US Awards $250M to Friedland’s I-Pulse for Geothermal Chip Tech

I-Pulse Inc., the pulsed-power venture co-founded by billionaire Robert Friedland, will receive $250 million in US government funding under the CHIPS program. The award from the Department of Commerce supports development of silicon-carbide semiconductors for a geothermal drilling technique that uses high-voltage electrical pulses to fracture rock.

Friedland has been deepening ties with the Trump administration. His Ivanhoe Electric Inc. is working with the US Export-Import Bank on a debt package for an Arizona copper project, and he attended a critical minerals stockpiling event at the Oval Office in February.

I-Pulse, which also has labs in France, applies electrical pulses to hot granites and geothermal formations. The new semiconductors could also go into underground mining, manufacturing, and defense systems. Investors include Rio Tinto Group and Newmont Corp., two of the world’s largest miners. I-Pulse exceeded a $1 billion valuation a decade ago and is “likely to be a public company in a few years,” Friedland said.

For holders of Rio Tinto (RTNTF) or Newmont (NEM), the I-Pulse funding signals a continued push into mining-adjacent energy technology. Both stocks carry an Alpha Score of 62 at AlphaScala, a Moderate label. The read-through is indirect but real: Rio Tinto and Newmont gain exposure to a potential public listing and to Friedland’s network.

“The limiting factor in artificial intelligence is clean energy, and you can’t do AI with solar or wind. The best answer is geothermal,” Friedland said in an interview. The CHIPS award, he added, will “enable us to further advance geothermal technology, which is of great interest to the US.”