In August 2025, 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm backed by Donald Trump Jr., invested in Vulcan Elements. Three months later, Vulcan Elements received a $620 million loan from the U.S. Department of Defense to increase the supply of magnets for industries.[1] This was the largest loan given by the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital. The deal raised conflict of interest questions related to Trump Jr.'s relationship with the second Donald Trump administration.[2][3][4][5]
Vulcan Elements was founded in Boston in 2023 by former U.S. Navy officer and nuclear propulsion lab financial manager John Maslin, alongside electrical engineer Piotr Kulik, with the intention of competing with rare earth magnet manufacturers based in China.[6][12][13] Maslin was studying at Harvard University when he started the business.[6]
In August 2025, the company raised $65 million at a $250 million total valuation, with investors including Altimeter Capital, One Investment Management, and 1789 Capital.[12][18][19][20][21] It also secured orders from the U.S. military and a multimillion dollar contract from the Pentagon.[2][3][12][22][23][10] In November 2025, the Pentagon announced that its Office of Strategic Capital had awarded a $620 million dollar loan to Vulcan Elements, and that the Department of Commerce had an additional $50 million in equity.[1] The Pentagon said that the $620 million dollar loan was funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,[1][24] and that the $50 million investment used funds provided by the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.[1] Vulcan Elements said the money would go to increasing their production capacity to 10,000 metric tons per year.[25]
Key people
John Maslin is the CEO and founder. Jake Bowles is COO. Piotr Kulik is CTO. Scott Glover is CCO.[26]
Supply chain
Vulcan Elements aims to source its materials and equipment exclusively from companies that are based in the United States and whose supply chains do not involve business entities based in China.[8][12] Companies in their supply chain include ReElement Technologies in Indiana,[27][28] Consarc in New Jersey,[8] and Energy Fuels in Denver, Colorado.[29][30]
Facilities
The company's primary facility for both manufacturing and research and development (R&D) is located in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.[6] Around 30 employees work there.[2] The facility interior encompasses 21,000sqft (2,000m2) and is equipped with a Consarc strip casting furnace.[8] Its process is validated by the Ames National Laboratory.[12]
Vulcan Elements plans to construct a new magnet factory in Benson, North Carolina, a small town about 40 minutes outside of Raleigh and about 30 minutes from Fort Bragg. This new location is expected to create around 1,000 jobs in the area. They chose North Carolina as the location of the new factory in part because of financial incentives from the state government, including payroll tax breaks and subsidized workforce training through the state's Job Development Investment Grant.[13][16][31][32][33][34][35]Johnston Community College also received a $3.6 million dollar Golden LEAF Foundation grant to train new employees at the company's Advanced Manufacturing Training Facility in Four Oaks, North Carolina, starting in summer 2026, to prepare for the launch of the factory in Benson.[36][37][38][39][40]
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