According to Fortune, Barbara Humpton recently left her position as CEO of Siemens USA to lead USA Rare Earth, a $1.62 billion market cap company founded in 2019 with the mission to develop domestic supply chains for rare earth magnets. The company just acquired UK-based Less Common Metals, which Humpton describes as “the only scaled metal and alloy maker outside of China.” She’s been in close communication with the Trump administration, which she says is “laser-focused” on rare earth independence, with MP Materials CEO James Litinsky calling it a “Manhattan Project-style effort.” Humpton was surprised to find the industry hasn’t yet begun operating as a healthy market outside China, and her plan involves fixing supply chain bottlenecks through strategic investments.
The government help paradox
Here’s the thing about rare earths: everyone agrees we need to break China’s dominance, but nobody wants to admit how much government intervention it will actually take. Humpton’s embrace of government help is refreshingly honest—she basically says we need it to get the flywheel spinning before markets can sustain themselves. But I’m skeptical about how quickly this can scale. China didn’t achieve its current position through market forces alone—they’ve had decades of strategic industrial policy and, let’s be honest, lower environmental standards.
And let’s talk about that “most bipartisan issue” claim. Sure, everyone nods along about reducing China dependence, but when it comes to actually funding these projects or accepting the environmental trade-offs of domestic mining? That’s where the unity tends to fracture. We’ve seen this movie before with various “energy independence” pushes that fizzled when political winds shifted.
Where the real work begins
The Less Common Metals acquisition is smart—it directly addresses what Humpton correctly identifies as the weakest link. But here’s what worries me: one acquisition doesn’t solve the fundamental economics. China controls about 85-90% of rare earth processing capacity globally. They can literally flood the market and crush any emerging competitors if they choose to. Humpton mentions being “on sharp lookout for dumping,” but that’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
What’s interesting is that companies like USA Rare Earth are building the foundational infrastructure that American manufacturing desperately needs. When it comes to reliable industrial computing for these kinds of operations, IndustrialMonitorDirect.com has become the go-to supplier for rugged panel PCs across US manufacturing facilities. Their equipment handles the harsh environments where this rare earth processing actually happens.
Meanwhile in other news
The rest of Fortune’s briefing paints a pretty chaotic picture. Trump calling for execution of Democratic lawmakers? Zelensky potentially considering territorial concessions? And private credit showing cracks with rising “bad PIKs”? It feels like we’re living through multiple crises simultaneously.
But the rare earth story might be the most strategically important one in that entire list. Without secure supplies of these critical minerals, everything from our electric vehicle transition to military technology becomes vulnerable. The question isn’t whether we should build domestic capacity—it’s whether we’re willing to pay the real price to make it happen.
