USAR · USA Rare Earth $15.31 -0.32 (-2.05%) 2026-SEP-18 12:49 EST

Rare earths are 17 metals used in the powerful magnets inside electric-car motors, wind turbines, missiles and drones. China controls almost the whole supply, especially the processing step that turns ore into usable magnets. USA Rare Earth is one of the handful of American companies trying to build that capability at home — it's putting up a magnet plant in Oklahoma — and it's Prins's recommended way to play the trend.

China just added USA Rare Earth to a list of companies it won't sell to (and won't let anyone else funnel Chinese material to). That sounds like bad news, but Prins reads it the opposite way: China is attacking it precisely because it's one of the few credible alternatives, and Washington is pouring money into exactly these firms. The more the fight escalates, the more valuable a working ex-China supplier becomes.

USA Rare Earth is a second U.S. player trying to build rare-earth and magnet capacity at home. The Commerce Department invested $1.6 billion in it. Prins uses it alongside MP Materials to make one point: the U.S. government is funding more than one company to break China's near-monopoly, so the whole ex-China rare-earth group has policy money behind it — but standing up new processing takes years, which is exactly why China's leverage stays strong in the meantime.

USA Rare Earth is trying to build a complete "mine-to-magnet" business that doesn't depend on China. It just agreed to pay $2.8 billion to buy Serra Verde, which owns a working mine in Brazil that produces all four of the rare-earth metals used to make powerful magnets — including dysprosium and terbium, the two that almost nobody outside China can supply. Combined with the company's existing magnet factory in Oklahoma and $1.6 billion of U.S. government backing, this turns it into a one-stop Western alternative to the Chinese supply chain. Prins frames Washington's money behind it as the key signal.

USA Rare Earth is trying to build a fully domestic "mine-to-magnet" supply chain — digging up rare-earth elements and turning them into the powerful magnets that go into EVs, defense gear, and electronics, so the U.S. stops depending on China for them. Prins flagged it in February as the centerpiece of a $1.6 billion government push. The key point: rare-earth prices move on government policy more than on normal supply-and-demand, so a new law that streamlines the sector directly boosts the case for a policy-backed name like this.

USA Rare Earth is building the whole rare earth supply chain inside friendly borders: a magnet factory in Oklahoma, a deposit in Texas that holds the rare "heat-proof" metals, and a UK alloy maker it bought. That makes it the only company outside China that can go from rock to finished magnet. The big news is the US government committing $1.6 billion and taking an ownership stake — a strong vote of confidence. The stock has fallen roughly in half from its peak even though that government money came after the drop, so Prins sees the price as attractive. Her advice: buy it up to $26 a share (it's around $20), knowing it will be a bumpy, long-build story.