KoBold Metals, a rare earth mining firm located in Berkeley, has completed a fundraising round that values the company as an artificial intelligence “unicorn” worth $1 billion and attracts some of the top investors in the world.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a venture capital fund founded by Bill Gates that invests in renewable energy firms on behalf of entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Jack Ma, contributed money to the $200 million round.
Other investors included the very prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Bond Capital, which was cofounded by Mary Meeker, a veteran VC noted for recognizing big-picture trends early and whose annual Internet Trends Report is one of the most eagerly awaited among tech investors.
With the rise in value, KoBold is now valued at more than $1 billion. In February 2022, the firm secured $192.5 million in its most recent investment round. Both Bond and Breakthrough Energy Ventures participated in that first round.
The 2018-founded company KoBold utilizes machine learning to find reserves of the metals lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper, which are essential for making batteries for electric cars.
The organization is presently investing $100 million yearly in more than 60 projects spread across three continents. Additionally, a sizable portion of its research and development budget is allocated to using A.I. to explore depths that are inaccessible to traditional methods and simulate the earth’s subsurface.
The company claims that although it may take longer to reach the metals, the drilling will be precise. For instance, it will take eight years for the recently purchased copper deposit in Zambia to provide results.
Lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper are in greater demand. According to KoBold, the difference between supply and demand will reach $12 trillion by the year 2050.