The U.S. just fired a major shot in the battle for AI's raw materials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a new trade alliance called FORGE at a Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, bringing together 54 countries to coordinate pricing and policy on rare earths, lithium, and other materials essential for chips and batteries. The move comes with teeth - coordinated price floors enforced by tariffs, designed to undercut China's longtime strategy of flooding markets with subsidized minerals to crush competition.
The global supply chain for AI chips and batteries just entered a new phase. At the Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled FORGE - the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement - a coordinated alliance designed to break China's stranglehold on the rare earths, lithium, and copper that power everything from Nvidia GPUs to Tesla batteries.
The announcement marks Washington's most aggressive push yet to reorganize critical minerals trade around American interests. According to the State Department, the U.S. signed bilateral critical minerals agreements with 11 countries at the event, adding to 10 similar pacts inked over the past five months. Negotiations wrapped with 17 additional nations, suggesting the coalition could expand rapidly.
But FORGE isn't just about handshakes and coordination. Vice President JD Vance made clear the alliance will operate as a preferential trade bloc with enforced pricing mechanisms. "We will establish reference prices for critical minerals at each stage of production," Vance told attendees, according to his remarks. "For members of the preferential zone, these reference prices will operate as a floor maintained through adjustable tariffs to uphold pricing integrity."
That's a direct shot at Beijing's decades-long playbook. China controls roughly 70% of global rare earth mining and over 90% of processing capacity, a dominance it's wielded as geopolitical leverage. In recent years, Beijing has selectively restricted exports to pressure adversaries and, as Rubio noted, deployed state subsidies to flood markets with below-cost minerals that make competing projects economically unviable.
