KoBold, a US mining startup backed by billionaire investors including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, raised $537 million in its latest funding round, the company said.
The funding round, co-led by investors Durable Capital Partners LP and T. Rowe Price, valued KoBold at $2.96 billion, according to the company.
Existing backers including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which counts Bezos as an investor, also participated in the funding round, as well as new money from StepStone.
The US mining startup has raised a whopping $1 billion to date as it seeks to undermine China’s dominance in the mineral supply chain.
KoBold uses artificial intelligence, including OpenAI’s generative AI, to sift through historical and scientific data to find mineral deposits.
The US relies heavily on China for the supply of in-demand metals like copper, lithium and nickel – used for mobile phones, data centers and batteries for electric vehicles.
“KoBold’s mission is to expand and diversify the global supply of critical resources essential for prosperity, energy technology, AI, and security,” KoBold CEO Kurt House said in a statement.
The multi-million-dollar investment will be used to fund new exploration projects and boost research and development, the company said.
The funding will be used to advance “high-potential projects,” like a huge copper deposit in Zambia that KoBold discovered last February, the company added.
The $2 billion mine will produce at least 300,000 tons of copper per year, the company has said.
“KoBold shows how the combination of scientific excellence and AI can enable the discovery of critical metals for the global energy transition,” Henry Ellenbogen, managing partner and chief investment officer at Durable Capital Partners LP, said in a statement.