Feb 9, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Apple CEO Tim Cook on the field before Super Bowl LIX between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs at Ceasars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
San Bernadino County, California – Apple has inked a $500 million deal with MP Materials, a U.S.-based rare earth producer, to secure a domestic supply of key minerals used in its iPhones—part of a broader realignment of the global tech supply chain that highlights how geopolitics, defense interests, and environmental consequences continue to converge in the search for essential materials.
The multi-year agreement centers on the production of rare earth magnets, small but vital components used in iPhone vibration motors and other motion-generating parts. Beginning in 2027, those magnets will be produced at MP’s new facility in Fort Worth, Texas, using recycled material from its Mountain Pass mine in California. Apple will pre-pay $200 million of the contract upfront, giving MP both financial backing and a long-term client as it ramps up U.S. production.
The move is being praised as a win for domestic manufacturing and a strategic pivot away from dependence on China, which dominates the global supply of rare earth elements. But while it strengthens Apple’s position politically, it also underscores an increasingly inescapable reality: the tech industry’s hunger for rare minerals shows no signs of slowing, and the environmental cost of meeting that demand remains steep.
MP’s Mountain Pass site, one of the only active rare earth mines in the United States, has been operating since the 1950s and has drawn criticism over its environmental impact in the past. Though MP now touts its commitment to recycling and clean extraction processes, rare earth mining—even in its more sustainable forms—is energy intensive, chemically hazardous, and deeply disruptive to local ecosystems.
Apple, which has pledged to make its entire supply chain carbon neutral by 2030, has increasingly positioned itself as a leader in green technology. Yet rare earth extraction—even when done domestically and with recycled material—remains one of the industry’s more uncomfortable contradictions: a dirty process used to build clean tech.
This latest deal follows a major agreement between MP Materials and the U.S. Department of Defense, which includes price guarantees and multibillion-dollar support that will make the Pentagon MP’s largest shareholder. It illustrates the growing entanglement between Silicon Valley and Washington’s strategic priorities. As tensions with China escalate, rare earth minerals have moved from economic afterthought to national security imperative.
While Apple continues to resist calls to move iPhone assembly to the U.S. entirely—citing labor costs and logistical complexity—securing a domestic supply of rare earth magnets marks a symbolic and strategic shift. But for environmental advocates, the core dilemma remains: who pays the price, and at what cost, when technology’s most essential parts come from the earth?
