Tech News
Critical minerals processing will be the equivalent of 19th-century oil refineries—at a Rockefeller moment

In the 21st century, the most valuable assets aren’t oil wells, factories, data centers, or even AI large language models. The industries of the future require critical minerals. As the world seeks to generate massive amounts of energy, the real money isn’t in mining lithium, nickel, or rare earths—it’s in controlling how they move, process, and scale. A new industrial empire is being built, and just like John D. Rockefeller’s pipelines in the 19th century, the infrastructure behind critical minerals will be an incredible wealth generator.
While most companies race to secure mineral deposits—be they in Greenland, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Uzbekistan—the smartest players see a different opportunity: controlling the entire supply chain. The real bottleneck isn’t finding the necessary and rare minerals—it’s refining, processing, and transporting them. China recognized this early. Though it holds only 36% of the world’s rare earth reserves, it controls over 85% of global refining capacity. That control isn’t accidental. It’s an infrastructure play—one that has made China a dominant force in electric vehicle batteries, among many other things.
The next Rockefeller won’t be a miner; they’ll be a processing systems builder. Consider:
- Processing facilities: The U.S., EU, and allies have massive deposits of lithium, nickel, and rare earths—but lack the infrastructure to refine them. New processing hubs will be the equivalent of 19th-century oil refineries.
- Supply chain control: Just as Standard Oil dominated through pipelines, the companies that master logistics—raw material transport, battery recycling, and AI-driven resource allocation—will control pricing and profits.
- Waste-to-wealth model: Much like Rockefeller turned petroleum byproducts into valuable products, the future’s biggest opportunities lie in recovering and repurposing “waste”—from extracting minerals from mine tailings to scaling battery recycling.
The fragmented nature of today’s mineral market mirrors oil in the 1860s. Mineral prices are volatile, companies operate in silos and are in distress due to lack of processing options outside China, and inefficiencies abound. But soon, the industry will consolidate. The ones who build infrastructure—rather than simply dig—will acquire competitors, dictate pricing, and create empires. China has already been flexing its monopolistic muscle in mineral supply chains to threaten U.S. investments.
Supply chain control
When governments realize that chasing basic sourcing of critical minerals does not automatically yield national mineral security, demand for localized processing and supply chain control will explode. The result? A private sector wealth creation event that could rival the rise of Standard Oil. The next Standard Oil won’t be an oil company—it’ll be one that controls the arteries of the clean energy economy.
Infrastructure plays generate immense wealth by controlling the essential systems that enable industries to function and scale.
Consider today’s tech giants, which create immense wealth via:
1. Control over distribution and logistics: Amazon’s fulfillment and logistics network is comparable to Rockefeller’s pipelines, which controlled how oil moved. Amazon controls how many companies reach customers, making it a backbone of global e-commerce, with nearly two million small businesses using its platform. Over 60% of Amazon’s sales come from third-party sellers.
2. Owning the “toll roads” of industry: Cloud-computing providers (Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, AWS) power the internet economy, collecting fees from companies that rely on their infrastructure. Similarly, Standard Oil didn’t just refine oil—it owned the infrastructure that transported and distributed it, ensuring everyone paid a fee.
3. Investing in adjacent industries: Tesla not only sells cars but also profits from carbon credits, energy storage, and software subscriptions. Rockefeller found value in byproducts such as tar (asphalt), petroleum jelly (Vaseline), and paraffin (candle wax).
4. Scale and network effects: Google controls much of the internet’s infrastructure via search, advertising, Android, and YouTube, ensuring that businesses rely on its ecosystem. Standard Oil built a massive refining and transportation network, making it nearly impossible for competitors to operate efficiently without using its services.
5. Ruthless competition on cost: Walmart and Amazon undercut competitors with ultra-low prices, driving rivals out of business before expanding dominance. Rockefeller showed competitors his books, proving he could outlast them financially, then acquired them at discounted prices.
6. Regulatory resilience through complex structuring: If governments move to break up Big Tech companies (e.g., Meta, Google, and Amazon), investors in these firms can still benefit from their individual growth trajectories. Even after Standard Oil was broken into 34 companies, Rockefeller’s wealth multiplied because he retained ownership in each one.
Just as Rockefeller became the richest man of his era by controlling oil’s movement, today’s wealthiest individuals and companies control the infrastructure of AI, cloud computing, e-commerce, and financial systems.
The upshot? The biggest fortunes are made not by chasing commodities, but by building the indispensable infrastructure that industries rely on. The forthcoming revolutions in AI and robotics might commoditize labor, but those who control the compute infrastructure (Nvidia, TSMC, OpenAI, etc.) will profit most. And they, in turn, will ultimately rely on ancient inputs from the earth. As such, the processing infrastructure of critical minerals represents a new frontier of significant wealth creation.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Turkey plans new big tech regulations that risk clash with U.S.

Turkey is planning new rules to rein in the dominance of major tech firms, imitating the European Union’s regulatory approach at the risk of provoking U.S. retaliation.
The bill, set to be submitted to parliament soon, would prevent technology companies such as Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. from favoring their own services in search engines, app stores, or marketplaces, senior Turkish officials told Bloomberg. The bill is backed by the ruling party and was prepared in collaboration with Turkey’s antitrust authority.
Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 10% of a company’s annual revenue, added the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.
The move comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and the European Union over digital regulations. The EU’s Digital Markets Act or DMA, enacted in May 2023, aims to curb anti-competitive practices by imposing obligations on “gatekeeper” platforms. Turkey’s proposal aligns with the EU’s approach and could risk straining the nation’s trade ties with Washington.
US President Donald Trump has strongly criticized the EU’s DMA, calling it “overseas extortion” targeting American tech firms. In response, he has threatened to impose tariffs.
Under the proposal, closed ecosystems like Apple’s would be required to let users install third-party apps from outside of their platforms, the officials said. In Apple’s case, this means allowing downloads to iPhones and iPads from outside of the App Store, similar to how Google allows sideloading on Android devices.
It would also restrict platforms from processing user data without explicit consent and limit how they use that data for commercial purposes.
Additionally, tech firms would be required to provide commercial users — such as app developers, advertisers and marketplace sellers — with clear information on service scope, performance, and pricing.
The proposal is still subject to revisions before being enacted, and its final provisions could change during the legislative process.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
In wake of tragedies, BofA tasks senior execs with overseeing junior banker workload

Bank of America, which has come under scrutiny for its treatment of junior bankers, is changing who is overseeing the workloads of its young executives. The bank is now having senior bankers—those who hold a title of director or above—monitor the nature and volume of assignments piled on lower level staff who, in an industry famous for grueling hours, often work well into the night to complete deals.
Bank of America’s efforts come after a series of tragedies involving young people that have shaken the investment banking sector. In January, Carter Anthony McIntosh, a 28-year-old investment banking associate at Jefferies, passed away from a suspected drug overdose. McIntoch was working as much as 100 hours a week, the New York Post reported. Leo Lukenas, a BofA junior banker, died in May from a blood clot. Lukenas had worked 100-plus hour weeks before his passing. BofA in 2014 instituted policies to limit young banker hours, the junior execs were often pressured into lying about their workloads, the WSJ has reported.
To carry out its oversight program, BofA has long relied on what it calls a chief resource officer model. Under this model, BofA used mid-level executives, on one-year rotations, to allocate work to junior investment bankers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
BofA has opted to shake up the model as it seeks to build the next generation of leaders, a person familiar with the situation said. The investment bank will now rely on senior bankers, working in permanent, full-time positions across sectors and regions, who will supervise young banker development as their CROs.
Bank of America is picking volunteers or assigning the role to the senior bankers, who are no longer dealmakers, the person said. BofA is seeking executives who have a very strong leadership quality, have managed teams and feel strongly about the evolution of junior bankers, they said.
“We want all of our junior bankers to have the best experience possible, learning from the teammates they work with and further benefiting from the career growth and development this role brings,” according to a BofA statement.
BofA Securities, the investment banking division of Bank of America, employs thousands of bankers. It’s unclear how many are junior bankers. Young executives typically spend several years as a junior banker, including two as an analyst and two to three years as an associate, before they move up to vice president. At that point they usually work on a sector team, like consumer or technology or industrials.
BofA also cut roughly 150 junior investment banking roles, the person. The majority of people that were reduced were “mapped to new roles” outside of investment banking like financial analysis or strategic planning, the person said. “They were given the opportunity to move somewhere else,” they said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Four teens charged for alleged pistol-whipping, attempted Bitcoin robbery of OnlyFans influencer

Four teenagers in Houston, Texas, were charged Thursday for assaulting and trying to steal Bitcoin and Ethereum from an OnlyFans influencer in early March. Kaitlyn Siragusa, known online as “Amouranth,” was sleeping in her home in northwest Houston when three men broke into her room and demanded cryptocurrency, reported FOX 26. Siragusa had previously posted on social media a screenshot of her more than $20 million in cryptocurrency balances, according to the New York Post.
The three men allegedly pistol-whipped the OnlyFans influencer three times before Siragusa’s husband fired shots at the suspects, who then fled Siragusa’s home, according to FOX. The Harris County District Clerk’s Office identified the three men on Friday as Demarcus Morris Jr., 17; Dylan Nesho Campbell, 18; and Bryan Anthony Salazar Guerrero, 19. Officials also identified a 16-year-old as a suspect.
“They brought duct tape and masks and were armed with handguns,” Siragusa posted on X.
The assault and attempted robbery is just one of a series of recent attacks on individuals with known crypto holdings.
In late January, French police leapt into action after a group of criminals kidnapped David Balland, cofounder of the crypto hardware developer Ledger, and his wife, demanding a ransom in Bitcoin. French authorities, however, tracked down the kidnappers and rescued the couple. Balland’s wife was found unharmed but the Ledger cofounder had his finger severed in the ordeal. The Paris prosecutor’s office said that police had arrested 10 individuals alleged to be part of the kidnapping.
And in February, six men were accused in a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit of kidnapping three family members and a nanny from a Chicago townhouse, according to the Chicago Tribune. The criminals released the victims after they forced the family to hand over more than $15 million in cryptocurrency.
Crypto executives and wealthy crypto owners are taking notice. Some are hiring bodyguards to protect themselves from would-be attackers, according to WIRED. And others are buying up “wrench-attack” insurance, or policies designed to insure individuals if they’re the victims of a physical-force crypto robbery.
“In general the best things Bitcoiners can do to stay safe is to remain private,” Jameson Lopp, a famous early Bitcoiner, told Fortune. “The goal should be to avoid becoming a target,” he said. “Don’t go around telling anyone about your Bitcoin holdings. Don’t flaunt your wealth online or in meatspace. Don’t engage in risk activities such as high-value face-to-face trades.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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