Published: August 12, 2026 | Category: Venture Capital
The autonomous-mining startup, now valued at $1.5 billion, is betting that AI-driven demand for copper and lithium can be met by software rather than by digging more mines the old way.
Mariana Minerals has raised $310 million in a Series B round led by Khosla Ventures, bringing the San Francisco-based mining startup’s total funding to about $400 million and its valuation to $1.5 billion. Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy Ventures returned as investors, joined by new backers including Greenoaks, StepStone Group, BHP Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation and In-Q-Tel, according to the company.
The round funds a bet that the same metals that powered the last century, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths among them, will define the next one, driven in large part by the buildout of AI data centers and the electricity grids that feed them.
Mariana was founded in 2024 by chief executive Turner Caldwell along with Baker Tilney and Juan Lozano. The company runs two flagship sites. Copper One, an idled Utah copper mine it acquired in late 2025, was restarted within four months using autonomous mining software and is targeting production of 50,000 metric tons of refined copper per year. Lithium One, a Texas site that broke ground in 2025, is expected to reach commercial production in 2027.
The company’s pitch rests on a supply-chain argument rather than a purely technological one. China controls up to 90% of global critical-minerals processing, and as much as 92% of rare-earth magnet manufacturing, a concentration the U.S. has struggled to loosen despite years of policy attention. Mariana argues that software-driven mine operations can bring idled or underused domestic sites back into production faster and more cheaply than conventional approaches, reducing reliance on that concentrated supply chain.
The company frames the timing as tied directly to the AI buildout. Data centers, chips and the power grid all draw on the same base of industrial metals that AI infrastructure investment is now scaling up, a dynamic investors are betting will keep demand, and prices, elevated for years.
Mariana still faces established competition from larger incumbent miners, including BHP Group and Standard Lithium, and its most capital-intensive site, Lithium One, will not reach commercial output until 2027 at the earliest. The company’s near-term case rests on Copper One ramping to its production target on schedule.