The really big question is how big US rare earths stockpiles are. Now that China has cut them off, once they run through that, then producing drones, missiles, or any electronics in general, is going to become a bit of a problem.
The US government does actually maintain a two tiered system of stockpiles for rare earths and other critical minerals though the exact inventory size is not published, with one being a defense stockpile and a new larger commercial reserve just announced in february this year. The existing defense stockpile is managed by the defense logistics agency and exists solely to supply the military industrial and essential civilian needs during a national emergency. Supposedly it is a relatively small stockpile containing 37 different materials valued at approximately 1.15 billion dollars, which for context is about one tenth the value of the newly proposed commercial reserve. The new commercial reserve is a 12 billion dollar project funded by a 10 billion dollar loan from the us export import bank and about 2 billion dollars in private capital. This reserve will initially aim to hold a 60 day supply of critical minerals and will include any of the more than 50 minerals, but its structure and inventory details are still being finalized. To sum up, there is some reserve, but not much.
The really big question is how big US rare earths stockpiles are. Now that China has cut them off, once they run through that, then producing drones, missiles, or any electronics in general, is going to become a bit of a problem.
Then they switch to dumb bombs and just bomb civilians as always.
Stockpiles are not good for profits. It means you’re buying more material than you currently need for production. I can’t imagine there is much.
The US government does actually maintain a two tiered system of stockpiles for rare earths and other critical minerals though the exact inventory size is not published, with one being a defense stockpile and a new larger commercial reserve just announced in february this year. The existing defense stockpile is managed by the defense logistics agency and exists solely to supply the military industrial and essential civilian needs during a national emergency. Supposedly it is a relatively small stockpile containing 37 different materials valued at approximately 1.15 billion dollars, which for context is about one tenth the value of the newly proposed commercial reserve. The new commercial reserve is a 12 billion dollar project funded by a 10 billion dollar loan from the us export import bank and about 2 billion dollars in private capital. This reserve will initially aim to hold a 60 day supply of critical minerals and will include any of the more than 50 minerals, but its structure and inventory details are still being finalized. To sum up, there is some reserve, but not much.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/2/2/what-is-the-us-strategic-minerals-stockpile
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/03/trump-stockpile-critical-minerals-reserve-project-vault.html
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/02/03/rare-earths-stocks-trump-critical-minerals-stockpile-project-vault.html
Cheers comrade 🙏