Big Tech
Apple to Buy Rare Earths From Pentagon-Backed US Producer MP
A dump truck unloads raw ore at the MP Materials Corp. Mountain Pass mine in Mountain Pass, California.
Photographer: Joe Buglewicz/BloombergApple Inc. has struck a $500 million deal to buy rare-earth minerals from MP Materials Corp., the US producer that just last week secured backing from the Pentagon.
The two companies will build a factory in Texas, with neodymium magnet manufacturing lines tailored for Apple products, the iPhone maker said Tuesday in a statement. Apple said the spending on rare-earth minerals is part of its earlier pledge to invest more than $500 billion in the US over the next four years.