U.S. races to develop alternatives to China's rare earth materials [View all]

Source: Washington Post

Today at 6:00 a.m. EDT


STILLWATER, Oklahoma — The parking lot outside the low-slung industrial building is mostly empty and the machinery inside is quiet. But sometime next year, if all goes well, this factory will help break China’s chokehold on a critical global market.

USA Rare Earth is part of a belated U.S. bid to re-establish a domestic supply chain for the high-performance magnets used in products such as drones, electric vehicles, smartphones, medical devices and military weapons. The company is racing to establish a production line, hire several dozen skilled specialists and fine-tune its scientific formulas as it prepares to make millions of powerful neodymium, or neo, magnets in early 2026.

The geopolitical stakes are sobering. China dominates the market for a category of minerals known as “rare earths,” which are needed to make the magnets, as well as for the magnets themselves. Beijing exercised that dominance in recent weeks when it starved American automakers of needed supplies, seeking leverage over trade talks with President Donald Trump.

Long after surrendering the market to China, American companies are clawing their way back to relevance. But USA Rare Earth’s embryonic state — it went public in March — and the obstacles that line the company’s path reflect an uncomfortable truth: It will be years before the United States can shake its dependence on its main strategic adversary. And the federal government must be heavily involved to make that change happen.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/22/us-rare-earth-neodymium-magnets-china/