Apple is shoring up its home provide of uncommon earth parts by a $500 million, multiyear contract with MP Supplies, an 8-year-old Las Vegas mining and processing firm that counts the U.S. Division of Protection as its largest shareholder and Normal Motors as a marquee automotive buyer.
Uncommon earths are a central part of magnets for electronics, in addition to electrical car batteries and wind turbine components.
The contract requires Apple to purchase uncommon earth magnets for its electronics units from particular manufacturing traces at MP’s Independence facility in Fort Price, Texas. The positioning will ultimately produce 1,000 metric tons of completed magnets, roughly sufficient to energy 500,000 EVs. The contract doesn’t disclose the anticipated manufacturing quantity associated to Apple’s sourcing wants, solely that it’s going to “considerably increase” MP’s general capability.
The 2 firms are additionally constructing a recycling line at MP’s mine in Mountain Go, California, the biggest U.S. uncommon earth dig; it produced 12 % of the world’s provide in 2023. The deal builds on a five-year relationship. Apple and MP have been piloting expertise that recovers uncommon earths from discarded electronics and different scrap earlier than turning it into supplies that may be use in iPhones, MacBooks and different merchandise.
Home provide chain
The MP contract is a part of Apple’s plan to spend $500 billion to develop its U.S. manufacturing capabilities. The deal helps Apple’s objective to supply precedence supplies — together with uncommon earths — totally from recycled or renewable merchandise.
Apple hasn’t set a deadline for attaining that aspiration, however licensed recycled content material accounted for twenty-four % of the supplies the corporate utilized in 2024.
Roughly 99 % of Apple’s magnets are already made with recycled parts. Now, it’s targeted on getting extra of that offer domestically.
“Uncommon earth supplies are important for making superior expertise,” mentioned Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner in an announcement, “and this partnership will assist strengthen the availability of those important supplies right here in the US.”
Packages designed to ramp up U.S. uncommon earth manufacturing have been a precedence for President Donald Trump since his first administration, and he lately issued new govt orders mandating elevated manufacturing within the curiosity of nationwide safety. The U.S. imported upwards of 70 % of its uncommon earths from China in 2023 and 2024.
MP focuses on uncommon earths together with neodymium-praseodymium oxide, cerium chloride, lanthaum carbonate. Along with mining, MP manufactures magnets. The corporate reported $61 million in income for the primary quarter, up 25 % 12 months over 12 months.
The corporate’s capabilities have caught the attention of the U.S. Division of Protection. The 2 introduced a 10-year contract on July 10 that can underpin the speedy building of one other MP magnet manufacturing web site to provide the company and different industrial prospects. The deal features a $400 million settlement by the DoD to buy as much as 15 % of MP’s shares, making the federal authorities MP’s largest shareholder. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs will present as much as $1 billion to finance the development.
GM has been working with MP since 2021, when the automaker signed a deal to supply magnets for its EVs from the Texas manufacturing unit.
