The mining startup backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos is valued at $2.96 billion

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A mining and artificial intelligence startup backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos has raised $537 million in its latest funding round, as it seeks to become a major player in the race for critical minerals needed for the energy transition.

Berkeley-based KoBold Metals said its Series C funding round valued the company at $2.96 billion, and was co-led by existing investor T Rowe Price, who was joined by Permanent Capital Partners.

Existing investors, including Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and US venture capital group Andreessen Horowitz, also participated in the round, along with new backers including private capital group StepStone.

KoboldWhich has raised $1 billion so far, is among Western mining companies seeking to compete with Chinese rivals to produce metals such as copper, lithium and nickel.

The minerals are used in everything from electric car batteries to the defense industry, and Western governments are increasingly seeking to diversify away from China-dominated supply chains.

As part of these efforts, the United States is helping to finance the project Revival of the Lobito railway line Which will transport important minerals across vast areas of Africa and link the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Zambia and Angola.

KoBold, which uses artificial intelligence to comb through historical and scientific data to identify untapped mineral deposits, said in February that it had discovered… Huge copper stock in Zambia. Cobbold said the $2 billion Mingumba site would produce at least 300,000 tonnes a year from the 2030s.

About 40 percent of the new capital will be spent developing existing projects into mines, with the Zambian copper project taking “the lion’s share of that,” said Kobold co-founder and CEO Kurt House.

The company — which uses OpenAI’s generative AI technology in addition to traditional AI — plans to “add at least three jurisdictions” including Finland and Botswana, House said, adding that he is excited about the prospects for lithium mining in Canada.

House said he was confident there was broad political support in the United States for improving access to critical minerals, despite incoming President Donald Trump indicating he wants to back away from subsidies for electric vehicles — a key market for minerals including lithium.

There is “very broad bipartisan support for diversification [the] “Vital mineral supplies” because this is a “national security priority,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations with people who will be associated with the incoming administration who are very excited about the Kobold mission.”

KoBold plans to “aggressively” hire and add data scientists with a more traditional technology background to its teams, as well as geologists to survey potential deposits and collect data, House said. He added that the company is likely to go public within three to five years.

“There is real demand from [mining] Specialties to partner with [KoBold] “They’re clearly doing the right thing,” said David George, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “I don’t think there’s a clear modern competitor in this space.”

KoBold has an exploration partnership with major mining company BHP in Western Australia and is also working with Rio Tinto.

Carmichael Roberts, managing partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, said KoBold’s AI-driven approach to mineral exploration would create “a safer, more affordable and clean energy future for everyone.”