The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  May 13, 2026 at 14:39  |  23:34  |  a16z
Speakers
Erin Price-Wright — Andreessen Horowitz General Partner
Turner Caldwell — Co-founder and CEO, Mariana Minerals
Drew Baglino — Founder and CEO, Heron Power

Summary

The conversation features Erin Price-Wright interviewing Turner Caldwell of Mariana Minerals and Drew Baglino of Heron Power about the physical infrastructure bottlenecks constraining AI and US reindustrialization. They focus on critical minerals mining and refining and grid modernization, arguing that automation, reinforcement learning, and solid-state transformers can compress timelines and reduce reliance on overseas supply chains. Both founders discuss lessons from Tesla, workforce development, and policy changes needed to accelerate domestic projects. The main market implication is a long-term investment opportunity in critical minerals, power semiconductors, grid infrastructure, and US manufacturing.

  • AI growth depends on physical infrastructure like critical minerals, energy, and transmission.
  • US critical mineral supply is decades behind China, requiring faster project design, build, and ramp.
  • Mariana Minerals uses software and autonomy to improve mining and refining operations.
  • Heron Power is developing solid-state transformers using power semiconductors.
  • The aging grid lacks control and monitoring and has few domestic equipment suppliers.
  • Co-located supply chains matter more than labor costs for US manufacturing competitiveness.
  • Policy asks include durable industrial policy, permitting reform, and federal grid investment.
  • Founders credit Tesla's culture of risk-taking and mission for their approach.
Ideas
Turner Caldwell Co-founder and CEO, Mariana Minerals 0:00
US critical minerals onshoring opportunity.
The US is 50 years behind China and decades behind globally in critical mineral supply. Permitting and project finance help, but the core problem is slow design, build, and ramp of new minerals capacity even after licensing. Mariana is a vertically integrated, software-first mining and refining company with an operating copper mine in Southeast Utah and a lithium refinery under construction in Texas, targeting 10 projects in 10 years.
REMX COPPER LITHIUM HIGH
Erin Price-Wright Andreessen Horowitz General Partner 0:50
AI physical infrastructure is investable.
AI dominance and reindustrialization are physical projects requiring materials, energy, mining/refining, manufacturing, and grid-scale buildout. Rather than treating AI's strain on the grid as a reason to stop, the US should see it as an opportunity to rebuild the industrial backbone from critical minerals to transmission and interconnection.
AIQ MED
Drew Baglino Founder and CEO, Heron Power 4:53
Electricity sector benefits from grid buildout.
Electricity demand growth is correlated with economic growth, but the grid is an overbuilt, fragile, century-old system. He is a fan of the electricity sector and supports a federal highway trust fund-style framework for grid buildout to improve resilience, reduce costs, and enable manufacturing and energy zones.
XLU Grid infrastructure HIGH
Drew Baglino Founder and CEO, Heron Power 5:16
Solid-state transformers modernize aging grid.
The grid still relies on 100-year-old mechanical systems with little control or monitoring, making it fragile and dependent on few mostly overseas suppliers. Advances in power semiconductors now enable solid-state transformers that use silicon and software to replace steel, oil, and copper in power conversion at data centers, solar, and battery installations.
Solid-state transformers Power electronics HIGH
Drew Baglino Founder and CEO, Heron Power 5:56
US leads silicon carbide power chips.
Power transistor performance has improved for decades but has not been brought to the grid. The power semiconductor space is ready, and the world's leading producer of silicon carbide, a key power semiconductor, is based in the US. The US should leverage and manufacture these applications at home first or lose the benefits to other countries.
Silicon carbide Power semiconductors MED
Drew Baglino Founder and CEO, Heron Power 10:46
US manufacturing needs co-located supply chains.
Labor cost differentials are less than 10% of COGS, so the real competitiveness driver is co-located supply chains. China clusters 7,000 car parts within a 3-hour drive. The US should develop co-located critical supply chains and use automation while creating high-paying technical jobs, supported by durable industrial policy.
US manufacturing US reindustrialization MED
Turner Caldwell Co-founder and CEO, Mariana Minerals 12:42
Autonomy solves mining labor bottleneck.
Mariana is making a big bet on autonomy and reinforcement learning to remove humans from the loop in refinery control and mining operations. This addresses the lack of embedded labor know-how, handles heterogeneous feedstock, and improves productivity, equipment availability, and utilization. Software penetration requires vertical integration and co-locating software engineers with operating teams under aligned incentives.
Mining automation MED
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This a16z video, published May 13, 2026, features Turner Caldwell, Erin Price-Wright, Drew Baglino discussing REMX, COPPER, LITHIUM, AIQ, XLU, Grid infrastructure, Solid-state transformers, Power electronics, Silicon carbide, Power semiconductors, US manufacturing, US reindustrialization, Mining automation. 7 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Turner Caldwell, Erin Price-Wright, Drew Baglino  · Tickers: REMX, COPPER, LITHIUM, AIQ, XLU, Grid infrastructure, Solid-state transformers, Power electronics, Silicon carbide, Power semiconductors, US manufacturing, US reindustrialization, Mining automation