No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
00:19:52 · Jacob Helberg
[00:19:52] S0: Absolutely. And so you're exactly right. The total you know, the really interesting thing about rare earths is obviously, as you point out, they're not that rare. I think, you know, some people have said that they're everywhere. It's not totally true either. I mean, they're not everywhere, they're in lots of different places. I think the sort of key thing is that really drives, you know, the economics of the of those industries is how much energy do you need to pump into the ground in order to extract a given mineral at a given, you know, quality grade. And then what's actually really rare is the refining process. Because the number of processing facilities for these minerals is very, very limited outside of China. They exist, but in very limited quantities. And and you're right. And China obviously subsidizes the hell out of them. And so and so it's it's very exciting to be able to, you know, share with you on the on that that the Trump administration's actually really had a very, very comprehensive approach. I mean, we've been really focused on the mineral security issue pretty much since day one of the administration. We did the largest critical minerals summit in the history of the State Department. In February, on February 4, with over 55 countries that participated, we signed critical mineral MOU deals with dozens of countries who have lots of different kinds of minerals. And now one of the things that we're doing and have been aggressively pursued across the administration is allocating capital and investments into a lot of these projects to make sure that they have access to the resources to expand production. So that's on the supply side. On the demand side, the administration is hard at work at negotiating deals with countries to address the pricing issue. Because as you guys know from the business that you invest in, you can invest a lot of money in a startup. But ultimately, a lot of the economics of whether a company can be viable is really based on the price that that company is able to provide a service for. And so the pricing mechanism is really, really central to unlocking long term commercial viability. And I'm incredibly confident that we actually will resolve the pricing issue for the minerals market before the end of this administration.
00:22:17 · Sarah Guo
[00:22:17] S2: You mentioned that you are, you know, directly investing in domains of importance where you're trying to, like, trigger better supply capability with us and allies. Like, how do you think of the role of asking for a friend, private capital, in these initiatives?
00:22:34 · Jacob Helberg
[00:22:34] S0: Yeah. So I think, I mean, you guys have such an important role to play, mainly because, you know, there much of, you know, whether a project materializes or not, as you guys know, it hinges on execution capacity. Can a company really execute on a very aggressive ambitious plan? And one of the amazing superpowers of the venture capital business is you guys are kind of hardwired to be able to assess a lot of the personality attributes of founders and operators to tell you some of the things that are harder to read from a deck or a spreadsheet on does this person really have, you know, what it takes to be able to execute, you know, and address execution risk, you know, underlying scientific risk, you know, all the different risks that inevitably exist in any company. And so and so the feedback and so we actually would really love for the venture capital ecosystem to help be part of the solution because I think, you know, you guys are better positioned to assess, you know, who are the best players in the space. And we can take that as an important signal to help inform capital allocations that we make on the government side to make sure that we allocate money in the right places and in the most efficient way possible, especially as good stewards of taxpayer money. The other thing is, I think beyond sort of assessing, you know, who the best players are, I think on the innovation side, I mean, there's a number of really great companies, especially out here in the Bay Area, who are working on new materials and, you know, rare earth free, you know, magnets and lots of other kinds of innovations. And I think that's where we have, you know, there's a lot of room and potential for potentially coming out with, you know, a rabbit out of a hat situation where we somehow end up solving this issue in a way that was completely unanticipated through innovation. And so, and that will ultimately be a solution that will really be born out of the tech industry, not the government. And so, you know, those are things that we obviously want to be attuned to and help be supportive in any way we can.
00:24:50 · Sarah Guo
[00:24:50] S2: When you think about you mentioned limited bandwidth, of course, and economic security in the AI supply chain being an enormous topic. Like, how do you think about prioritizing twenty seven, twenty eight versus five years out? Because this is something we think about as well where, you know, if you look at next gen lithography and robotics and, let's say, chip, new new semis designs, for example, there are some longer term plays that are more capital intensive. And so we balance our our views on that and nuclear and such with software that is gonna ship this year.
00:25:23 · Jacob Helberg
[00:25:23] S0: Yeah. One of the approaches that we so I think, I mean, one of the approaches that the administration's taken that, you know, hopefully will will really be the foundation for a lot of, you know, short term change as well as just provide long term support is helping shape the environment. You know, creating a macro environment that basically makes innovation, iteration of innovations, as well as deployment of innovations, a lot easier and less expensive. So the administration's approach to expanding our domestic energy supply is obviously part of that. Expanding nuclear. The administration is really undertaking a lot of efforts to basically cut red tape, accelerate the deployment of American nuclear energy. And from memory, it was actually one of the first executive orders that the president signed that where they said they wanted to quadruple our domestic nuclear supply, as well as, you know, a lot of actions to deregulate. The one big beautiful bill included a lot of tax incentives. And through the State Department, we were looking to help, you know, be play a constructive part in shaping that environment by creating these evergreen, you know, systems basically, like the forward deployed industrial base, that will be a long term platform, and hopefully a replicable one that we could pursue in other geographies. And the idea is that for the long term, our technology companies will have these platforms to operate in that will provide, that will really be a competitive strategic edge that they can use to build very very quickly and actually get to market faster.
00:27:09 · S1, Jacob Helberg, Sarah Guo
[00:27:09] S1: How do you think about in general this transitioning through administration? So you mentioned a number of executive orders. Typically, when an administration shifts, you end up with a lot of those executive orders undone in both directions. Right? Somebody comes in and they kind of cancel a bunch of the executive orders that were signed by the prior administration, and they write a bunch of other ones that may be at odds with them. And so often the key is legislation or other approaches. How do you view making this stick if you think it's so important for our country's future? [00:27:40] S0: Well, are some things that I think will be hard to undo. I mean, tax reform is very sticky. And so, know, one of the interesting attributes about my role of the State Department is we're actually not allowed to comment on electoral politics. So it's kind of this interesting, you know [00:28:05] S1: Yeah. So I guess ignoring that. [00:28:06] S0: Statutory limitation that we're subject to. [00:28:08] S2: When you we we have the audience of a lot of folks in the AI ecosystem, but also a lot of folks in the general business and investing ecosystem of companies of different scale. What do you think, like, American business people and entrepreneurs should know about these policies in terms of how they affect them?