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Date

Thursday, August 7, 2025, at 5 p.m. ET

Call participants

• Chairman and Chief Executive Officer — Jim Litinsky
• Chief Financial Officer — Ryan Corbett
• Chief Operating Officer — Michael Rosenthal
• General Counsel — Martin Sheehan

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Takeaways

• DOD Agreement Structure-- Announced a $400 million convertible preferred equity investment from the Department of Defense, a $150 million low-interest loan, and a warrant for the Department of Defense, which together will make the DOD the company's largest shareholder post-conversion.
• Price Floor Mechanism-- Set a $110 per kilogram price floor for all NDPR-containing products, effective beginning in Q4 2025, providing downside protection and including an upside-sharing feature above the threshold.
• Magnet Manufacturing Expansion-- U.S. magnet manufacturing capacity will rise from 1,000 to 10,000 metric tons annually with the build-out of the Independence and new Tenet X facilities. The new Tenet X Facility's output is 100% contracted to the DOD under a cost-plus arrangement, which includes a $140 million minimum EBITDA guarantee.
• Apple Partnership-- Entered a long-term contract for over $500 million in magnet purchases beginning in 2027, including $200 million in milestone-based prepayments from Apple over the coming years to support recycling and production expansion.
• Revenue Growth-- Consolidated revenue increased 84%, driven by increased sales of magnet precursor products and record NDPR oxide output.
• Adjusted EBITDA Performance-- Adjusted EBITDA improved year-over-year, reflecting higher sales and lower per-unit NDPR oxide production costs year-over-year, partially aided by $8.3 million in lower inventory reserves.
• REO Production Results-- Achieved 13,145 metric tons of REO—the second-highest quarterly result, 45% higher than the prior year, despite a two-week planned shutdown.
• NDPR Oxide Production-- Up 6% sequentially to 597 metric tons, with monthly production records in May and June; NDPR oxide production output more than doubled year-over-year.
• NDPR Sales Volumes-- NDPR sales volumes increased 226% year-over-year, with volumes expected to track production roughly on a one-quarter lag due to channel fill timing.
• Market Pricing-- NDPR market price increased about 10% sequentially and roughly 19% year-over-year (market price for NDPR, Q2 2025 vs. Q2 2024).
• Cash Position-- The company reported nearly $2 billion in cash on the balance sheet as of Q2 2025, before receiving $200 million in Apple prepayments.
• Capital Expenditures-- Year-to-date CapEx was $47.3 million, including $12.2 million reimbursed by the DOD as part of the year-to-date investment; the full-year 2025 capital expenditure expectation remains $150 million-$175 million.
• Production Outlook-- Management guided to a 10%-20% sequential increase in NDPR oxide production for Q3 2025.
• Sales Channel Shift-- No longer selling concentrate to external parties due to the DOD agreement, effective for the foreseeable future as stated in the Q2 2025 earnings call. Excess production will be stockpiled until further NDPR oxide ramp, as stated under the new DOD agreement.
• Independence Facility Progress-- Magnet production for EV traction motors has achieved customer specifications, with commercial ramp targeted for later in the year.
• Recycling Platform Launch-- Apple will provide post-consumer and post-industrial magnet feedstock, accelerating commercial-scale recycling at Mountain Pass.

Summary

Management confirmed that none of the new Department of Defense contracts permit sales to the Chinese market and clarified that all future NDPR oxide sales will target strategic customers, particularly in the Japanese, South Korean, and Southeast Asian markets. MP Materials(NYSE:MP) will cover most capital needs for expansion projects and recycling using new prepayments from Apple and DOD investments, with further details on timing and budget forthcoming as stakeholder engagement progresses. The company holds all key equipment on-site for heavy rare earth separation, with major installation expected to begin by the fourth quarter in alignment with downstream production ramp targets.

• Corbett said, "The HCL facility that you see in the transaction agreements is the same thing as the chlor alkali facility," emphasizing its primary role in achieving cost savings and redundancy for Mountain Pass processing inputs.
• Litinsky stated, "10x is a 100% sold out," referring to the new magnet facility, with all output already committed through commercial and DOD agreements.
• Rosenthal highlighted, "we have a fully vertically integrated site … unique versus … standalone [facilities]," enabling flexible processing of various feedstocks, including potential expansions in heavy rare earth separation.
• Corbett explained Apple’s $200 million in prepayments will be disbursed on a milestone basis ahead of the 2027 production start, as stated in the agreement with Apple, but would not discuss specific contract details.
• Rosenthal guided that the recycling line is initially built to serve Apple and internal needs but said it is modular and could potentially process third-party and end-of-life materials over time.
• Management reiterated the intention to pursue capital-light international opportunities only after executing core U.S. projects, leveraging the current "fortress balance sheet."

Industry glossary

• NDPR: Neodymium-Praseodymium oxide, a critical rare earth compound used in high-strength magnets for electric vehicles and electronics.
• REO: Rare Earth Oxide, generic term for a suite of separated rare earth products processed from ore.
• Independence: MP Materials' dedicated, vertically integrated facility for downstream rare earth magnet production.
• Tenet X Facility / 10x: Planned large-scale U.S. magnet manufacturing facility designed to expand magnet capacity to 10,000 metric tons per year for MP Materials.
• Chlor Alkali Facility: On-site chemical plant used to produce hydrochloric acid (HCL) and caustic soda, vital reagents in rare earth separation and refining processes.
• Stage Two Facility: MP Materials' midstream NDPR oxide production circuit at Mountain Pass.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Jim Litinsky: Thank you, Martin, and good afternoon, everyone. When we gathered on the first quarter call in May, I said we had reached an inflection point. The rare earth supply chain long built on a single point of failure had cracked. I said that Humpty Dumpty was not getting put back together again, and that this moment would be transformational and remembered. Today, it is clear that what has emerged in its place is something fundamentally new and MP Materials Corp. is squarely at the center of it. The strategic partnerships we announced with the Department of Defense and Apple, building on our foundational relationship with General Motors, have fundamentally transformed MP Materials Corp.

These agreements validate the mission we have pursued since day one and mark a new chapter not only for our company but for the country. This is a moment of strength for all our stakeholders: our shareholders, our customers, our employees, and The United States Of America. And with the nonmarket externalities that were once outside of our control now largely addressed, our focus is firmly on execution. Let me briefly walk through the DOD and Apple agreements and then I will turn to some operational highlights from the second quarter. Beginning on slide four. I will not rehash every detail of the DoD agreement. You can find our July webcast on our website and YouTube.

And the agreements are filed with the SEC. But I want to emphasize that we view this partnership as a win-win-win. A win for MP Materials Corp. shareholders, a win for US commercial and national security interests, and a win for taxpayers. The DOD partnership rests on three pillars. First, DOD made a transformational investment in MP Materials Corp. consisting of $400 million in convertible preferred equity along with a $150 million low-interest loan to fund the build-out and expansion of our heavy rare earth separation circuit.

The DOD also received a warrant which when exercised and combined with the preferred equity post-conversion, would make them our largest shareholder positioned to benefit from the upside they helped enable through an incredibly well-structured partnership. Second, a $110 per kilogram price floor for all products containing NDPR. This mechanism counters nonmarket forces that have historically suppressed the development of a secure domestic supply chain. It ensures our shareholders earn a fair return on our past investments as well as the significant investments we will make to scale this mission and bring the supply chain home for good.

Included in this commitment is some upside sharing with DOD if, as we suspect to occur over time, prices go materially above one tenth. Third, we are accelerating the build-out of independence and constructing a new Tenet X Facility which together will expand our US magnet manufacturing capacity from 1,000 to 10,000 metric tons annually. Given the warp speed nature of the build-out and the mission we have been tasked with, the DOD has committed to purchase 100% of the output from the new facility on a cost-plus basis, including a $140 million minimum EBITDA guarantee.

We expect to syndicate a large portion of this output to commercial customers at improved economics, creating meaningful upside potential some of which we will share with DOD. On the heels of the DOD announcement, we signed a landmark agreement with Apple. While the timing may make these two agreements appear related, that was really a coincidence. This partnership is the result of five years of quiet technical collaboration with Apple and reflects our methodical approach to building win-win customer relationships. Apple is one of the world's most sophisticated supply chain managers and one of the largest and most experienced users of rare earth magnets, making it an ideal customer and a powerful validation of MP Materials Corp.'s capabilities.

Apple embodies everything we hoped for in a flagship commercial partner to follow GM. They will be the foundational customer for our commercial recycling business, anchored by the construction of a dedicated recycling circuit at Mountain Pass, and the expansion of Independence. This long-term contract will result in over $500 million in contracted magnet purchases beginning in 2027. We expect the economics to reflect attractive returns on our capital and significant commitments to this partnership. Apple will also provide $200 million in milestone-based prepayments over the coming years, supporting the build-out of both the recycling circuit and Independence. Importantly, Apple will leverage its global supply chain to provide post-consumer and post-industrial magnet feedstock.

This significantly accelerates MP Materials Corp.'s entry into recycling at scale with substantial potential upside. Recycled feedstock should reduce unit production costs, and over time, the ability to recover more material at Mountain Pass could expand our production profile beyond current targets. I want to recognize the extraordinary efforts of our team whose execution over the past several years has earned us the right to enter into these transformative partnerships. I also want to acknowledge General Motors whose early commitment to our mission helped catalyze this moment. Turning to operations. Our materials and magnetic segments continued to deliver strong execution.

In our material segment, we achieved 6% sequential growth in NDPR oxide production despite a planned biannual plant shutdown in April. This result was consistent with our expectations and more than double last year's output. Our upstream operations also delivered the second-highest quarterly REO production in the history of Mountain Pass with record recoveries driven by ongoing optimization work. In our magnetic segment, we expanded both NDPR metal production and sales volumes, which led to significant revenue growth and EBITDA generation. At Independence, we are now consistently producing magnets that meet our customers' demanding specifications for EV traction motors, a critical milestone. The next step is transferring this capability from trial production to scale production.

Commissioning at the factory is accelerating. Momentum is building as we progress toward commercial magnet production later this year. Michael will provide a detailed operational update in a few minutes, after Ryan covers our second-quarter results. Ryan?

Ryan Corbett: Thanks, Jim. Turning to slide five and our consolidated results, second-quarter revenue increased 84% compared to last year, driven by the ramp-up in sales of magnet precursor products as well as the record production of NDPR oxide at Mountain Pass. The sequential comparison was impacted by our strategic decision to end sales of concentrate to external customers in the quarter. With the new DoD agreement, I would point out that for the foreseeable future, we will no longer sell concentrate to third parties, but stockpile any excess production until we further ramp NDPR oxide output from our midstream assets.

Importantly, beginning in Q4, we will begin benefiting from the DoD price floor agreement, with first cash payments likely to be received in Q1. I would also add that we continue to work through all of the accounting mechanics of the various features of the DoD contract. For example, how the top-up payments for stockpiled products will be recognized. We will call out the major conclusions in our Q3 or Q4 call.

Moving to the middle of the slide, you'll see adjusted EBITDA also improved year over year driven by the higher sales of magnet precursor products, as well as continued improvements in per unit NDPR oxide production costs, including $8.3 million and lower reserves on work in process and finished good inventories at Mountain Pass, which at this point is mainly related to early production of lanthanum products. Sequentially, adjusted EBITDA declined primarily due to the lower sales of REO and concentrate.

And moving to the far right, adjusted diluted EPS improved compared to the second quarter of last year, mainly due to the improved adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by lower interest income and income tax benefit as well as higher depreciation, depletion, and amortization compared to last year. Moving to slide six and the material segment KPIs and starting on the left, with the upstream. You can see the world-class performance by the Mountain Pass team, as we produced 13,145 metric tons of REO in the quarter, 45% above last year. Recall last year, we had unplanned downtime that interrupted production for roughly three weeks.

This quarter's 13,000 plus metric tons was our second-best quarterly volume ever, which is even more impressive given the two-week planned maintenance shutdown we took at the beginning of the quarter. You can see the impact of our decision to halt sales of concentrate in the middle left of the slide with realized pricing on the product we did sell remaining in the mid 4 thousands, which included the impact of a 10% tariff applied during the quarter on our final Chinese sales. Moving to the midstream on the right side of the slide, we had a modest increase in sequential production of NDPR oxide, approximately 6% to 597 metric tons, in line with our discussion last quarter.

Material improvements in throughput offset in the reported metric by the planned downtime from our maintenance turnaround at the April. Importantly, we set a monthly record for production in May followed by another record in June. As we stated, we were generally at about the 50% mark of our targeted total throughput in May and June. Michael will provide more insights on our refining progress shortly, including his thoughts on targeted production for Q3. In the middle right, you can see NDPR sales volumes continued to be strong year over year, up 226%, generally following the ramp in production.

Timing of shipments is always a factor in our results, particularly as a significant amount of our production continues to go through Southeast Asia to be told into metal before being sold to our end customers. These volumes remain on our balance sheet and are not recognized as revenue until passed along to the final customer. We continue to expect sales volumes to follow production on roughly a one-quarter lag with some amount of lumpiness as seen this quarter as we continue to rapidly fill tolling channel with growing oxide production.

Moving to the far right of the slide, you can see that the market price for NDPR did experience solid lift both sequentially, up about 10%, and year over year, up roughly 19%. Slightly better than our expectations in early May. Flipping to Slide seven and our segment financials. On the left, you can see our material segment revenues increased nearly 20% year over year, due to the strong NDPR sales volume growth. Combined with the improved pricing environment. The sequential decline was solely due to the reduced sales volumes of concentrate, compared to Q1. Segment adjusted EBITDA also improved as mentioned earlier, due to the improving per unit costs of NDPR production.

As well as the lower inventory reserves as well as last year's higher maintenance costs from the thickener repairs. Sequential results similar to revenues were driven by the decline in concentrate sales. Moving to the right in our Magnetic segment, the team at Independence ramped production nicely, thanks to completing the commissioning of our second electrolysis cell, though not without the usual growing pains. And while we continue to work at improving all aspects of the metallization process, our team has done a terrific job. Bringing these assets online and working through the inevitable startup challenges. The growth in production led to strong sequential increases in revenue as well as adjusted EBITDA.

In closing, the last month has been truly transformational for the company. Reinforcing our role as a national champion with scale, durability, economic firepower to lead this reindustrialization effort The United States. Following the Department of Defense, and Apple agreements, we have a clear pathway to continued shareholder value creation as we transform the business into the vertically integrated magnetic solution provider we have been building towards since day one. With the investment in convertible preferred stock, and the recent funding of the heavy rare earth loan by the DOD, as well as our recent equity offering, today, we have nearly $2 billion of cash on the balance sheet to execute on our plan.

This is before $200 million of prepayments we expect from Apple as we hit certain milestones on our path to expanding independence building out our leading recycling platform at Mountain Pass. Regarding CapEx, our year-to-date investment has been $47.3 million which includes the impact of $12.2 million of reimbursement from the Department of Defense from our earlier heavy rare earth related grant. We continue to expect to spend between $150 million and $175 million in 2025 unchanged from the beginning of the year assuming we are executing on the same project pipeline announced at that time.

Which included the completion of independence to its initial 1,000-ton capacity, continued progress on heavy rower separation, and other investments including chlor alkali at Mountain Pass. Following the agreements with DOD and Apple, we are in detailed planning on the timelines for our further capital investments, including the expansion of our heavy separation circuits to accommodate samarium separation the expansion of independence, the construction of dedicated recycling capabilities at Mountain Pass, and the development and construction of the 10x facility.

As you can appreciate, we have spent significant time and resources planning for these projects, but as we have only just recently agreed to the specifics, with our two new stakeholders, we will provide relevant updates on timing and budgets as we progress in our engagement with them. But to provide some high-level guidance, I would note that we expect the prepayments from Apple to cover the vast majority of the capital investments required to expand independence and build out our scaled recycling capabilities. Further, expect the heavy worth loan DOD's preferred investment and our recent capital raise combined with our remaining financing commitment to fund the projects we will undertake as part of our partnership with DOD.

We believe we are extremely well positioned with a fortress balance sheet and will remain opportunistic as ever in balancing risk and reward to deliver durable shareholder value over the long term. With that, let me turn it over to Michael to go through our operations. Michael?

Michael Rosenthal: Thanks, Ryan. Moving to operations. We are seeing excellent progress across our upstream, midstream, and downstream operation. This quarter demonstrates our improving execution capability and the momentum building across the business. We had an outstanding quarter in our upstream operation, which benefited from extremely high uptime record high recovery, and optimization work that is now bearing fruit. As previously mentioned, we have been increasingly focused on improving concentrate quality rather than simply maximizing volume. And our teams responded by delivering our highest ever concentrate grade this quarter. We believe this is contributing to improved performance in the midstream circuits.

While I would caution against annualizing this quarter's concentrate numbers, the results clearly demonstrate our ability to optimize our process and the tremendous long-term potential of the Mountain Pass resource. Progress in the midstream circuits continue at a pace. We reported a 6% sequential increase in NDPR oxide production in line with expectations. But that figure alone does not fully capture the underlying progress. There are meaningful operational improvements occurring across many midstream circuits. Particularly in purification, separation, and our brine treatment areas. These improvements help to unlock greater throughput and reliability even as we work through some lingering first-quarter challenges in leach and purification. The positive trajectory is clear. And we are encouraged by the foundational progress being made.

Product finishing also improved during the quarter. Although short stints of unplanned downtime impacted operating costs, and, to a lesser extent, production volumes. In late July, we implemented several upgrades that have immediately improved operability. These upgrades should also meaningfully enhance throughput capability and reduce operating and maintenance burden. Starting later this quarter. Looking ahead, executing our midstream production ramp remains our top priority. We are steadily increasing throughput while maintaining consistently strong quality. Most areas are now demonstrating higher uptime and higher throughputs. Our separation circuits are performing quite well, and are outpacing the rest of the process.

This gives us confidence in our ability to steadily increase production while focusing on the most impactful opportunity areas to achieve our near-term target of a 6,000-ton per annum NDPR oxide run rate. At Independence, our teams continued to gain valuable experience in metal reduction furnace operations. We can now say with growing conviction that we understand the conditions required to consistently produce world-class quality NDPR metal. Commissioning activities beyond metallization expanded rapidly in the second quarter to include strip casting, powder production, pressing, and sintering. With site acceptance testing for parts of machining also underway. The team has done an outstanding job staying on schedule to commence commercial production by year-end.

While we know that there will be tremendous challenges in starting commercial production, our production plans and customer commitments are grounded in realistic assumptions and the factor in team are coming together impressively. As part of our Department of Defense and Apple agreements, we have committed to completing several projects across the Mountain Pass operations. Jim has addressed most of the key details. But I will add a brief update on heavy rare earth separation. Preconstruction work within legacy buildings has accelerated. All key separation equipment is on-site, and procurement of other major equipment is nearly complete. We expect to begin major equipment installation by the fourth quarter.

We remain confident that our terbium and desprosium production schedule aligns with the needs of independents as it ramps up commercial magnet production. And our vertically integrated platform provides unique flexibility regarding the type of and purity of feedstocks that we can accept. And this would give us the opportunity to secure additional feedstocks. I will continue to provide updates on this and other projects in the coming quarters. In terms of production outlook, we expect to achieve a 10 to 20% sequential increase in NDPR oxide production and stronger product sell-through in the third quarter despite taking some extra time to implement the upgrades to product finishing I mentioned earlier.

Relative to last year's very strong third-quarter results, concentrate production will likely be down slightly year over year as we execute a full plan trial of a potential pre-flotation process. This trial may modestly impact near-term recovery but is designed to drive long-term improvement in midstream performance. With that, I will turn the call back to Jim.

Jim Litinsky: Thanks, Michael. As I close today's prepared remarks, I want to take a moment to reflect on the MP Materials Corp. journey. Many of you know the history but we introduced MP Materials Corp. to the public markets in July 2020. Almost exactly five years ago. At the time, MP Materials Corp. was a rare earth concentrate business with a bold and important vision. To restore the full rare earth supply chain to The United States Of America. We laid out a roadmap, first to build refining capacity, and eventually one day, to enter the magnetics business. We were clear-eyed about the scale of the challenge. In fact, we told investors back then that magnets were a 2025 plus opportunity.

A long-term ambition that would take time, capital, and conviction. Well, it is now 2025. And here we are. Through years of relentless execution, this team has transformed a bankrupted and abandoned mine site into a vertically integrated American national champion with a strategic and economic platform that matters. Not only for national security but for the most promising business of our time. The rise of physical AI. There have been ups and downs along the way. And, yes, plenty of skeptics, critics, and naysayers. But if you ignored the noise and stayed with us from the beginning, you have compounded at over 43% annually.

It was not a straight line, and the path has been quite unconventional, to say the least. But here we are. Now as we look ahead to the next five years, I see a familiar setup. A bold vision, a clear strategy, and obsessive focus on execution and a platform with the potential to evolve far beyond what most can imagine today. Back in 2020, few could have foreseen just how far MP Materials Corp. would come. Today, I believe we are once again at the beginning of something extraordinary. We have the platform, the partners, and the perspective. To seize another enormous runway of opportunity.

And it does not hurt that we have a front-row seat and an important role in what may well become the most significant business transformation of our generation the era of physical AI. None of this would be possible without the extraordinary people of MP Materials Corp., our team on the ground, in the plants, and across the company. Their dedication talent, and belief in our mission are what turned vision into reality. To all of you, thank you. We are just getting started. With that, let's open it up for questions. Operator?

Operator: Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please click on the raise hand button, which can be found at the black bar at the bottom of your screen. When it is your turn, you'll receive a message on the screen from the host allowing you to talk and then you'll hear your name called. Please accept, unmute your audio, and ask your question. We will wait one moment to allow the queue to form. Our first question comes from George Gianarikas from Canaccord and ingenuity. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

George Gianarikas: Hey, everyone. Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions.

Jim Litinsky: Hey. Good afternoon, George.

Ryan Corbett: So I just had a question about Magnetic's margins, which were pretty impressive this quarter. Can you just help us understand if the broad strokes of what you just reported in that segment could be used to sort of think about the, you know, the magnetics margins when you build you know, 10,000 tons, you know, in the future?

Jim Litinsky: Thank you.

Ryan Corbett: Yeah. Hey, George. It's Ryan. Obviously, with the state of maturity of the magnetics business at this point, we're obviously, you know, very pleased and impressed with the result. I think at this time, given we're in the stage of producing magnetic precursor products and delivering those to our foundational customer, it's not necessarily a perfect proxy for how the revenue and cost structure will look once we are in full production of finished magnets. However, I think that this level of earnings is something that, you know, likely can be expected for the next several quarters we're in production with magnets.

And then once that is ramped, certainly, expect a nice step change up as we begin delivering magnets from a total EBITDA perspective. You know, we won't get into specific details on margin and cost structure, particularly given the chunky nature of our existing customer relationships. And certainly, when you think about 10x, there's a wide variety of product types and customer contract types that we expect within that facility. I think the great thing, of course, about our contract with the Department of Defense is we do have the guaranteed minimum earnings level.

And then certainly, if you extrapolate what you see at independence, to the 10x facility, from an overall pricing perspective I think that paints some pretty significant upside to the potential earnings power of 10x versus that minimum level.

George Gianarikas: Thank you. And just as a follow-up, different question, but first, you know, congratulations on all the incredible deals you've been able to put together over the last month. But along with that comes a lot of work to do, you know, over the next few years. You know, how comfortable do you feel with building out the ecosystem required, getting the equipment in place, hiring the right people, you know, all the grind work that you have to do to build out the additional facilities in time to, you kind of hit the contract timelines that you articulated to us.

Jim Litinsky: Thank you. Well, thanks, George. We are hiring, so send us your resumes.

Martin Sheehan: I mean, obviously, we have a lot of execution to do,

Jim Litinsky: I think we've been an execution culture since day one. So we certainly understand the scale of the challenge that's ahead of us, and we're confident that we'll get it done. These things are never, you know, perfectly in a straight line. But we are already maniacally at work at the various pieces that we have to put together and we've been planning for this for quite some time. But Michael, do you want to add a little bit from your perspective?

Michael Rosenthal: Yeah. Thanks, Jim. On top of that, we have a core team with experience having built similar assets over the last several years. And, of course, now we're growing the team, as Jim referenced. We think we can scale that ability over the next several months and year. To help us execute better. You know, in addition, we've built vendor relationships. We have engineering drawings. We have plans. We have a lot more data than we did several years ago. So our ability to execute these projects, now versus where we were two years ago was significantly improved.

On top of that, we have a DPASS DX rating to help us engage with vendors and service providers to help accelerate progress there. So we're very confident we can meet, you know, both the DOD's aggressive schedule as well as the complementary and projects at Mountain Pass and for Apple.

Martin Sheehan: Thanks.

Operator: Our next question comes from Ben Kallo with Baird. Please go ahead.

Ben Kallo: Hi. Good evening. Thanks for taking my question. First, could you talk to us about the separation facilities you know, capacity or your thoughts around increasing capacity? From what I understand, there's no ceiling on how much concentrate you process. So could you be a processor for third parties and just maybe any kind of color around that?

Michael Rosenthal: Thanks, Ben. Guess I wish it were the case that there's no ceiling, but I think there is some ceiling. But I think, importantly, we have a lot of flexibility because we have a fully vertically integrated site. We have flexibility as to what kinds of feedstocks we can process. And what kinds of impurities we can handle, which I think is unique versus most sort of separation facilities that may be standalone that don't have that ability. So, yeah, that will be very helpful as we look at more heavy rich feedstocks to add as complement to our concentrate business.

So we expect our existing concentrate business to ramp up to the 6,000 tons per annum of NDPR oxide that we've talked about. And then hope to build particularly in regards to heavies, the additional separation, you know, for those heavy rare earths.

Ben Kallo: Isn't my follow-up is just on, you know, signing new magnets for 10, magnet agreements for two ten x. How do you guys think about, you know, just the cadence of both you and your customers you know, wanting to enter a deal, but do you want your customers want it to be more de-risked and the facility be closer to completion? Or are they clamoring to sign a deal now and how do you guys approach that? Thank you guys very

Jim Litinsky: Ben, am I already getting the what have you done for me lately question?

Ben Kallo: I was gonna go much bigger than that, like but I thought I'd hold off until next quarter. Yeah. Cool.

Jim Litinsky: I mean, obviously, we're still having a ton of conversations. And you know, so that continues. But I just remind you that 10x is a 100% sold out. And so we have you know, well, really, our entire magnetics business for the next decade is a 100% sold out. Obviously, we're going to syndicate commercially the vast majority of 10x, but I think we have the ability to be very thoughtful about how we do that. And I think hopefully, we have good track record at this point in you know, being patient and methodical and selecting the right sequencing of customers.

And making sure that we do so in a way that is frankly, attractive for our business, but also create win-win partnerships for us and the customer. And I think, you know, our expectation is we'll continue to do that as we build out 10x.

Ben Kallo: Great. Thank you guys very much.

Martin Sheehan: Sure.

Operator: Our next question comes from Lawson Winder with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Lawson Winder: Great. Thank you, operator, and Jim and Ryan, thank you for today's update, and congratulations on everything you've achieved over the last quarter. Thank you. Don't forget, Michael.

Michael Rosenthal: But thank you. Sorry, Michael.

Lawson Winder: Not definitely not forgotten. Your work is very much appreciated also. Thank you. Wanted to ask about the assumptions around the $650 million minimum guidance for materials plus 10x magnets plus independence magnets. What does that include in terms of assumption around oxide sales to third parties? And is there an assumption baked in there that some oxides will be sold to China?

Ryan Corbett: Hey, Lawson. It's Ryan. Sure. I'll take that. We are under the DoD agreements no longer selling any of our products into the Chinese market. So it does not assume any oxide sales into the Chinese market. I would say though, if you do the math, depending on the type of magnet that you're talking about, certainly, bringing our total capacity to a finished magnet equivalent of 10,000 tons that does leave room for external sales. And so I think the good thing about these agreements is the way the price protection works is that's really a payment stream, you know, directly into the material side of the business.

That makes us in many ways indifferent between selling to a third party or selling internally. Where the magnet business will maintain, you know, the market-based approach to pricing based on, you know, market levels of oxide pricing. And so the overall assumption there is that we get to our targeted throughput and cost structure for the material segment from a separated product perspective, but just at that 6,000 tons, it does not embed upside from recycling or upside from further products. Including NDPR products that could come from heavy rich feedstocks. And so that's the big portion of the material side of that assumption.

And then on the magnetic side, that six fifty just assumes the minimum contracted EBITDA from the Department of Defense for the 10x facility, which as I laid out, I think has some very significant upside, some of which, of course, we share with our partner in DoD as that facility scales into producing for commercial customers as well. And it assumes relatively conservative assumptions as to our build-out and ramp of independence. And so in the slide deck that we provided in the prior conference call, you can sort of see the relative sizes of all of those pieces. That's the underlying overall set of assumptions.

Lawson Winder: That's great. Thank you, Ryan. As a follow-up, can I ask about another investment related to the with the Department of Defense? And that is the hydrochloric acid facility at Mountain Pass. Is that in addition to the chlor alkali facility? And then should we expect that investment to further reduce your cost of that very critical input of hydrochloric acid to your separation process? And then just drawing that to the final conclusion, I mean, could we see an improvement in the in the low $40 per kilogram marginal cost assumption that you guys have made for a fully ramped up separation facility?

Ryan Corbett: Sure. Lawson, you're stuck with me again on that one. You know, wouldn't say that it necessarily spells, you know, a change in our overall cost structure target. I think, you know, actually had a slide in last quarter's earnings deck had a very strategically shaded area that spoke to potential upside from lower overall production costs from the chlor alkali facility. The HCL facility that you see in the transaction agreements is the same thing as the chlor alkali facility to be clear. And from our perspective, we think that this investment is not just one in cost savings, but redundancy and resiliency.

You know, we believe that we will always have some level of external hydrochloric acid and caustic soda. Production for our business. We are a very large consumer of both of those products. And so having the flexibility both to pull from the outside market as well as produce internally in a full closed loop, we think, is important. We strategically launched our separations facilities by breaking that closed loop and building out the infrastructure and supply chain that's required to support our levels of production.

And then we believe bringing portions of that HCL facility or chlor alkali facility online methodically and continuing to support our external supply chain will be the best way forward both from a cost and redundancy perspective.

Lawson Winder: Okay, fantastic. Thanks very much, Ryan.

Operator: Our next question comes from David Deckelbaum from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Jim Litinsky: Hey, David.

David Deckelbaum: Thanks for your time. I wanted to just follow-up on just the some of the records set 60 k or are they part of it? I guess I'm just thinking about, you know, as we progress to up upstream 60 k, it seems like some of the tweaks are perhaps happening sooner than anticipated, but you know, kind of curious if this is viewed as a as a recovery tweak on top of that just with having a higher grade.

Michael Rosenthal: Thanks for the question. I'd say these are part of upstream 60 k. I think upstream 60 k included category of optimization. And I'd say our metallurgy team and operations teams have done an incredible job of implementing and executing changes. And I think we continue to be impressed that our ore body is able to support higher grade concentrate. As we focus on that, in order to help the midstream business. So I wouldn't say it's incremental, but we are hopeful that we can achieve the same goals with less capital and more optimization.

David Deckelbaum: Appreciate that, and that just as a follow-up, just on NDPR oxide, I know you all guided obviously, you'll be stockpiling concentrate at this point. The DoD agreement goes into place in the fourth quarter. From an NDPR oxide production perspective, should we anticipate that you'll continue ramping production throughout the year but stockpiling the product? For sales you know, once the DoD agreement is in place. I guess I'm I'm just wondering the as we assess the ramp of the stage two facility, know, was that going to be more evidential into '26, or should we be able to track those KPIs throughout the year?

Ryan Corbett: Yeah, David. I'll start, and I'll flip some of the production specific portions to Michael. But as it relates to sales, continue to have a really robust order backlog and sales pipeline for third-party customers for NDPR Oxide. And so we're continuing as we ramp production to expect to sell the vast majority of NDPR oxide out into third parties. Of course, as our metal production magnet production at Independence ramps, you know, we will become a larger internal customer of our own oxide. But, we do expect, you know, to continue to for the most part, focus on our strategic customers, particularly in the Japanese market, the South Korean market and broader Southeast Asia.

Mike, I'll flip it to you on your thoughts on production.

Michael Rosenthal: As you referenced, we plan for 10 to 20% increase over the next quarter, and that's largely consistent with the sort of progressive growth that we've seen over the last and a half. And we would expect that sort of pace to continue, not in a linear basis, but just generally speaking, step by step improvement getting better every day.

David Deckelbaum: Thanks, guys.

Lawson Winder: Thanks, David.

Operator: Our next question comes from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Laurence Alexander: So hello. Just wanna tease out your how you relate the concept of being in kind of the branding as a national US national champion and the bandwidth and the highly high degree visibility on returns. I mean, for the next decade. So can you tease out first are you allowed to sell into European or other countries? Can you expand the number of countries you sell product into, or does the DOD agreements in any way restrict that? Secondly, can you tease out or lay out sort of ramifications for the MOU that sought in for the potential project in Saudi Arabia. Do you have bandwidth to continue exploring that? And then third, I appreciate that there will be announcements just filling in the capacity that the DOD is underwriting.

But if you but given you have such a strong visibility on the returns on that, what would be your return on capital hurdle to look at any other uses of capital or uses of MP you know, bandwidth. Sure. Thanks, Lawrence. Well, first off, there's nothing that restricts us

Jim Litinsky: from selling into Europe. You know, obviously, as part of DOD, we just won't be selling to hostile states. And then as far as you mentioned Saudi modern I think if you look at the vertically integrated player that we've built, I mean, we are the only company in the world, and that includes China, that has all aspects of this business, which I believe is and, you know, as we've said from the beginning, is sort of the right structure to really scale and be low cost, accelerate, you know, at a, you know, astonishing pace, so to speak, in doing all of these pieces.

And, obviously, that, relate that relationship speaks to us as being the right partner around the world to add to this supply chain, particularly as America's national champion. I would tell you that as far as bandwidth and capital, certainly from a capital standpoint, and, frankly, from a focus standpoint, we are maniacally focused on investing and executing in The United States Of America. We need to deliver for GM Apple, and DOD. And so our focus, is on delivering on our domestic investments. That said, I do think we're gonna continue to grow the business. And so the modern opportunity is very exciting. We're we're you know, focused on that as well.

But I think you'll you should expect to see that and others that could come like that as more capital light opportunities. I think you're gonna see our investment focused in The US. And then I think you're gonna, you know, see that and others over time. And, obviously, from a return you mentioned returns. From a return on capital standpoint, standpoint, for MP.

I think it's actually an accelerant for our shareholders in the sense that because we have this capability and position, which brings a number of attributes, that we're gonna be able to continue to grow the business again, in a more capital light way but, you know, potentially having some of the same economics, which mathematically means higher returns on capital.

Laurence Alexander: Thank you.

Jim Litinsky: Thanks. Next question.

Operator: Our next question comes from Carlos De Alba with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Carlos De Alba: Yeah. Thank you very much, guys. A couple of questions. First one is, can you maybe share a little bit of color on what are the milestones that you need to get for Apple to, these boards $200 million in the coming years that you may as you mentioned. And, also, any progress on the $1 billion financing you know, that would support the development of the 10x facility.

Ryan Corbett: Hey, Carlos. It's Ryan. I'm not gonna get into specific, you know, contract details on our agreement with Apple. You know, I think that what we have made clear is that those disbursements will come on a milestone basis, ahead of production. And so we've targeted production for mid-2027. So, you know, hopefully, that gives you a pretty tight range of when the cash is gonna come in.

I think we tend to try to set up our customer relationships as Jim laid out in a win-win fashion where you know, we ensure that we are maximizing our cash on cash returns while ensuring that our customers see visibility into forward progress on, you know, the items that we've promised them. And we think the structure works quite well for both of us. As it relates to your question on the billion-dollar bridge facility, you know, I think I wouldn't overly focus on that facility, particularly because our recent equity raise gets netted against that. You know, a bridge is exactly what it sounds like.

It's a temporary solution that's put in place as part of an announcement, often an M and A announcement. And so for us, really served its purpose. You know, what we expect to do over the next several years is exactly what we've done, frankly, over the last five plus years as a public company, which is be extremely thoughtful about our balance sheet, ensure that, at this point, frankly, we are well capitalized to execute on the projects that we've laid out. We'll continue to focus on efficiency, both on the expenditure side and the balance sheet side, and we'll be opportunistic as we always are to ensure that we're financing all of this growth in the right way.

Jim Litinsky: Yeah. And one thing to just add, Carlos, In the prepared remarks, you may have heard, but if not, you know, Brian mentioned we have post the funding and the raise, etcetera, a we have approximately $2 billion of cash on our balance sheet right now. So that and then as you look out over the coming years where we have a dramatic step function change upwards, in cash flow generation that's contracted over the next decade. You know, we really have a fortress balance sheet to be completely opportunistic in how we manage going forward. So we feel really good about our position.

Carlos De Alba: Yeah. No. For sure. Alright. Thanks. And maybe stepping back and thinking more strategically, I would like to understand how scalable will the recycling line or recycling facility that you are building, you will be. Could this potentially allow you to become much bigger in magnetics without the need of mining you know, feedstock.

Michael Rosenthal: That's a great question, Carlos. Initially, our build is obviously to satisfy our requirements for Apple. In addition, our own magnetics plans will produce swarf and other byproducts that will have the opportunity to recycle. And from that, recover and optimize maximize the heavy rare earth content and ensure we maximize that usage. You know, on top of that, obviously, the 10x facility will produce its byproducts. You know, from there, we have the opportunity to make to build a facility that's modular that can grow with the market, that can recover end of life materials and or third-party feedstocks. And this both extends the life of mountain pass and creates opportunity for future growth.

But, you know, related to previous comments earlier, there's not unlimited capacity or capability, so we would you'll have to have to balance that in the in the medium term.

Carlos De Alba: Alright. Fantastic. Well, thank you very much, guys, Jim, Brian, and my

Jim Litinsky: Yeah. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Bill Peterson with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Bill Peterson: Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon. Congrats on all the progress and strong execution in the quarter. Maybe following up that last recycling question, guess, how do you plan on approaching this internally developed recycling processes? Acquiring technology, partnerships with third parties? And, you know, maybe what does Apple bring to this, you know, recycle this sort I guess, the early stages of the recycling program?

Michael Rosenthal: Think so the question. I think as we mentioned in, in other forum, been working on recycling in cooperation with Apple for over five years. So we have made a lot of progress. And I think over the next several years, we have other plans to cooperate with our customers and technical partners on further advancing our technical capability both in recycling and using recycled materials. And optimizing magnet properties.

Jim Litinsky: Sorry. That was yeah. I think does that get your question, Bill, or did you have a second part to that?

Bill Peterson: No. No. I didn't sorry. I know if you continuing the thought. No. I do have a second question. In terms of in terms of magnet readiness, I guess, for your lead customer, are there any sort of remaining technical areas to address before commercial ramp? How are the you know, is the products performing from a technical point of view? And you know, I just wanna get a sense for how you're you're tracking to the commercial launch you know, in the coming quarters.

Ryan Corbett: Yeah. Sure, Bill. It's Ryan. I think we're really pleased with the technical progress. I think we mentioned in some of the prepared remarks, and in the deck, our consistent execution on producing on spec products for our customers. As you know, EV traction motors are some of the most demanding end use cases for magnets. And, you know, we have been consistently producing to spec. And, frankly, you know, continuing to optimize from a heavy rare earth perspective, you know, make really significant strides. They're actually probably more than I even expected. Despite having pretty high expectations for that team.

You know, really what is left at this point is taking what we've been doing in our new product introduction facility which as you saw is much more than a pilot line. It's sort of a factory within a factory that's allowed us to iterate quickly to be able to generate the types of results that we have and just transferring what we've done there into larger commercial production. With any startup, it is not a straight line, so I will not promise a straight line. But we have a lot of confidence in the team, particularly given, you know, what they've demonstrated to date. A lot of the major process areas are already either in commissioning or commissioned.

And, you know, seeing those operate give us further confidence in the underlying assumptions that we built in into the business case and operating case. And so, you know, the proof will be in the pudding over the next several quarters. But that's what's left is going from trial to commercial.

Bill Peterson: Thanks, Ryan, Michael, Jim. And, really, again, nice job in execution.

Jim Litinsky: Thank you.

Operator: Our last question comes from Matt Summerville with DA Davidson. Please go ahead and ask your question.

Matt Summerville: Excuse me. Can you guys hear me?

Michael Rosenthal: Yes. Hey, Matt. Okay. Cool.

Jim Litinsky: Hey. Thank you. So I wanna get back to some comments you made regarding stage one.

Ben Kallo: What's driving the improvement in concentrate grade? And I guess I wanna understand how you modulate going after incremental volume versus going after incremental grade. And do you need the incremental grade to get stage two output to where you ultimately you know, hit the nameplate.

Michael Rosenthal: Thanks, Ben. I guess in a stable environment, there's a trade-off between grade and recovery. Historically, we have tried to hold a stable grade and increase the recovery to increase production volume. In recent quarters, we had seen that we were kind of able to tweak upgrade without significant sacrifice of recovery. Some of the optimizations, through some of the previous initial stage upstream 60 k projects. I think we're still harvesting some of those gains. In addition, as we've simplified parts of our circuit, it's enabled us to get grade higher without sacrificing recovery. And I think those opportunities continue. Some of our next initiatives do relate to creating even higher quality concentrate.

And that should have follow-on benefits to the primarily the cost structure of the stage two, the midstream operation. But also to yeah. The ultimate throughput capability of that. So I don't say it's absolutely necessary at this point. I think we're very comfortable with the ability to ramp the facility with the current concentrate. But incrementally, pure concentrate will make that even better.

Matt Summerville: So should I is it just as a follow-up, should I take that to mean that you feel you can push the limit of that six zero seven five tons of oxide absent major incremental capital investment, or should I not make that conclusion? I wouldn't connect those two together.

Lawson Winder: So

Michael Rosenthal: I don't we don't need any improvement in the concentrate in order to hit that nameplate.

Matt Summerville: K. Got it. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

Operator: Concludes the question and answer portion of today's call. I will now hand the call back to Mr. Litinsky for closing remarks.

Jim Litinsky: Sure. Hey, everyone. So, obviously, this was an extraordinary quarter. We are really proud of what we achieved. Obviously, operationally, but in particular, the agreements with, DOD and Apple. And, clearly, the platform that we have that we've been building for a number of years has changed, for the better. Dramatically, and we expect to take this new position and keep on reaching to continue to build on the gains that we've had thoughtfully. And so with that, we will get back to work. And have a have a great day, everyone.

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Key Points

• The loss of sales to a Chinese customer was more than compensated for by increased sales of rare-earth materials.

• The company's rare-earth magnet sales are ramping up nicely, as the company prepares for expansion to support the Department of Defense and Apple deals.

• 10 stocks we like better than MP Materials ›

Shares in rare-earth material and magnets company MP Materials (NYSE: MP) rose 11.6% in the week to Friday morning, and could possibly rise a lot more after the market digests its second-quarter earnings report.

MP Materials earnings

Investors will likely warm to the earnings report. The company reported an 84% revenue increase and a decreased loss, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) coming in with a $12.5 million loss compared to a $27 million loss in the same period of 2024.

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It's a good result under the circumstances because of the "strategic decision to cease shipments of rare earth concentrate to China as well as by the ramp-up in midstream operations."

China is, for now, the dominant player in global rare-earth magnet production, and MP Materials previously sold rare-earth materials to a Chinese customer.

However, a massive increase in its neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide revenue led to a 20% increase in materials sales to $37.5 million, and MP Materials' sales of its rare-earth magnets contributed $19.9 million in revenue.

Image source: Getty Images.

Where next for MP Materials

The results are relatively good, as the market anticipated some near-term pain (from losing its revenue to China). Still, the real long-term story here lies in its transformative deals with the Department of Defense and Apple.

These deals will transform MP Materials into a key part of ensuring the U.S. has a domestic supply of critical rare-earth materials and magnets in the future.

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Lee Samaha has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool recommends MP Materials. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

On Thursday, the Trump administration issued an executive order asserting political control over grant funding, including all federally supported research. The order requires that any announcement of funding opportunities be reviewed by the head of the agency or someone they designate, which means a political appointee will have the ultimate say over what areas of science the US funds. Individual grants will also require clearance from a political appointee and "must, where applicable, demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities."

The order also instructs agencies to formalize the ability to cancel previously awarded grants at any time if they're considered to "no longer advance agency priorities." Until a system is in place to enforce the new rules, agencies are forbidden from starting new funding programs.

In short, the new rules would mean that all federal science research would need to be approved by a political appointee who may have no expertise in the relevant areas, and the research can be canceled at any time if the political winds change. It would mark the end of a system that has enabled US scientific leadership for roughly 70 years.

Read full article

Comments

It's now clear that Apple plans to survive Donald Trump's trade war by playing to the president's ego.

On Wednesday, Trump announced that Apple would be exempt from a threatened 100 percent tariff on semiconductors that could have driven up the cost of iPhones globally, Reuters reported. In an apparent effort to secure this exemption, Apple promised to increase its total investment commitment in the US by $100 billion, while also gifting Trump a one-of-a-kind statue that Apple CEO Tim Cook had engraved with Trump's name.

It serves as a bizarre love letter to Trump's push to bring tech manufacturing into the US, despite Apple resisting that push for its most popular product.

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Donald Trump has called for the newly appointed chief executive of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, to resign, alleging that the semiconductor industry veteran is “highly conflicted.”

“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Trump said in his post on his Truth Social website on Thursday. “There is no other solution to this problem.”

The US president’s post did not provide details of Tan’s alleged conflicts of interest. Trump’s broadside follows a letter from Republican Senator Tom Cotton to the US chipmaker’s board chair this week expressing “concern about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations” and Tan’s ties to China.

Read full article

Comments

• Donald Trump has proposed and implemented a slew of tariffs in an effort to achieve his policy aims.
• Some tariffs started right away; others changed or remained on pause to allow for negotiations.
• With a big deadline finally here, we looked at where Trump's trade plans stand and what they mean for you.

The big day is here: More of President Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariffs are going into effect after many of his proposals were paused or rolled back.

All the back-and-forth makes it difficult to keep track of where they all stand and how they might influence prices.

On a broad scale, the price jumps economists and companies have predicted are slowly trickling into US economic data; the year-over-year inflation rate climbed to 2.7% in June, up from 2.4% the month prior, as more companies raised prices in response to tariff threats.

Nike, for example, said it would raise prices to offset an expected $1 billion in additional tariff costs in the coming year, and Shein and Temu said they would start adjusting prices in April due to tariff changes.

Trump has said the long-term benefits of tariffs will be worth some short-term pain. The tariffs' stated goals include raising revenue for the US government, righting trade imbalances, and achieving other policy goals, such as cracking down on drugs and border policy.

Here's where it all stands now that the bulk of Trump's big tariffs are finally in place.

Tariffs already in place

25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum started in March

A 25% tariff on all imported steel and aluminum has been in effect since March. Trump's trade deal with the UK, however, reduced tariff rates on British steel, aluminum, and cars in exchange for the UK buying $10 billion worth of Boeing planes, among other things.

25%-35% tariff on some goods from Mexico and Canada started in March

Trump's tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada that are not compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are meant to compel those countries to combat drug trafficking and strengthen border control. Exempted goods include those with complex supply chains, like cars and car parts. In addition, energy imports from Canada have a 10% tariff.

Trump raised the tariff rate on Canadian goods not compliant with USMCA to 35% on August 1, saying that the country has failed to effectively crack down on drug trafficking.

10% baseline tariff on most imports started in April

The 10% baseline tariff Trump announced on April 2 remains in effect for most countries. A slew of major brands have already said they would be raising prices, citing the tariffs in place or anticipation of more to come. One Republican business owner previously told Business Insider that he had started adding a "tariff tax" on his bikes, expecting that producing electric bikes would be 10% more expensive.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said at a press conference in early May that Trump was "determined to continue with that 10% baseline tariff" as part of any deal he might strike with other countries.

"Reciprocal" tariffs that vary by country

After months of postponements and negotiations with countries, Trump rolled out a host of new tariffs on August 7, with the highest rates including 50% on Brazil, 40% on Myanmar and Switzerland, and 39% on Iraq.

"IT'S MIDNIGHT!!! BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TARIFFS ARE NOW FLOWING INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

While India's tariff rate now stands at 25%, Trump said that it will rise to 50% later this month for "directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil," according to his executive order.

Postponed tariffs

Tariffs on China were lowered for 90 days

After a lot of back-and-forth over whether China and the US would engage in trade talks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in Geneva in May that the US and China had reached an agreement to "substantially" lower tariffs. Bessent said Trump's 145% tariff on Chinese goods would decrease to 30% for 90 days. China, in turn, said it would lower its tariffs on American goods to 10% from 125% over the same time period.

US Customs and Border Protection had previously exempted smartphones, computers, and other technology to minimize price increases on those products in the US. The most significant price impact from tariffs will most likely be felt on other goods imported from China, especially toys and vehicle parts.

Other tariffs floated by Trump

Lumber

On March 1, Trump directed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to investigate US lumber imports and determine whether any imports threatened national security. Tariffs were recommended as a possibility to mitigate any threats.

Alcohol

Responding to a plan from the European Union to place tariffs on American whiskey, Trump wrote on a March 13 Truth Social post that the US would place 200% tariffs on wine, Champagne, and other alcoholic products coming out of the EU.

Pharmaceutical products

In April, Trump told reporters that he would impose tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products at levels "you haven't really seen before" and would announce the measures in "the near future."

Semiconductors

Trump said during an event on Wednesday that he is planning a 100% tariff on semiconductors unless businesses commit to investing in and building their products in the US.

"If you have made a commitment to build or are in the process of building, as many are, there is no tariff. If, for some reason, you say you are building and you don't build, we go back and add it up, it accumulates, and we will charge you at a later date. You have to pay," Trump said.

The US Army announced it will invest $36 billion over the next five years to modernize its force, with a heavy emphasis on drone technology.

Graham Flanagan, Business Insider's chief video correspondent, went inside a combat training exercise with the Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment in southern Germany, where soldiers are learning to assemble, operate, and fly drones used for both reconnaissance and attack capabilities.

The 2CR drone pilots train at the Drone Innovation Cell in Vilseck, Germany, before heading to a training area in the Bavarian countryside to deploy the technology in a training event known as STX Lanes, which stands for "situational training exercise."

• Major US alcohol producers are urging Donald Trump to cut tariffs ahead of the holidays.
• An alcohol association representing Beam Suntory and Brown-Forman sent a letter to the White House.
• It warned that the tariffs could result in a $2 billion sales loss and 25,000 American jobs lost.

As the holiday season looms, US liquor groups are begging Trump to kill the tariffs they say could ruin their most lucrative stretch of the year.

A group of 57 associations and guilds called the Toasts not Tariffs Coalition, said in a Wednesday letter to the White House that tariffs could result in a $2 billion sales loss in the holidays.

"We reiterate our urgent request that the U.S. and EU come to an agreement to secure fair and reciprocal trade on spirits and wine," the group wrote in the letter.

"As we approach the critical holiday season, a period that is essential to the success of our industries, we implore you to secure this important deal for the U.S. as soon as possible," it added.

The letter comes as Trump's new tariffs went into effect at midnight on Thursday, with the European Union being slammed with a 15% tariff rate on most goods. However, the EU said on Tuesday said it would pause retaliatory tariffs for six months.

Other countries, such as Switzerland and India, were hit much harder, with tariff rates of 39% and 50%, respectively. India's tariffs are set to go into effect later in August.

In March, Trump also threatened to impose a 200% tariff on wine and other alcohol from the EU.

The coalition said it estimated that a 15% tariff on EU wine and spirits could result in more than 25,000 American job losses and nearly $2 billion in lost sales. Per data from the US Distilled Spirits Council, the US exported $2.4 billion worth of spirits in 2024.

Groups in the Toasts not Tariffs coalition represent US liquor heavyweights like Beam Suntory, the parent of Jim Beam, and Jack Daniel's owner Brown-Forman. The coalition also includes non-liquor bodies like the National Retail Federation and the National Restaurant Association.

The Wednesday letter was the group's second appeal to the White House. It sent a similar letter in January, urging Trump to exclude wine and spirits from his coming tariffs and convince the US's trading partners not to apply retaliatory tariffs on their products.

Kentucky's bourbon makers also appealed to the White House to ease up on tariffs after Canada's boycott of US alcohol in March.

The Kentucky Distillers' Association said in a March statement on X that retaliatory tariffs would have "far-reaching consequences across Kentucky, home to 95% of the world's bourbon."

Representatives for Trump and the Distilled Spirits Council did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

• Apple is going to spend another $100 billion investing in US facilities.
• That's on top of a $500 billion pledge the company made earlier this year.
• Is that a lot? Sort of. Is it a move to make iPhones in the US? Not at all.

At a White House event on Wednesday afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced plans to invest $100 billion in US manufacturing.

Is this a real plan, with real money? A bit of stagecraft designed to give Donald Trump a public win for his reshoring push? Or a way for Apple to keep on the right side of Trump tariffs that could cause great harm to the company?

Yes. And yes. And yes.

Some context:

• In February, Apple said it would invest $500 billion and hire 20,000 US employees over the next four years.
• Now Apple is going to add another $100 billion to that commitment.
• Apple spelled out how it is going to spend some of that money at the White House event, including a pledge to spend $2.5 billion expanding its work in a Corning plant in Kentucky, where it makes glass for iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple says that work will eventually ensure that all of its devices sold worldwide will use American glass (though it didn't spell out how much of that work was already being done in America).

But this isn't the first time Apple has announced a pledge like this. In 2021 — when Joe Biden was president — it announced a plan to invest $430 billion in the US over five years and hire 20,000 employees. Some of those plans involved new construction, like a new "engineering hub" in North Carolina. Others involved expansions of existing facilities, or construction that was already underway, like a $1 billion campus in Austin.

As Bloomberg notes, Apple's announcement from February was really an acceleration of its earlier plans — it meant Apple was planning to spend an extra $39 billion a year, and to increase its hiring plans by 1,000 people a year.

Using that same logic, Apple's Wednesday announcement means it is planning on spending another $25 billion a year above its earlier plans. (No word, yet, about any additional hiring, though Apple did say its work with Corning would increase the workforce there by 50%.)

So that's definitely some additional spending.

Will Apple make iPhones in the US?

Does that mean Apple is going to start making iPhones in the US, as Trump has demanded?

No. As we've discussed before, recreating the supply chain Apple would need to make iPhones in the US seems close to impossible. And certainly not something that Apple could pull off in a few years — if it even wanted to.

Cook was asked that question directly at the press conference, and was ready for it. "There's a lot of content in there from the United States," he argued, pointing to the glass deal and other elements made at least in part in America. But as far as actually putting that stuff together — which requires a complicated supply chain Cook spent years and billions overseeing? "That will be elsewhere for a while," he said.

Still, getting to stand next to the CEO of one of the world's most valuable companies, while that CEO says he's going to invest in America, is most definitely valuable to Trump, who was beaming throughout the event.

And it's not as if any particular number means much to Trump, who recently announced he was going to reduce drug prices by "1,500 percent," which is definitely not possible.

Trump is also flexible when it comes to announcements about Trump-directed spending in America. Like when he stood next to Cook during his first term and announced that Apple had opened a new plant in Texas at his behest. Also not true.

What does Apple get in return? It would most obviously like permanent relief from Trump's tariffs. So far, Trump has granted Apple some immunity from some of his tariffs on foreign manufacturing — but not all of them, which is why Apple has said it will have paid some $2 billion in tariffs over its last two quarters.

Apple and other tech companies are also hoping Trump will keep pushing on their behalf to beat down other countries' tech regulations. Apple is particularly vexed by the European Union, which has forced the company to do things like change its iPhone chargers and open up its App Store.

So yes: Apple is spending money in the US. And no: It's not exactly the story Donald Trump would like to tell.

• Tim Cook joined Donald Trump for a celebratory announcement in the Oval Office.
• Apple announced that it is increasing its existing $500 billion investment in the US by $100 billion.
• Trump said companies like Apple "will be treated really well."

Tim Cook gifted President Donald Trump an American-made glass engraving at the White House today — but it was the Apple CEO who walked away with the real prize.

On Wednesday, Cook presented Trump with an inscribed piece of Apple-produced glass made in Kentucky that sits upon a 24k gold base made in Utah to celebrate the tech giant's "American Manufacturing Program."

"This glass comes off the Corning line, engraved for President Trump," Cook told reporters during a ceremony in the Oval Office. "It is a unique unit of one."

Cook and Apple aren't walking away empty-handed. Companies that "are building in the United States," like Apple, won't be subject to a forthcoming 100% tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips, Trump said.

"The good news for companies like Apple is if you're building in the United States or have committed to build, without question, in the United States, there will be no charge," Trump said.

Cook said the gift was designed by a former US Marine Corps. Corporal who now works for Apple. Cook's signature is also etched into the gift.

Apple announced that it is adding an additional $100 billion to its existing pledge to spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years. As part of its investment, Cook said that soon, 100% of all cover glass for all iPhones and Apple Watches will be manufactured in the US.

It is still a far cry from Trump's hope of a made-in-the-USA iPhone. When a reporter pressed Cook on the possibility of an American-made iPhone, Trump echoed Cook's view that Apple already makes many of the popular smartphone's components in the US.

"We've been talking about it, and the whole thing is set up in other places, and it's been there for a long time, so in terms of the cost and all," Trump said. "But I think we may incentivize him enough that one day he'll be bringing that."

While it's a win for Cook, Apple isn't fully in the clear from the impact of Trump's tariffs. It remains uncertain if the tech giant will be subject to the president's stiffer tariffs on India, which are aimed at punishing the nation for continuing to buy Russian oil.

Cook said during Apple's recent earnings call that the company's financial hit from tariffs last quarter was $800 million. Apple said those costs are likely to balloon to $1.1 billion in the September quarter.

The Apple CEO has come bearing gifts before. In Trump's final financial disclosure before leaving the White House in 2021, the president reported receiving a $5,999 MacBook Pro computer.

It's also not the first time Cook's savvy relationship-building skills have earned the president's praise. In 2019, Trump said Cook was the only tech executive who calls him directly, and the Apple CEO successfully landed carve-outs for some of Apple's products during the tariffs implemented during Trump's first term.

• An AI search engine powered by Perplexity is now available on Truth Social.
• Trump Media began public beta testing of the search engine on Wednesday.
• Social media sites like X and Meta have already integrated AI into their platforms.

Truth Social has entered its AI era.

Trump Media announced on Wednesday that it began beta testing a new AI-powered search engine on its Truth Social platform. The new feature — called Truth Search AI — is made possible by a partnership with Perplexity.

"Powered by Perplexity, a software and AI company dedicated to providing direct, contextually accurate answers with transparent citations, Truth Search AI is intended to enhance the Truth Social platform and exponentially increase the amount of information available to its users," Trump Media said in a press release.

A Perplexity spokesperson told Business Insider that Truth Social uses the Perplexity Sonar API. They declined to discuss the details or financial terms of the partnership.

Truth Social is the latest social media platform to integrate AI. Elon Musk's xAI debuted an AI chatbot, Grok, to X users in 2023. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta introduced its AI chatbot — Meta AI — across its social media and messaging platforms in 2024. Reddit has also introduced an AI-powered search tool last year.

AI emerged as a key focus for President Donald Trump during his first administration, but has grown in importance in his second term. In January, Trump issued an executive order to "remove barriers to American leadership in artificial intelligence." Last month, the White House unveiled its action plan to win the global AI race.

Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media, said the company will review user feedback on Truth Social to determine next steps.

"We plan to robustly refine and expand our search function based on user feedback as we implement a wide range of additional enhancements to the platform," Nunes, a former California congressman, said in the press release.

Representatives from Trump Media did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.