An innovation that came into existence years ago could now help the United States tackle China’s dominance in a key sector.

A scientist working at the University of Minnesota lab years ago developed the world’s first iron nitride magnet, a revolutionary technology forged from iron and nitrogen without using rare earth elements.

 

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/rare-earth-free-magnet-help-us

To be fair. you can make a magnet from an old nail.

 

But with respect to Niron Magnetics, I would be a bit cautious. The compan y is jointly owned by Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and the University of Minnesota. Its recently enjoyed a tax credit through the Inflation Reduction Act. The company has received funding from Stellantic, GM, Volvo, and more recently Samsung and Allison.

 

But this isn't the first time iron nitride has been used in magnets. GM founded a company, Magnequench, that did all this. It was so impressive, they sold it off in 1995, to a Chinese company, Sextant. The story is all over those Alt-Right sites as evidence of shameful Pentagon betrayal.

 

Governments do have control of IP that is critical to the nation. I've been through that process. I had a patent which the UK government put a hold on for 6 months, while they decided if it contained information that could be harmful to UK interests (it was to do with the nature of a material I had developed a technique to detect). In the end, they decided it wasn't, which was rather deflating at the time.

 

Volvo Cars is Chinese owned. Stallantis is nominally a Ditch company. Samsung is South Korean. Allison Transmission is owned by the Carlyle Group and Onex Corporation. Onex is Canadian.

 

Now, I see there are a ton of articles recently published about Niron,like this one. Typically "written" by Indians. What companies often do, as part of BD, is paid for media articles. They will engage with media partners, perhaps write a few articles, to promote the company, often to grab attention of investors. The company has about $20-30m in the bank. The burn rate will be phenomenal.

 

They are not the only company in town with rare-earth free magnets in development.

 

Here's another fluff article, about a UK company (cue flag waving) with some equally whizzy sounding and prmising tech:

 

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a61147476/ai-developed-magnet-free-of-rare-earth-metals/

 

https://www.matnex.ai/

 

And other European designed ones:

 

https://eitrawmaterials.eu/success-stories/passengers-rare-earth-free-magnets-prototypes-set-transform-industries

 

(hmm, key difference; the EU has a pretty massive research investment fund to support basic research. The US is slashing all of that, courtesy of DOGE. Does anyone think China is trimming back on the state's role in funding research).

 

There are lots of efforts, some have failed, maybe none will succeed. Clearly the car industry is the one putting the big bucks into this, but the future pace of spend is inextricably linked to the future of EV. Lately, many governments have suddenly gotten wobbly about EV switch over dates, likely because of lobbying from industry and the unions, as well as ideological shifts. Investors don't really care if these are great ideas or not, just as long as they get a return. If they are not sure they can get a return in 4-5 years, their money goes elsewhere.

 

EV is most likely to be the next phase in cars, because of the infrastructure that's already in place (most homes are connected to the grid, there is a steadily growing network of chargers in carparks, petrol stations), but hydrogen power lurks. Again, Investors don't care about Petrolhead's preferences for one over the other. Its about making money, not whether you have a stick shift or not.

 

If ICE has a few more years left, then there might be some more money to be made in investing in petrol engines for a few more years. Mazda's gamble with Skyactiv might have paid off, because otherwise the company was heading to the same oblivion as Daihatsu and others.