AI-powered mineral exploration company KoBold Metals raises $527M

cobold metals corp.A Berkeley, California-based startup that specializes in using artificial intelligence to discover new metal deposits critical to batteries and renewable energy said today it has raised $527 million in equity financing.

The Series C round was co-led by existing investor T Rowe Price, with participation from Durable Capital Partners. Other existing backers, including billionaire Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and venture capital group Andreessen Horowitz, also participated in the round, as well as new investors including StepStone.

The company uses generative artificial intelligence techniques as well as more traditional machine learning algorithms to assist in the exploration of historical geophysical sources to reveal mineral deposits that would otherwise be overlooked. Most easy-to-find deposits have already been discovered and mined, but future deposits will be more difficult to find and more expensive to mine. The possibility of project failure could mean hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in losses.

Rare earth metals and minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt, which are critical to electric vehicle batteries, renewable energy systems, semiconductors and other technologies, are particularly lucrative to find. They rely on analyzing large amounts of exploration data. The company said it invests more than $100 million annually in more than 70 projects on five continents to assist in the search.

Despite advances in technology, the industry’s demand for metals continues to grow, driven by green cars and artificial intelligence. this international energy agency It is estimated that by 2030, global copper mines will only be able to meet 80% of global metal demand. As for lithium and cobalt, existing mines and construction projects can only meet half of demand.

February, KoBold Say it found it Undeveloped copper deposits Zambia. The company said this has opened up a $2 billion underground mining site that is expected to produce at least 300,000 tonnes per year starting in the 2030s.

KoBold co-founder and CEO Kurt House told financial times About 40% of the new funding will be used to develop existing projects into mines. The Zambian project will account for “the majority of that”.

House said the company intends to expand the team by starting to hire data scientists and geoscientists to join the team to assist with investigations and data collection. He added that KoBold could be on the market within the next three to five years.

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