You Can Fix Rare Earths for One White House Ballroom

Given the ability of the words rare earths to bring the leadership of the world’s largest economy to its knees, it’s tempting to think that establishing a supply chain to produce the minerals outside of China is a challenge on the scale of putting a man on the moon.

In fact, that’s a vast overestimate. The amount of government spending needed to bulletproof most of the world’s supplies of the elements, essential for high-strength magnets used in military aircraft and munitions as well as electric cars and wind turbines, is tiny. It’s probably on the order of a single White House ballroom ($200 million), or six hours of spending on AI data centers by Silicon Valley’s hyperscalers ($350 million). By some measures, governments might even turn a profit on the transaction.