Turner Caldwell

Co-founder and CEO of Mariana Minerals, a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company developing autonomous mining and refining for critical minerals used in modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. Caldwell previously spent nearly a decade at Tesla working across factory design, battery materials, mining, and lithium refining.

Critical Minerals and Grid Hardware Are the AI Economy’s Physical Bottlenecks

In an a16z conversation with Erin Price-Wright, former Tesla executives Turner Caldwell and Drew Baglino argue that America’s AI ambitions depend on rebuilding the physical systems beneath them: critical minerals, refining, power electronics, manufacturing and the grid. Caldwell, now CEO of Mariana Minerals, says the US is decades behind China in minerals capacity and must use automation and vertical integration to speed mining and refining. Baglino, CEO of Heron Power, says outdated mechanical grid equipment should be replaced with silicon- and software-based power electronics, backed by durable industrial policy and coordinated infrastructure planning.

a16zMay 13, 202613 min read