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Momentive Performance Materials Inc.
American silicone and specialty chemicals company (HQ Waterford NY; private after multiple bankruptcies; formerly GE Advanced Materials/GE Silicones); produces silicone rubber compounds, sealants, and specialty silicones for precision-molded components including medical diaphragms, food-grade gaskets, and industrial elastomers. Momentive's history is a cautionary tale: GE's silicones business (founded 1940s at GE Research Lab in Schenectady NY, where GE scientists invented silicone polymers) was sold to Apollo Global Management as Momentive in 2006, then filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and again in 2019. The US silicone industry's premier brand — born from GE's legendary Schenectady research lab — went through two bankruptcies under private equity ownership before being restructured. Momentive's Silastic® silicone rubber brand (inherited from its GE parentage) remains a reference specification in medical device and precision molding applications.
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Consumer Sealants & Construction
38%Specialty & Industrial Silicones
35%Electronics & Semiconductors
15%Automotive & Transportation
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Concentration2024
Momentive Performance Materials is the last remaining US-headquartered silicone polymer manufacturer with significant domestic production capacity — a consequence of GE's 2006 divestiture and the subsequent PE bankruptcies. The global silicone market is now structurally dominated by Dow (US but globally sourced), Shin-Etsu and Wacker (Japanese/German), and several Chinese producers. Momentive's Silastic medical-grade silicone rubber remains a reference specification written into FDA device submissions and medical procurement contracts globally — but that specification is now backed by a post-bankruptcy private company rather than the GE industrial giant that wrote it. Medical device manufacturers, irrigation equipment producers, and food processing equipment companies that specify "Silastic-equivalent" medical silicone are implicitly depending on a financially fragile post-PE restructuring, with no US government-backed domestic silicone alternative if Momentive faced another restructuring.
Momentive Performance Materials Inc. ↗Origin2023
Silicone polymers were invented at General Electric's Schenectady Research Laboratory in the 1940s by chemist Eugene Rochow, who in 1940 discovered the Muller-Rochow direct synthesis process for making organochlorosilanes from silicon and methyl chloride. GE commercialized silicone as an insulation material for aircraft engines and high-temperature electrical applications during World War II — the first industrial silicone products were dielectric compounds for military aviation. GE Silicones grew over six decades into America's second-largest silicone company. In 2006, GE sold the silicones business to Apollo Global Management for $3.8B, renaming it Momentive Performance Materials — separating the unit from GE's research-driven culture and loading it with private equity debt. Momentive filed for bankruptcy in 2014 (unable to service $4B in debt) and again in 2019, becoming a cautionary case study of PE extraction from a research-intensive specialty chemical business.
Momentive Performance Materials Inc. ↗