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How Robert Friedland’s Newest Venture Secured $250 Million from the CHIPS Act

Washington's $250 million CHIPS Act bet on I-Pulse Inc. signals a massive shift toward ruggedized power electronics, deep geothermal energy, and the future of AI infrastructure.

•• 1 Min
How Robert Friedland’s Newest Venture Secured $250 Million from the CHIPS Act

Billionaire mining magnate Robert Friedland has made a career out of finding valuable things buried deep in the dirt, but his latest venture aims to rewrite how we break that dirt apart using pure electricity. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office has finalized a definitive agreement to award $250 million to I-Pulse Inc., a specialized technology venture co-founded by Friedland and Chief Technology Officer Laurent Frescaline. It stands as one of the more unorthodox allocations of the CHIPS and Science Act to date, trading the pristine cleanrooms of mass-market consumer electronics for the brutal, high-voltage realities of heavy industry. Instead of funding the silicon brains that power smartphones, this capital injection is explicitly targeted at rugged power electronics that can survive environments that would instantly melt a standard microchip.

The first critical point of this technology lies in the physics of "pulsed power," where I-Pulse Inc. develops proprietary silicon-carbide semiconductors capable of repeatedly compressing small amounts of electrical energy and discharging them in blindingly intense, nanosecond-long bursts. The immediate commercial application is deep geothermal drilling, where high-voltage electrical surges fracture and soften hot granite formations just ahead of a physical drill bit to multiply drilling speeds and fundamentally alter the economics of clean energy extraction.

This breakthrough directly addresses Silicon Valley's loudest existential anxiety, which is finding enough continuous clean baseload power to feed the artificial intelligence boom. Because AI data centers operate around the clock, intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar fall short, prompting Friedland, who also chairs Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX: IVN) and Ivanhoe Electric Inc. (NYSE American: IE), to pitch deep geothermal as the ultimate solution for the digital frontier.

Beyond the immediate tech sector, the broader industrial and national security implications have caught the attention of global resource giants and defense officials alike. I-Pulse Inc. has quietly built a heavyweight roster of backers, commanding investments from global mining super-majors including BHP Group Limited (NYSE: BHP), Rio Tinto Group (NYSE: RIO), and Newmont Corp. (NYSE: NEM), who view pulsed power as a way to slash mineral-crushing electrical overheads by up to eighty percent. At the same time, the Department of Commerce views these rugged silicon-carbide switches as a critical dual-use asset for extreme military environments, with Executive Director for Semiconductor Investment and Innovation Bill Frauenhofer noting that the technology is uniquely engineered to withstand the harsh shocks and temperatures required to push past previous technical limits.

To bridge the gap between laboratory physics and mass production, I-Pulse Inc. is strategically anchoring its operational push in Albuquerque, New Mexico, placing it right next door to the premier defense facilities at Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The program will be helmed by Dr. Rick Spielman and Dr. Randy Curry, two of the foremost American authorities in high-energy physics, directing what Friedland describes as the largest concentration of private pulsed-power expertise in the country. This federal backing signals a distinct evolution in how the United States utilizes its semiconductor subsidies; while multi-billion-dollar packages continue to support traditional manufacturing titans like Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), this deal underscores a willingness to back niche, high-barrier technologies with profound geopolitical upside.

Sources

  • Bloomberg News, "US invests $250 million in Robert Friedland startup for chip making," June 25, 2026.
  • Business Wire, "I-Pulse Signs Definitive Agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce for $250 Million CHIPS R&D Award," June 25, 2026.
  • Official statement from Bill Frauenhofer, Executive Director for Semiconductor Investment and Innovation at the U.S. Department of Commerce, June 2026.
  • MINING.COM, "US invests $250 million in Robert Friedland startup for chip making," June 25, 2026.

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