Pirelli's board of directors has signed off on a $1.2 billion expansion of the company's U.S. headquarters and manufacturing campus in Rome, Georgia, a project expected to create 1,000 new jobs and dramatically reshape the site's production capacity over the next several years. But the vote on Tuesday wasn't unanimous — three board members nominated by Chinese state-owned Sinochem voted against the plan, exposing lingering friction inside the Italian tire maker's boardroom even as local officials celebrated the news.
The board approved the investment by majority vote on Tuesday, with directors Zhang Haitao, Xi Xiaohong and Wang Kun casting dissenting votes, according to a statement carried by PR Newswire. Sinochem had been Pirelli's largest shareholder, with a roughly 34% stake, and the three dissenting directors were nominated by the Chinese firm, underscoring how geopolitics has followed the company's American growth plans into the boardroom itself. As CBS Atlanta reported, the expansion was announced alongside Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who said Pirelli has been a valued presence in the state for over two decades.
Pirelli's U.S. headquarters sits at 100 Pirelli Drive in Rome, Georgia, roughly 70 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta — a site the company has operated since 2002, per the same account. The plant currently produces around 400,000 passenger car tires annually, while Pirelli employs 234 Georgians in operations around the state, according to CBS Atlanta. Under the new plan, that capacity is set to climb 15-fold, to 6 million tires per year by 2033, the station notes.
A Two-Phase Buildout Timed Through 2033
The scale-up will happen in two stages starting in 2027. The first phase will lean on Pirelli's proprietary Modular Integrated Robotized System, or MIRS, with production capacity beginning to increase from 2028 and ultimately reaching 3 million tires annually during the phase, according to Investing.com. A second phase will then add a fully automated conventional manufacturing facility, layering on another 3 million tires of capacity to reach the 6 million target by 2033.
Most of the hiring tied to the expansion is expected to happen in 2029, per CBS Atlanta's reporting, with the plant projected to reach full operations in 2033. The buildout will strengthen what Pirelli describes as its local-for-local strategy, allowing the company to better serve the U.S. market from domestic soil rather than relying on imports.
Claudio Zanardo, a Pirelli executive, said the United States is one of the company's most important markets and offers significant opportunities for growth, according to CBS Atlanta's account of the announcement. That framing lines up with broader industry data: the U.S. accounts for roughly 40% of global volumes in the premium High Value tire segment, making it the largest single market in the world for that class of product in 2026, according to Modern Tire Dealer.
Cyber Tyre Clearance Followed a Governance Shakeup
Part of what the expansion enables is U.S. sales of Pirelli's sensor-embedded Cyber Tyre technology, alongside advanced robotics the company plans to introduce at the Rome site. That path to market required clearing a specific regulatory hurdle: following governance changes introduced under Italy's 2026 Golden Power Decree, Pirelli secured clearance from the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security to market the connected-tire system domestically, according to Just Auto. U.S. trade authorities have tightened rules around Chinese-linked components in connected vehicle systems, and Pirelli's ownership structure was also changing.
That change came in July, when Sinochem reduced its equity stake in Pirelli from 34.1% to 20.1%, selling a 14% share to Lumina Crown, an investment vehicle controlled by Czech businessman Michal Strnad, Just Auto reports. The reduction left Sinochem with a 20.1% stake.
The same week the board approved the U.S. investment, Pirelli also approved an organizational restructuring that immediately eliminated its Corporate General Management function, according to European Rubber Journal. That change will lead to the departure of Corporate General Manager Francesco Tanzi by the end of the year; Tanzi is expected to assist with the executive transition before moving into a consultancy role, the trade publication reports.
Financial Guardrails
The 1,000 new positions planned for the Rome campus would represent roughly five times Pirelli's current regional headcount, based on CBS Atlanta's reporting of the company's existing 234-person Georgia workforce. Pirelli has said the €1 billion ($1.2 billion) investment will not affect its 2026 financial targets, maintaining a consistent capital expenditure-to-revenue ratio through the project's 2027-2033 rollout, according to PR Newswire's coverage of the board's announcement.
