§149. Office of Strategic Capital

(a) Establishment.-There is in the Office of the Secretary of Defense an office to be known as the Office of Strategic Capital (in this section referred to as the "Office").

(b) Director.-The Office shall be headed by a Director (in this section referred to as the "Director"), who shall be appointed by the Secretary from among employees in Senior Executive Service positions (as defined in section 3132 of title 5), or from outside the civil service who have successfully held equivalent positions.

(c) Duties.-The Office shall-

(1) develop, integrate, and implement capital investment strategies proven in the commercial sector to shape and scale investment in critical technologies and assets;

(2) identify and prioritize promising critical technologies and assets that require capital assistance and have the potential to benefit the Department of Defense; and

(3) make eligible investments in such technologies and assets, such as supply chain technologies not always supported through direct investment.

(d) Non-Federal Funding Requirements for Certain Investments.-In the case of an eligible investment made through a direct loan, not less than 80 percent of the total capital provided for the specific technology to be funded by the investment shall be derived from non-Federal sources as of the time of the investment.

(e) Definitions.-In this section:

(1) The term "capital assistance" means a loan, loan guarantee, or technical assistance.

(2) The term "covered technology category" means the following:

(A) Advanced bulk materials.

(B) Advanced manufacturing.

(C) Autonomous mobile robots.

(D) Battery storage.

(E) Biochemicals.

(F) Bioenergetics.

(G) Biomass.

(H) Cybersecurity.

(I) Data fabric.

(J) Decision science.

(K) Edge computing.

(L) External communication.

(M) Hydrogen generation and storage.

(N) Mesh networks.

(O) Microelectronics assembly, testing, or packaging.

(P) Microelectronics design and development.

(Q) Microelectronics fabrication.

(R) Microelectronics manufacturing equipment.

(S) Microelectronics materials.

(T) Nanomaterials and metamaterials.

(U) Open RAN.

(V) Optical communications.

(W) Sensor hardware.

(X) Solar.

(Y) Space launch.

(Z) Spacecraft.

(AA) Space-enabled services and equipment.

(BB) Synthetic biology.

(CC) Quantum computing.

(DD) Quantum security.

(EE) Quantum sensing.

(3) The term "eligible entity" means-

(A) an individual;

(B) a corporation;

(C) a partnership, which may include a public-private partnership, limited partnership, or general partnership;

(D) a joint venture;

(E) a trust;

(F) a State, including a political subdivision or any other instrumentality of a State;

(G) a Tribal government or consortium of Tribal governments;

(H) any other governmental entity or public agency in the United States, including a special purpose district or public authority, including a port authority;

(I) a multi-State or multi-jurisdictional group of public entities; or

(J) a strategic alliance among two or more entities described in subparagraphs (A) through (I).

(4) The term "eligible investment" means an investment, in the form of capital assistance provided to an eligible entity, for a technology that-

(A) is in a covered technology category; and

(B) is not a technology that solely has defense applications.

(Added Pub. L. 118–31, div. A, title IX, §903(a), Dec. 22, 2023, 137 Stat. 358 .)