Private capital is drifting toward a new center of gravity: the assets you can’t easily swap out. 

Look at the tape this week and you’ll see the pattern. 

Battery separators may sound like dull industrial film, but without them, EVs don’t move an inch. Titanium fasteners? They’re the unseen glue holding modern aircraft together. 

Infrastructure funds are quietly changing hands, not because they’re glamorous, but because they throw off predictable yield. 

Even the inputs coming out of mines are being revalued as the building blocks of every other boom.

None of these headlines scream for attention on their own. But put them side by side, and the signal is unmistakable: smart money is chasing scarcity. And in private markets, controlling what can’t be replaced isn’t just a good strategy — it’s how you set the pace of the cycle.

Entek isn’t a household name, but it just landed one of the most strategic checks of the year. 

The Oregon-based maker of battery separators is selling a majority stake to I Squared Capital in a deal valuing it north of $1 billion. 

On top of that comes $800 million in fresh capital for a new Indiana plant, and a $1.3 billion loan from the Department of Energy.

Separators don’t grab headlines the way EVs do. They’re thin films tucked inside lithium-ion cells, invisible to consumers, yet essential for keeping batteries from short-circuiting. Without them, no EVs, no grid storage, no next-gen military kit.

So why does it matter? 

Because this isn’t just about one factory in Indiana. It’s about the re-shoring of supply chains Washington has decided the U.S. can’t afford to lose. 

Incentives, DOE loans, sourcing rules, it’s becoming clear that policy has become the business model. 

And the stakes are massive: the global separator market could quadruple to $55B by 2034, and those who control local supply won’t just control profits — they’ll control leverage in the global energy race.

What’s next: the Indiana plant is expected online in 12–24 months. The real test will be execution, meeting sourcing rules and scaling efficiently. EV demand may wobble quarter to quarter, but the long-term electrification runway is still intact.

Investor Takeaway
When you size up industrial or energy deals, boil it down to two questions: does it de-risk a supply chain America can’t afford to lose? And does it qualify for durable incentives? If the answer is yes to both, you’re looking at more than a deal, you’re staring at a structural tailwind.

Riverspan Partners has acquired United Titanium, an Ohio maker of specialty alloy fasteners used in aerospace, defense, and medical devices.

 It doesn’t sound glamorous — screws and bolts rarely do — but these are mission-critical parts where failure isn’t an option.

The signal here is bigger than one company. 

Onshoring is accelerating, and investors are zooming in on the hidden components that keep planes flying, soldiers safe, and medical devices intact. 

Reliable domestic supply of these “small but irreplaceable” parts has become a strategic priority.

Investor Takeaway
Value creation is shifting into the overlooked corners of supply chains. The next private-equity sweet spot may not be flashy platforms, but the quiet components no one can afford to substitute.

HarbourVest Partners has wrapped up its third Infrastructure Opportunities Fund at $865 million — nearly double the size of its last vintage. 

The focus is sharp: buying into existing infrastructure projects through the secondaries market, from energy and transportation to broadband and utilities.

Why it matters: this isn’t global scattershot. 

More private equity dry powder is being funneled toward North American infrastructure, where the need is urgent and the policy tailwinds are strongest. 

Governments are tightening sourcing rules, pouring capital into grid modernization, and incentivizing projects that harden domestic resilience.

Investor Takeaway
Infrastructure secondaries are fast becoming a signal play for allocators. The smart money isn’t chasing far-flung trophy projects, it’s consolidating around strategic assets at home. 

For portfolios, that means treating infrastructure not just as a diversifier, but as a direct lever on the onshoring wave shaping North America’s backbone.

Ivanhoe Mines has secured a $500 million private placement from the Qatar Investment Authority, giving the Canadian miner fresh firepower for projects like Platreef in South Africa and the Kamoa-Kakula expansion. 

The raise isn’t just about liquidity — it’s a sovereign wealth fund planting a flag in the metals that power electrification.

Why it matters: capital isn’t only chasing tech platforms or grid projects. Strategic mineral supply chains are drawing equal attention. 

As demand for copper, nickel, and cobalt surges… mining assets are being reframed as foundational infrastructure. That makes upstream projects not just cyclical bets, but core allocations for investors with a long horizon.

Investor Takeaway
The Signal: clean energy runs on secure inputs. The deals that will matter most aren’t always glamorous, but mines that combine critical resources with political stability and credible management are becoming magnets for sovereign and institutional capital. 

In the next decade, owning the inputs may prove as powerful as owning the outputs.

EV Realty is placing a big bet that the missing link in electric trucking isn’t the trucks — it’s the land they roll into. 

The company is building charging hubs near warehouses and ports, starting with a San Bernardino site outfitted with 76 high-capacity stalls built for semis.

Think of it as truck stop 2.0. Gas stations once unlocked the interstate era. Now, charging hubs will dictate how electrified freight actually moves. 

This is less a tech story than a land-and-grid story — whoever controls the best sites controls the flow of goods.

Investor Takeaway
For logistics, real estate, and energy transition investors, the endgame is simple: own the nodes. The assets that marry land, power, and proximity to freight routes could quietly become the backbone of tomorrow’s supply chains.

S&P dug into the records of 165 private equity–backed companies that received lifelines since 2020 — roughly $2.5 billion in fresh sponsor capital. 

The result? More than a third collapsed anyway. 

Another 40% are still on life support, limping along “paycheck to paycheck.” Only about a quarter clawed their way back to slightly safer ground.

Sponsor bailouts usually buy time, not salvation. 

On average, the extra cash stretched survival by seven months. A few companies managed to grind out years, but the underlying problems ( too much debt, soft demand, rising costs ) didn’t disappear.

Investor Takeaway
Don’t confuse sponsor support with a turnaround. Lifelines may be hunting ground for distressed specialists, but for most allocators the safer play is boring balance sheets and steady cash flow. In this market, “barely hanging on” is not the same as being healthy.

Markets may look scattered until you pull on the thread.

Entek’s separator deal shows how policy is turning factories into fortresses. It’s not just about batteries, it’s also about entire supply chains being rewired with capital and incentives.

Riverspan’s move on United Titanium is a reminder that the smallest parts can be the biggest choke points. Own them, and you control the system.

HarbourVest’s new $865M fund signals private equity money doubling down on the pipes and grids that keep North America humming.

Ivanhoe’s sovereign-backed raise makes the same point: metals aren’t just commodities anymore — they’re infrastructure.

EV Realty ties it all together. Trucking’s next era won’t just run on batteries or code; it will run on land with grid access in exactly the right places.

And S&P’s sobering default data? That’s the reminder that money alone doesn’t cure fragility.

The Pattern: Capital is chasing assets that feel irreplaceable — separators, fasteners, mines, megawatt plugs. 

These hidden backbones, the things nobody notices until they break, are where the big bets are landing. Read it right, and you see the same lesson across batteries, bolts, broadband, and bailouts: resilience commands a premium, and weakness always finds a way to show.

— The Private Markets Digest Team