From our latest Radical Talks episode with Vulcan Elements CEO and Co-founder John Maslin
Artificial intelligence is advancing at extraordinary speed. Models are scaling, data centers are multiplying, and ever-increasing chip demand dominates headlines. Yet beneath the familiar layers of compute and software sits a quieter dependency –one that rarely less airtime but underpins nearly every system that makes AI real in the physical world.
Rare earth magnets are that dependency.
They don’t train models or write code. Instead, they convert electricity into motion — powering motors, sensors, actuators, and generators across the infrastructure that enables AI at scale. In a recent Radical Talks conversation, John Maslin, CEO and Co-founder of Vulcan Elements, makes the case that if chips are the brain of modern technology, rare earth magnets are the spine.
And right now, that spine is dangerously concentrated.
The Physical Layer Beneath AI
Rare earth magnets are embedded across the built world. They sit inside laptops, phones, power tools, MRI machines, electric vehicles, and defense systems. For AI specifically, their role is both foundational and invisible.
Inside data centers, rare earth magnets power hard disk drives, cooling systems, pumps, and backup generators, the systems that keep compute operational. In semiconductor manufacturing, magnets are woven throughout the equipment used to fabricate chips. Lithography machines alone contain tens of thousands of magnet-dependent components.
Then there’s robotics. As AI moves beyond software and into embodied systems, the magnet requirement grows dramatically. Humanoid robots, exoskeletons, and autonomous systems rely on servo motors and actuators at every joint, all magnet-driven. A single humanoid robot can require multiple kilograms of rare earth magnets, far more than a traditional vehicle.
Maslin’s point is simple but critical: the AI stack doesn’t stop at chips. It extends down into the atomic and mechanical components that make motion, precision, and scale possible. “The dependency goes one step deeper,” he notes.
Why Rare Earth Magnets Became a National Security Issue
Rare earth elements are not rare because they don’t exist — they’re rare because they’re difficult to process, separate, and manufacture at scale. While mining is geographically distributed, refining and magnet manufacturing are not.
Today, China mines just over half of the world’s rare earth elements, but manufactures more than 90% of rare earth magnets. That imbalance has real consequences. It means that critical industries — AI, robotics, defense, aerospace, energy — depend on a single foreign manufacturing ecosystem for a core input.
As Maslin puts it, “Right now we have to ask permission on what we’re allowed to build.” Data centers, drones, satellites, advanced robotics all rely on components produced within a supply chain that can be disrupted by policy, trade restrictions, or geopolitics.
What was once an obscure industrial detail has rapidly become a front-line issue for economic resilience and national security.
Building the Missing Industrial Backbone
Vulcan Elements was founded to address exactly this gap: rebuilding a fully domestic rare earth magnet supply chain in the United States. But Maslin is clear that this isn’t a simple reshoring story. The goal isn’t to copy existing manufacturing, it’s to leapfrog it.
Vulcan approaches the problem from first principles, focusing on process control, materials science, and data-driven manufacturing. The company draws talent from automotive, aerospace, battery manufacturing, and advanced materials, disciplines where precision and scale matter.
This philosophy extends to automation. Rather than treating automation as a buzzword, Vulcan is designing bespoke systems step by step, with the long-term vision of fully software-enabled manufacturing. Maslin describes a future where material enters one end of the process, a grade is selected digitally, and the system produces consistent, high-quality magnets with minimal human intervention.
In that sense, Vulcan isn’t just supplying magnets — it’s building infrastructure for 21st-century manufacturing.
From Policy to Production
Momentum has accelerated quickly. In partnership with the U.S. government and ReElement Technologies, Vulcan announced a major investment to build a large-scale magnet manufacturing facility in North Carolina. The project aims to produce tens of thousands of tons of magnets annually while creating thousands of jobs and establishing a vertically integrated domestic supply chain.
For Maslin, the announcement wasn’t a finish line; it was day zero. “We haven’t done anything yet,” he told his team. The real work is execution: building capacity, achieving cost competitiveness, and delivering magnets that meet the demands of defense, AI, robotics, and advanced industry.
This emphasis on humility and mission runs throughout the conversation. Vulcan’s culture prioritizes technical excellence, intellectual curiosity, work ethic, and a shared belief that this work matters, not as a business alone, but as critical national infrastructure.
The Long View
Looking ahead, Maslin sees success as a future where rare earth magnets are no longer a headline risk. Where defense systems, AI infrastructure, robotics, and advanced manufacturing rely on domestic, cost-competitive, high-quality magnets as a default, not a strategic vulnerability.
In that future, the AI race isn’t constrained by hidden physical bottlenecks. The built world keeps pace with software ambition. And rare earth magnets fade into the background, not because they’re unimportant, but because the problem has been solved.
This conversation is a reminder that AI progress isn’t just about algorithms. It’s about materials, machines, and the industrial systems that translate intelligence into action.
This post is based on insights from Radical Talks, a podcast from Radical Ventures exploring innovation at the frontier of AI. For more conversations with leaders in AI, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.