Trump’s Critical Mineral Push Sends Strong Signal to Startups

US startups and venture investors are eager to reap the benefits of the Trump administration’s planned $12 billion initiative to stockpile critical minerals, which provides another national security-driven lifeline to green tech.

The new initiative “signals a clear move” to support domestic supplies, and venture capitalists will likely follow suit by investing more in the sector, said Duncan Turner, a partner at SOSV whose firm has bankrolled several startups in the critical minerals sector. That will help cultivate and scale up next-generation approaches to mining, processing and refining minerals — areas in which the US is heavily reliant on China.