"Let data reign," U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed Monday.
"The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor," Trump wrote on Truth Social amid community opposition to power-hungry data centers.
"If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame," he added. "China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement."
Washington has now made the infrastructure supporting that expansion a security asset, moving to screen foreign-made storage equipment from the U.S. grid.
That gives South Korean battery makers an unusually strong opening.
LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK On are among a relatively small group of non-Chinese producers combining global manufacturing scale, increasingly competitive lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, technology and, crucially, factories already operating in the United States.
The U.S. factories also give Korean suppliers a potential advantage over Chinese rivals as Washington tightens scrutiny of foreign-made batteries and other equipment connected to critical power infrastructure.
Trump signed Executive Order 14420 on Aug. 26, declaring a national emergency over the foreign supply of bulk-power equipment and naming battery energy storage systems, grid-connected inverters and transformers among the covered goods.
Such equipment could carry "digital backdoors built into their systems" that would allow a foreign country to access them remotely, the order said, citing the mounting strain that data centers, artificial intelligence and defense production are placing on America's electricity supply.
The administration intends to restrict new purchases of suspect foreign-made transformers, storage batteries, inverters and grid control systems and establish procedures for replacing equipment already installed.
The direction poses a particular challenge for China, whose suppliers dominate the global LFP storage-cell market largely on cost.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted last year, also ties access to storage investment tax credits to reducing content linked to prohibited foreign entities, adding another incentive for U.S. developers to diversify their supply chains.
"The U.S. government sees batteries for AI data centers and military drones as a core national security industry and will widen its support for critical mineral and battery supply chains," said Kim Hyun-soo, an analyst at Hana Securities.
"Korean battery makers with U.S. production bases are expected to benefit."
Global electric-vehicle sales reached 11.5 million units in the first seven months of this year, up 4 percent from a year earlier, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
North American sales fell 18 percent over the same period to 900,000 units, while China slipped 12 percent, leaving Europe as the only major market still expanding.
Energy storage is moving in the opposite direction.
SNE Research expects global demand for ESS batteries to expand from about 353 gigawatt-hours in 2024 to around 1,870 GWh in 2035, driven by renewable-energy deployment, grid stabilization and increasingly the enormous electricity requirements of AI data centers.
For Korean battery makers, that creates a rare convergence: weaker EV demand is freeing capacity just as U.S. energy storage demand accelerates and Washington is making Chinese dependence increasingly difficult.
EV plants find a second life
SK On moved quickly.
The company signed a contract with U.S.-based NeoVolta Power on Aug. 27, a day after Trump's executive order, covering 9 GWh of LFP pouch cells to be supplied between 2027 and 2031.
LG Energy Solution entered this year with about 140 GWh of cumulative storage orders and booked more than 3 trillion won in new contracts during the first half, led by a 6 GWh deal with Michigan utility DTE Energy.
The company said Monday it had also signed a 10-year binding offtake agreement with Smackover Lithium for 8,000 metric tons a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate from an Arkansas project.
"By bringing both battery production and sourcing to the U.S., we will deliver competitive and sustainable products to our customers driving the global energy storage and EV markets," said Lee Kang-yeol, procurement center leader at LG Energy Solution.
The local sourcing adds another layer to the company's positioning as Washington increasingly scrutinizes not only where batteries are manufactured but where their critical materials originate.
LG Energy Solution has already accelerated the shift in its business mix.
ESS accounted for about 10 percent of revenue last year but rose to 25 percent in the first half. The company is targeting 35 percent by December.
Its Lansing, Michigan, plant began full operations in August as the company's seventh North American production site, putting more than 50 GWh of LFP capacity within reach by year-end.
Samsung SDI is making a similar move.
After signing U.S. ESS contracts worth more than 2 trillion won in December and about 1.5 trillion won in March, the company is converting part of its StarPlus Energy joint venture plant in Indiana and plans to begin LFP production there in the fourth quarter.
The Korean companies therefore enter the storage boom with something difficult to replicate quickly: large battery plants already sitting on U.S. soil that can be repurposed from EV production toward ESS.
Investors have already begun pricing in the shift.
Samsung SDI shares surged 48.13 percent in August and LG Energy Solution gained 19.62 percent, while SK Innovation, SK On's parent, rose 16.2 percent.
The benchmark KOSPI increased 8.9 percent over the same period.
Domestic demand could provide another outlet.
The Korea Power Exchange is weighing a third centrally contracted storage auction that industry officials say could exceed 1 gigawatt, compared with about 560 megawatts in each of the first two rounds. Most capacity in the earlier auctions was awarded in South Jeolla Province.
But the United States remains the bigger prize.
AI data-center construction is creating enormous demand for generation, transmission and storage infrastructure just as Washington is seeking greater control over the equipment connected to the grid.
For LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK On, that convergence provides a new home for capacity built during the EV investment boom while placing them among the few large-scale alternatives available as the United States tries to reduce Chinese exposure in critical power infrastructure.
Rules due Dec. 24 will define covered foreign entities, establish licensing procedures and set pre-qualified vendor lists that could ultimately determine which suppliers clear Washington's security screen.
For Korean battery makers, the details will determine how far an EV-era manufacturing buildout can be turned into an advantage in the AI power race.
AJP Takeaways
• South Korean battery makers stand to benefit from tighter U.S. scrutiny of foreign grid equipment because LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK On already operate large-scale battery manufacturing bases in the United States.
• Slowing EV demand is freeing capacity that Korean producers can convert to LFP energy-storage batteries just as AI data centers drive rapidly rising demand for electricity and grid storage.
• Global ESS battery demand is projected to expand from about 353 GWh in 2024 to around 1,870 GWh in 2035, while Korean battery makers are already securing multibillion-dollar U.S. storage orders.
• U.S. Energy Department rules due Dec. 24 will define how the new foreign-supplier restrictions are implemented and could further shape competition between Korean and Chinese battery makers in the U.S. ESS market.
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