KoBold used AI to find copper – now investors are piling up to $537M

KoBold Metals closed a $537 million Series C on Wednesday to help build a multi-billion-dollar mine to mine for copper found using AI.

The new investment, which was led by Durable Capital Partners and T. Rowe Price, will be used to expand the company’s exploration activities across five continents and establish more copper deposits in Zambia. The funding round brought KoBold’s value to $2.96 billion, according to in the Financial Times.

At the end of the competition, the company made $10 million more than it had originally expected. Results TechCrunch it has been said at the fundraiser in October.

Few industries are as ready to disrupt technology as mining. The business is extremely risky: only about three out of every 1,000 deposits are able to trade.

KoBold, which was founded in 2018, uses AI to integrate into large geological fields in an attempt to improve the quality. The idea of ​​a Zambian manufacturing company, which is estimated to be one of the biggest discoveries, shows that the strategy can bring huge benefits.

Salt demand has grown significantly in recent years as the US and China have clashed over supplies. China has already banned antimony, gallium, and germanium exports to the US, and today it wants to. blocking technologies for processing lithium and gallium.

Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Earthshot VC, Equinor, July Fund, Mitsubishi, Standard Investments, StepStone, and WCM Investment Management also participated. Past investors include Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Jack Ma.