 |
|
|
|||||
On Thursday, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) entered a major deal with MP Materials. The DOD agreed to buy $400 million of MP Materials newly created preferred shares stock. The move will make the U.S. military the company’s largest stakeholder. In the hours after the deal, the company’s stock surged more than 50%. MP Materials owns and operates the only operational rare earth mine in the U.S., located in Mountain Pass, California. It is the world’s second-largest rare earth mine (the largest is in China). The purchase is part of a major effort to reduce foreign dependence on rare earths, a group of 17 chemical elements found within the earth’s crust, which are necessary in creating magnets that are essential in military weapons systems. The company says the DOD’s investment will allow for a major expansion of its operations, announcing that it will use the funds to construct the 10X Facility, its second domestic magnet manufacturing facility, at a location that is yet to be chosen. The company estimated that, upon completion, its total U.S. rare earth magnet manufacturing capacity will reach 10,000 metric tons.This initiative marks a decisive action by the Trump administration to accelerate American supply chain independence, said James Litinsky, founder, chairman, and CEO of MP Materials in a press release. We are proud to enter into this transformational public-private partnership and are deeply grateful to President Trump, our partners at the Pentagon, and our employees, customers and stakeholders for their unwavering support and dedication. The preferred shares bought by the DOD can be converted into common stock, the press release explained. The deal also includes a warrant convertible at $30.03 a share for 10 years, allowing the U.S. to purchase additional common stock. Under the deal, the U.S. government is committed to a 10-year agreement in which it will buy MP Materials for a minimum price of $110 per kg for its neodymium and praseodymium output. Once the 10X Facility is complete, it has agreed that “all magnets produced at the 10X Facility will be purchased by defense and commercial customers with shared upside,” per the press release. MP Materials said it has obtained a commitment letter from JPMorgan Chase Funding Inc. and Goldman Sachs Bank USA, which will provide $1B in financing the 10X Facility. It also said it expects a $150 million loan from the DOD within 30 days. The DOD has been consistently working to ensure access to rare earth materials in recent years. Since 2020, it has spent more than $439 million on establishing supply chains for the materials in an effort to move away from relying on shipments from overseas. “DOD’s strategic investments are building capability at multiple stages of the rare earth supply chain and will provide a clear signal to private capital that the time is right to build additional resiliency,” Danielle Miller, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base resilience, said last year.Miller continued, “We are on track to meet our goal of a sustainable, mine-to-magnet supply chain capable of supporting all U.S. defense requirements by 2027.”The sale comes as concerns around China’s control over the industry have surged. Previously, Shenghe Resources, which is partly owned by the Chinese government, was MP Materials’ the sole customer. However, the company said earlier this year that due to China’s 125% tariffs (put into place after Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods) it would no longer send materials to China. “Selling our valuable critical materials under 125% tariffs is neither commercially rational nor aligned with America’s national interest,” MP Materials said in a statement at the time. The DOD’s new investment, which represents about a 15% stake in the company, is scheduled to close on July 11, 2025.
Category:
E-Commerce
Wimbledon is known for its strict all-white dress code for players, and now Stella Artois is following suit with a special-edition can. To play in the Wimbledon championships in Wimbledon, England, players have to wear all white, from their hats to their socks to the soles of their shoes. The only exception is trim that can be a maximum of one centimeter wide at the neckline or sleeves. It’s a dress code rooted in tradition, and even as tennis apparel has grown more colorful and expressive, Wimbledon organizers have stuck to their rules. Now Stella Artois, which has sponsored the Wimbledon championships since 2014, has taken that dress code as inspiration. [Image: Stella Artois] All white except for purple-and-green trim that says “Wimbledon 2025” for the occasion around the top, the can is embossed with a raised Stella Artois wordmark and embellishments that gives it an elevated look. This isn’t designed to look like a normal beer can. David Beckham appears in a promotional poster for the can that calls it “Another Excellent Wimbledon Outfit.” [Image: Stella Artois] Stella Artois has paid homage to the Wimbledon dress code in special-edition packaging before. In 2023, retail outlets in the U.K. sold white bottles with vertical green and purple stripes, but the bottles had plenty of colorful ornamentation that wouldn’t have made the cut if a player wore it on a polo shirt, like a full-color Stella Artois logo and golden text. The embossed details of the new can get around that problem with a logo that’s still all white. Tennis apparel is especially on trend now, and with its Wimbledon can, the Anheuser-Busch-owned Stella Artois is showing how a beer brand can get in on it with the strictest dress code in all of tennis.
Category:
E-Commerce
Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. An OpenAI browser could directly target Googles ad empire OpenAI is preparing to launch an AI-powered web browser in the coming weeks, according to a bombshell report published by Reuters on Wednesday. The move should be seen as a direct challenge to Googles financial heart: its $200 billion interactive advertising machine. More than 400 million people already use OpenAIs ChatGPT, and many of them routinely rely on it as their interface to the web. Currently, when users click a source link within a chatbot search result, the target website opens in a third-party browser like Chrome. With its own browser, ChatGPT would launch source citations and other links into a platform under its own control. An OpenAI browser would also encourage users to fetch web information using the companys AI models and web index. It could become the ideal platform for AI agents capable of more than search, handling tasks like booking reservations, filling out forms, and interacting directly with websites. Such a browser could eventually pose a serious challenge to Googles core business: selling ads around its search results. Chrome makes it very easy for users to search the web with Google Search, and many of those searches (especially for products and services) offer lucrative ad opportunities. Chrome also supplies Google with mountains of user browsing behavior data, which it leverages to target ads more effectively. Generative AI represents a radically different method of retrieving web content. While Google Search relies on web crawlers and a complex algorithm to return relevant content and links, generative AI models are trained on a compressed version of the internet, allowing them to provide customized packages of information that directly answer the users query. Whether 400 million ChatGPT users will abandon their current browsers for OpenAIs AI-first experience is the billion-dollar question. Googles stock barely moved on news of OpenAIs browser. Either investors dont yet fully grasp the magnitude of the threat, or theyve already factored it into Googles share price. For OpenAI, a browser war with Google would be a hard fight for OpenAI. Over 3 billion people around the world use Chrome. But the timing may be right for OpenAI to make a move. The Department of Justice is demanding that Google divest Chrome, following a federal judges ruling that the browser contributes to an unlawful search monopoly. OpenAI has even testified that it would be interested in buying Chrome if Google is forced to sell. OpenAI may be the only AI company with the momentum to challenge Google right now. Perplexity, which released its own Comet browser on Wednesday, also aims to take on Google Search with AIbut as a startup, it may lack the resources to mount a serious challenge. Perplexity vs. Google is a David-and-Goliath story. But OpenAI vs. Google may prove to be the biggest tech battle of the first half of the 21st centurya clash between an aging heavyweight and a young challenger with a powerful new punching style. AI is spoofing within the highest levels of power Somebody used an AI voice generation tool to clone the voice of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and then used Rubios voice and writing style to send fake messages to several foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and one member of Congress. The provocateur sent the messages via the encrypted voice and text messaging platform Signal, using an account named Marco.Rubio@state.gov, The Washington Post reported, citing a State Department cable it had obtained. The cable, dated July 3, stated the impostor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and sent text messages inviting others to communicate on the platform. Creating such cloned voice messages is relatively easy. All an impostor needs is a 15-second sample of the targets voice, which is readily available for public figures like Rubio. The sample is then uploaded to an AI voice generation tool such as ElevenLabs or Hume. (The service used in this case is unknown.) After that, the user declares they have permission to use the sampled voice and types in what they want communicated. These tools can even reproduce the emotional tone of the sampled voice (although theres no indication that was done here). The identity of the person who created the recordings remains unknown, and neither the recordings nor their content has been made public. According to the State Department cable, the person appeared to be trying to gain access to the information or accounts of powerful government officials. This kind of incident isnt exactly new. In May, someone breached White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiless phone and impersonated her in calls to senators and business executives. The FBI has since warned of an ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign using AI-generated voices to target senior government leaders. We should expect this to happen again and again in the future, because a considerable gap still exists between the capabilities of current AI voice generation tools and the common understanding of their level of sophistication. Ramp data: Did enterprises just hit peak subscription-AI spend? Ramp AI, which tracks enterprise procurement on its platform, says U.S. business spending on AI subscriptions dipped by half a percent last month. This follows steady growth in subscription spending throughout 2023 and 2024, and an even sharper rise during the first five months of 2025. The share of U.S. businesses with paid subscriptions to AI models, platforms, and tools fell from 42.5% in May to 42% in June, the Ramp data shows. The share of U.S. companies subscribing to such products from OpenAI shrank slightly from 34.7% to 34.2%, while 9.9% of companies accessed them from Anthropic, up from 9.3% in May. The spending decreases were driven by companies in the tech and finance sectors. Seventy percent of U.S. tech businesses bought access to AI models, platforms, and tools in June, down from 71% in May. Among finance companies, the percentage declined from 57% to 56%. Slightly more healthcare and manufacturing companies bought access to AI during June, but in lower numbers. Ramp economist Ara Kharazian said on X that the spending dip may be the beginnings of a signal that enterprises are suffering from AI pricing fatigue. He clarifies to Fast Company that his firm doesnt believe tht companies are using less AI, but they may be looking for ways to economize. He says the decrease was driven by companies canceling chat subscriptions or switching to free versions. (Google recently started integrating Gemini Pro for free in all workspace plans, for example.) And the profile of the typical AI subscriber is changing. We are getting out of the early adopter phase, Kharazian says. The metrics are being moved not by the early adopters but the mainstream adopters: companies who dont want or need the most advanced versions but still want to enable employees with a low-cost, still valuable AI tool. Thats the core user now. Ramps AI Index samples more than 30,000 American businesses and billions of dollars in corporate spend using data from Ramps corporate card and bill pay platform. Within its methodology statement, Ramp disclaims that its results may underestimate actual adoption rates due to the prevalence of businesses using free AI tools (which it cant track), or when employees use their personal AI accounts for work tasks. Meanwhile, investors keep pouring big chunks of cash into new AI labs and startups. During the second quarter, 45% of global fundingor $40 billionwent to AI sector companies, reports Crunchbase. Notably, Mira Muratis Thinking Machines Lab and Ilya Sutskevers Safe Superintelligenceboth a year old or lesseach raised $2 billion. Other large investments went to Anduril Industries ($2.5 billion), Grammarly ($1 billion), and Anysphere ($900 million). More AI coverage from Fast Company: Moonvalley releases its power tool for AI filmmaking Racist AI-generated videos are all over TikTok, thanks in part to Googles Veo 3 tool Why the new rulings on AI copyright might actually be good news for publishers These personality types are most likely to cheat using AI Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||