’s Biggest Supply-Chain Chokepoints
Graphite is not a minor ingredient in a lithium-ion battery. It is the dominant material in the anode, and the International Energy Agency says production of anode active material remains one of the most geographically concentrated parts of the battery supply chain. In its 2026 outlook, the IEA said China produced more than 90% of the anode active material used in electric-car batteries in 2025. The agency has also warned that a full disruption of battery-grade graphite trade from China could put more than US$300 billion of annual downstream production outside China at risk. That concentration is why governments in Canada, the United States and Europe continue supporting non-Chinese graphite projects even as EV investment becomes more selective. A successful Via TWO plant would therefore serve an industrial-policy purpose as well as a commercial one.
Vianode is also trying to compete on emissions, not only geography. The company says its proprietary synthetic-graphite process can cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90% compared with conventional production, and it has published a third-party life-cycle assessment conducted by Minviro that measured cradle-to-gate emissions of 1.9 kilograms of CO2 equivalent per kilogram of anode graphite for its process. Synthetic graphite is produced through high-temperature industrial processing rather than mined as natural graphite, making electricity supply, furnace design and process efficiency especially important to its environmental footprint. Ontario’s relatively low-carbon grid was one of the advantages cited for St. Thomas. If the company can reproduce its Norwegian performance at much larger Canadian scale, the plant could offer automakers a way to address both supply concentration and embedded battery emissions.
St. Thomas Is Now Waiting to See Whether the Money Follows the Ambition
The next few months will be important because Vianode is not relying on GM alone. In 2026, it signed a letter of intent with South Korea’s JR Energy Solution that envisions future synthetic graphite supply shifting from Via ONE in Norway to Via TWO in Ontario. It also signed a term sheet with a North American battery-technology company covering 8,000 tonnes from Norway, with a roadmap to expand beyond 10,000 tonnes annually once the Canadian plant becomes operational. Those agreements are not equivalent to a completed long-term purchase contract, but they show that Vianode is trying to build demand across EVs and grid energy storage. That broader customer base could be useful when prospective investors assess whether the Ontario plant can remain well utilized through different phases of the battery market.
For St. Thomas, the outcome will be measured in more concrete terms: whether construction advances, whether hundreds of promised jobs materialize, and whether the city becomes a meaningful North American source of a battery material still heavily concentrated in Asia. The project has public support, a major GM agreement, a prepared site and a technology platform already operating in Norway. What it does not yet have is the complete funding structure needed to finish a plant of this scale. Reuters says Vianode wants a new partner as soon as the end of 2026, and the current production target is 2029. That leaves a clear near-term test. If the search brings in a well-capitalized partner or buyer, Via TWO could regain momentum. If financing remains unresolved, the schedule could face further pressure even as the strategic case for Canadian graphite remains strong.
