- California Forever has proposed The Solano Foundry, a 2,100-acre industrial park focused on advanced manufacturing, near Silicon Valley.
- The project is part of a broader vision to build a new city with 150K+ homes, centered between San Francisco, Sacramento, and Silicon Valley.
- Backed by billionaires, the plan aims to bring high-tech manufacturing jobs back to California and could generate 40K jobs, per JLL research.
A Bold New Chapter
Silicon Valley-backed developer California Forever is moving ahead with plans to revive American manufacturing, reports Manufacturing Dive. The company has proposed The Solano Foundry, a 2,100-acre advanced industrial hub in Solano County. The site is located about an hour north of Silicon Valley.. The site is envisioned as the largest industrial park in the US, and a cornerstone of the group’s broader plan to build a brand-new city from scratch.
A Made-In-America Reboot
The proposed Foundry aims to reunite research and production under one roof, focusing on semiconductors, robotics, and next-gen materials. The announcement follows the recent passage of a California law aimed at streamlining approvals for advanced manufacturing projects. Under the new legislation, developers can now bypass lengthy environmental reviews in designated industrial zones, significantly speeding up project approvals.
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A $1B Vision Years In The Making
The project is spearheaded by Flannery Associates, a group of tech investors who’ve quietly acquired over $1B worth of farmland in Solano County since 2018. CEO Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, says the Foundry could restore California’s leadership in hardware innovation by creating a self-contained ecosystem for design, development, and production.
Strategic Positioning
The Foundry’s location near Travis Air Force Base and a proposed shipyard positions it to support both commercial and military manufacturing. According to a JLL whitepaper, the project could generate billions in economic activity. The project could directly create 40K jobs. Many of those jobs would go to workers pushed out of coastal metro areas by rising living costs.
Mixed Reactions
While some California residents have welcomed the investment and job creation, the effort hasn’t come without friction. Some farmers refused to sell their land to the developers, which led to several high-profile lawsuits. California Forever says it has since settled most of those cases.
Why It Matters
The Solano Foundry’s scale and location could fundamentally change where and how advanced technology is designed and built in America. By combining housing, infrastructure, and manufacturing in one planned city, the project reflects growing interest in decentralizing Silicon Valley’s innovation engine and re-onshoring production at scale.
What’s Next
As developers begin navigating the permitting process under California’s new pro-manufacturing legislation, several factors will shape the outcome. The future of the Solano Foundry—and the city planned around it—will depend on local cooperation, infrastructure investment, and sustained demand for domestic high-tech manufacturing.
