Vulcan Elements
Vulcan Elements is a rare earth magnet manufacturer founded by a team with deep defense, national security, and advanced manufacturing credentials, and backed by a $1.4 billion partnership with the US government to build what the company describes as the largest magnet facility in the world outside China — a greenfield production site in Benson, North Carolina. The company was co-founded by Dr. Piotr Kulik, one of only four magnet science professors in the United States and the CTO who recently established the first rare earth magnetics lab in the US in over 20 years at the University of Central Florida, and is led by a team with backgrounds spanning the US Navy’s nuclear propulsion program, SpaceX, Ursa Major, McKinsey, and the offices of the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State. Vulcan’s technology approach is focused on process optimization for cost competitiveness and supply chain transparency, targeting defense applications, AI data centers, semiconductor fabrication, satellites, industrial motors, consumer electronics, and power tools, with a mission explicitly centered on improving US and allied national security through a resilient domestic rare earth magnet supply.