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yesterday

Pentagon and Apple Forge Domestic Rare Earth Magnet Supply Chain

A 15% Pentagon equity stake guarantees a 10-year price floor for critical oxides, with Apple’s $500 million commitment funding U.S. magnet production and recycling capacity.

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A view of the MP Materials rare earth open-pit mine in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. January 30, 2020. Picture taken January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/ File Photo
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Overview

  • The Department of Defense acquired a 15% stake in MP Materials through preferred shares, locking in a $110 per kilogram price for neodymium-praseodymium oxide over the next decade and pledging to purchase all magnets the company produces.
  • Apple’s $500 million multiyear agreement secures rare earth magnets from MP Materials’ Fort Worth, Texas, facility, with commercial shipments expected to begin in 2027.
  • MP Materials and Apple will co-build a rare earth recycling line at the Mountain Pass, California, site to process post-consumer and industrial scrap into magnet feedstock.
  • MP Materials is arranging a $150 million loan from the Pentagon alongside $1 billion in financing from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to scale up heavy rare earth processing at Mountain Pass.
  • These partnerships aim to break China’s near-monopoly on rare earths and bolster U.S. supply-chain resilience for consumer electronics, clean-energy technologies and military systems.