KoBold, the US mining startup backed by billionaire investors including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has raised $537 million in its latest funding round, the company announced.
The funding round, co-led by investors Durable Capital Partners LP and T. Rowe Price, valued KoBold at $2.96 billion, the company said.
Existing backers including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which counts Bezos among its investors, also participated in the funding round, with new funding from StepStone also joining. Ta.
U.S. mining startups have raised a whopping $1 billion in funding aimed at undermining China’s dominance in the mineral supply chain.
KoBold uses artificial intelligence, including OpenAI’s generative AI, to sift through historical and scientific data to find mineral deposits.
The United States relies heavily on China for high-demand metals such as copper, lithium and nickel used in cell phones, data centers and electric vehicle batteries.
“KoBold’s mission is to expand and diversify the global supply of critical resources essential to prosperity, energy technology, AI, and security,” said Kurt Haus, CEO of KoBold. he said in a statement.
The multi-million dollar investment will be used to fund new exploration projects and accelerate research and development, the company said.
The company added that the funds will be used to advance “high-potential projects” such as the huge copper deposit in Zambia that KoBold discovered in February last year.
The $2 billion mine will produce at least 300,000 tonnes of copper annually, the company said.
“KoBold’s combination of superior science and AI will enable the discovery of metals critical to the global energy transition,” Henry Ellenbogen, managing partner and chief investment officer of Durable Capital Partners LP, said in a statement. It shows how it can be done.”
