T. Rowe Price led a $195m investment in KoBold Metals.

T. Rowe Price, an American publicly owned global investment management firm, led a $195m investment in KoBold Metals, a developer of machine prospector technology, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND, Standard Investments, Equinor Ventures, BHP Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation, Earthshot Ventures, and the July Fund. “KoBold marries elements of two recently hot investment trends. Investors have been pouring money into projects that will help transition the world to a greener economy, including battery production for electric vehicles, clean hydrogen projects and carbon-removal technologies. That all requires a suite of metals that can be hard to find and expensive to dig out of the ground. At the same time, recent advances in artificial intelligence, including the debut this year of AI-empowered chat apps, have funneled investment into AI startups,” Kurt House, KoBold CEO.