Texas-based rare-earth magnet company, Noveon Magnetics, has raised $215 million from investors to expand its U.S. operations in an effort to improve American access to these highly important magnets, WSJ reports. Although this investment is designed to increase America’s home-grown supply of magnets, which are critical to a number of manufacturing industries, scaling up production can take years, so this is unlikely to solve the U.S. constricted supply of magnets overnight.
Over the past year, as trade relationships between the United States and China have waxed and waned as trade negotiations were conducted, tariff salvos were fired at one another, and the U.S. found itself unable to access the critical materials many of its manufacturing industries, including semiconductors, relied upon. Rare-earth magnets are most commonly found in HDD production, with companies like Western Digital and Seagate relying upon Chinese-origin magnets for production.
While China placed export restrictions on rare earth minerals to America, the U.S. administration went looking for alternatives. Deals with Korean firms brought increased Zinc supply when new facilities come online, with the U.S. and Japan inking a deal in October to fund alternative sources of critical materials.
In total, venture capitalists invested around $630 million in U.S. rare mineral startup companies in 2025, a new record for annual investment in the space, as reshoring efforts become clear. This goes hand-in-hand with $670 million of private and public loans and equity investment in North Carolina-based Vulkan Elements, which plans to develop a magnet manufacturing facility in the state (in return for the U.S. government receiving a $50 million stake in the company).
A further $80 million was invested in Indiana-based ReElement Technologies and its magnet recycling industry. The Pentagon has also received a 15% stake in rare-earth mining company MP Materials, which is developing its own new magnet factory in Texas.
Concentrated control
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
The big driver behind all these investments is bringing the magnet and rare-earth mineral supply chain entirely under U.S. control, and ideally, on U.S. shores. The current administration has made a major deal of hegemony over industries that it considers critical for strategic defence, as well as independence from allies and adversarial countries alike.
In many cases of industrial support, the U.S. government itself received stock stakes and profit-sharing agreements in return, creating a tit-for-tat arrangement, but also tying the revenues and ultimate profits of these companies to individuals within Trump’s orbit.
This latest investment in Noveon isn’t entirely different. Of the $215 billion being invested, $200 billion comes from a singular investment firm: One Investment Management. This is the investment firm of Rajeev Misra, the former leader of SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund. This investment makes it the largest shareholder and grants it two seats on the board.
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