US invests $250M in mining billionaire Robert Friedland’s startup for chip making

I-Pulse Inc. will receive $250 million in US funding for semiconductor and pulsed-power development as the venture co-founded by Robert Friedland joins American efforts to reduce reliance on foreign-chip supply chains.

The company, which has laboratories in New Mexico, was granted the award by the Department of Commerce’s CHIPS program to develop semiconductor components for a geothermal drilling technique that uses surges of high-power electricity, according to a company statement Thursday. 

It’s the latest example of Friedland, a billionaire mining magnate, partnering with the Trump administration in its efforts to boost American supply-chain security. One of his mining companies, Ivanhoe Electric Inc., is working with the US Export-Import Bank on a debt package for an Arizona copper project, and Friedland attended the unveiling of a critical minerals stockpiling venture at the Oval Office in February. 

“We have a lot of discussions underway with many agencies in the US government about strengthening our great nation,” Friedland said in an interview. “We’ve been talking them about reindustrializing the country.”

The CHIPS award aims to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and reduce US reliance on foreign-made chips. Semiconductors are the basis for integrated circuits or chips. As part of the program, the government holds a passive stake in Intel Corp., tying public funding more closely to the company’s effort to rebuild domestic chip manufacturing.

I-Pulse, which also has laboratories in France, uses high-voltage switches to apply electrical pulses to hot granites and geothermal formations, fracturing and softening the rock ahead of the drill-bit. The new silicon-carbide semiconductors could also go into systems used in underground mining, manufacturing and defense. 

Closely held I-Pulse exceeded a $1 billion valuation a decade ago and is “likely to be a public company in a few years,” Friedland said. Investors include large miners such as Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) and Newmont Corp (NYSE: NEM). 

The CHIPS funding will “enable us to further advance geothermal technology, which is of great interest to the US,” he said. “The limiting factor in artificial intelligence is clean energy, and you can’t do AI with solar or wind. The best answer is geothermal.”

(By James Attwood)