Inside the tech movement to process American copper
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Maura Kearns/Axios
There's a growing push to use new technology to boost U.S. copper processing amid surging demand from the AI boom.
Why it matters: The U.S. has decent copper resources, but the majority of processing happens in large, toxic smelters overseas, much of it in China.
- Copper wires are the building block of electrical systems for data centers, the power grid and vehicles.
The big picture: The Trump administration has made production of domestic critical minerals a priority, and the U.S. Geological Survey added copper to its critical minerals list in November. But substantial funding has yet to follow.
- "I think we'll see some new [federal] activities with regards to that metal," says Brandon Tinianov, managing director, building technologies of advisory Clark Street Associates.
What they're saying: "The U.S. is copper rich and refining poor," says Gigascale Capital founding partner Victoria Beasley, whose firm has backed startups Red Metals and Skouria.
- "Copper is AI. If we don't have copper, we are at major risk for all aspects of that, from power to bits and flops," says Clark Street CEO Stephen Empedocles.
- Bringing copper processing to the U.S. is a more solvable challenge than reshoring supply chains for minerals like rare earths, experts say.
Zoom in: A crop of startups are building new processing technologies and facilities, with backing from major VCs and miners.
Red Metals, backed by Future Ventures and Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, is outfitting its 42,000-square-foot facility with processing, refining and casting equipment, Red Metals CEO Jackson Switzer says.
- It also secured a $3.5 million equipment financing facility with CSC Leasing to fund the project's first phase, says Switzer.
Still Bright has built pilot-scale reactors in Newark, New Jersey, that use a reusable reagent to electrochemically process copper, with capacity of two tons a year.
- Still Bright is weighing a $40 million Series A round in 1Q27, CEO Randy Allen says. It's backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, SOSV, and Fortescue.
The VC arm of BHP, which runs one of the world's largest copper mines in Northern Chile, has backed processing startups Jetti, Ceibo and PH7 Technologies.
Follow the money: It's hard to quantify VC dollars in copper startups, but mining tech funding rebounded after a 2024 as deeptech gains favor amid AI-driven pressure on software.
- Still, Gigascale's Beasley says: "I think it's an underinvested in category, and not just from a venture standpoint, but from a total U.S. infrastructure standpoint."
