Silicon Valley loves a comeback story. Last week Travis Kalanick, the Uber cofounder who left the ridesharing company in 2017 following accusations of a toxic workplace, announced a $1.7 billion equity investment led by Andreessen Horowitz for his new company, Atoms. The company will focus on “physical AI,” like meal-cooking robots and autonomous mining machines. “Look around you,” he wrote. “Everything is grown or mined—manufactured and moved. That is industry.”

Atoms is just one of dozens of companies trying to upend the centuries-old industry. For this week’s column, I focused on the ideology driving a new-age industrial revolution—the promises drawing young men away from Silicon Valley and back into the mines.

I’m Margaux MacColl, filling in for Julia Black. Read on for my piece about the young men buying up mines in Utah, hunting minerals in the Congo, and heading out to sea trying to extract ore from the ocean’s bottom.

Mentioned in this issue: Steve Witkoff, World Liberty Financial, President Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco, Zack London, Kalshi, Netflix, KoBold Metals, Mariana Minerals, Jacki McGavick, Elon Musk, the Boring Company, and more…

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