Turner Caldwell
Co-founder and CEO of Mariana Minerals, a software-first, vertically integrated minerals developer and operator. Previously spent more than nine years at Tesla in battery manufacturing, materials, and minerals-and-metals leadership roles; now leads Mariana’s AI-enabled autonomous mining and refining work, including Copper One.
Three Startups Target Oceans, Mining, and Nuclear Microreactors
Ulysses, Mariana Minerals and Radiant cast technology as a means of operating in, or remaking, large physical domains. Ulysses describes a round-the-clock network of surface and undersea vehicles, while Mariana Minerals CEO Turner Caldwell sees an opportunity to apply modern technologies more holistically across the minerals industry. Radiant extends the ambition furthest, arguing that mass-produced, reliable nuclear microreactors could ultimately enable humans to travel beyond the solar system.
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 Baglino, CEO of Heron Power, says outdated mechanical grid equipment should be replaced with silicon- and software-based power electronics, backed by durable industrial policy and coordinated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.