Magnets without rare earths. Didn’t even know it was possible. Yet Niron Magnetics is making them in Minnesota and very soon the rest of the world.Simply put, what Niron has done is one of the most exciting and important industrial-scale innovations happening in the United States today. Magnets are critical in the electric motors that power everything from EVs to drones to robotics.

But current magnets, like the ones in almost everything you own, need “rare earths” to function—rare earths that are sometimes mined in the United States, but never processed here. Which is why China often uses them as a trade lever, as they process more rare earths than any other country.

Niron changes all of that, using a process that requires no rare earths and is even more powerful than what’s available with standard neodymium magnets.

It’s huge.

Niron CEO Jonathan Rowntree joins TOOL OR DIE to explain how Niron’s tech could transform everything from EV motors to defense drones to data center cooling—and why America’s magnet crisis is bigger than most people realize. From the legacy of the Manhattan Project to the geopolitical chokehold of Chinese exports, this is a deep dive into the guts of the devices that run our world, and the urgent need to build domestic capacity from the atom up.

Timestamps

01:00 – What’s so hard about neodymium? And what is Niron doing differently?04:00 – A rare earth-free magnet: iron nitride and how it works07:30 – The environmental and geopolitical risks of traditional rare earth magnet supply11:00 – Coming out of stealth and the global rare earth crisis 2.014:00 – Commercial pilot facility launched; full-scale factory coming in 202717:00 – Performance gains: higher thermal stability, motor efficiency improvements21:00 – Small motor demand: drones, humanoid robots, and data center cooling25:00 – Scaling U.S. magnet production from grams to 10,000 tons29:00 – The capital challenge: what funding hard tech actually requires33:00 – IP protection, cyber threats, and building a team for scale36:00 – Why domestic magnet production could drive reshoring of entire supply chains40:00 – What else needs to be rebuilt: copper, steel, automation, and skilled labor

Key Topics

* Iron nitride as a rare earth-free alternative to neodymium magnets

* The technical and geopolitical vulnerabilities of global magnet supply

* Niron’s commercialization roadmap: pilot facility to 10,000-ton factory

* Motor design, thermal stability, and efficiency performance tradeoffs

* Strategic applications: EVs, drones, defense, data centers

* Reshoring through component innovation: building near demand

* U.S. capital markets and the gap in scaling hard tech

* The future of skilled labor in an automated manufacturing world

Learn more: nironmagnetics.com

Sponsor

This episode of TOOL OR DIE is brought to you by DOSS, the adaptive ERP.DOSS kills implementation hell by working directly with your team, connecting all your systems to minimize data entry so you can focus on production. Instead of barging in like a bull in a china shop, they take a deep look at your actual operations and build a system that matches how you operate today, replacing only the parts that need improving—rather than trying to fix what’s already working great.

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TOOL OR DIE is hosted by Joel Johnson, former science & tech journalist turned corporate strategist who built brands like Gizmodo, WIRED.com, and Wirecutter; and Alex Roy, General Partner at New Industry Venture Capital (NIVC.us), known for breaking the Cannonball Run record and his work in autonomous vehicles. Each week, they speak with the people actually rebuilding American manufacturing—one machine, one company, one idea at a time.

Follow them at:LinkedIn: joeljohnson | alexroyX: @joeljohnson | @alexroy144

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