A deal struck with the U.S. government last year sent the stock soaring. By Al Root

When James Litinsky organized the purchase of the Mountain Pass mine in California in 2017, few investors knew what rare earth materials were. No one thought China's rare-earth monopoly would become an existential threat to Western manufacturing. But it did.

Litinsky, 48, the founder, CEO, and largest individual shareholder of MP Materials, had a vision to "restore the full rare earth supply chain" in America. From the outside, his strategy seemed to go off without a hitch: restart the closed mine, raise money, sell intermediate products to the Chinese, use the cash flow to invest in downstream capacity, and eventually produce finished rare earth magnets that end up in everything from electric vehicles to fighter jets. He took MP public in 2020 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

MP's big moment came in July 2025, when the company signed a deal with the U.S. Department of Defense that included capital, price floors for key products, and offtake agreements for new magnet-making capacity. Few saw it coming, but investors cheered. The stock gained 224% last year.

MP was an overnight success years in the making.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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June 19, 2026 21:31 ET (01:31 GMT)

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