Nomadic Venture Partners

Think AI is hot? The supply chain is on fire. Minerals to Megawatts: Can Innovation Close the AI Data Center Supply Chain Gap? Is happening during SF Climate Week and brings together top researchers, founders, and investors for a candid conversation on the real bottlenecks behind AI’s explosive growth—and what it’ll take to build responsibly in a resource-constrained world. If you're building, investing in, or operating in this space, this event is for you. 🗓️ Wednesday, April 23 🕓 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM PDT 📍Hanwha AI Center - San Francisco, CA Space is limited! Secure your spot now - https://lu.ma/d16nh5mj

We’re living in times that once existed only in sci-fi: bringing back extinct animals, sending pop stars to space, and engineering our way toward a cleaner energy future. As demand grows for domestic sources of critical minerals, mining—rarely the most glamorous headline—is taking on a central role in our collective progress. The question isn’t just how much we mine, but how we mine. What would it look like to invest in methods that are safer, more efficient, less intrusive? What if those systems were built in partnership with Indigenous communities and aimed at long-term ecosystem health? This isn’t about quick fixes or flashy breakthroughs. It’s about laying steady foundations for a sustainable energy future—thoughtfully, inclusively, and with an eye on generational impact. That’s why Nomadic Venture Partners is backing the innovators rethinking mining from the ground up—so the next era of resource extraction can serve both people and the planet.

We’re thirlled to announce that Jef Caers will be joining us as a featured speaker for SF Climate Week at our event: Minerals to Megawatts: Can Innovation Close the AI Data Center Supply Chain Gap? Jef is a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford and founder of Stanford Mineral-X, where he focuses on building a sustainable future powered by Earth's critical minerals. His work centers on decision-making under uncertainty in the development of critical mineral supply and geothermal energy—both key to achieving 100% renewable energy. As a leading voice in geosciences and data science, Jef brings a deep understanding of how we can responsibly meet the growing demands of the AI and energy revolutions. Join us to explore how the AI boom is reshaping mineral exploration—and what that means for climate, innovation, and the future of tech. 👉 Register here: https://lu.ma/d16nh5mj #SFClimateWeek #AI #Sustainability #CriticalMinerals #DataCenters #GeothermalEnergy #Stanford

Tem T.: Built for the New Frontier Few can navigate the pit, the pitch, and the portfolio. Tem can. Born in Mongolia and raised in mining, Tem is forged at the intersection of mining engineering, tech, and entrepreneurship. As founder of Nomadic Venture Partners, he leads where others hesitate. In a world racing to secure critical minerals, innovation in mining is the next frontier — full of opportunity and ripe for bold thinkers. Why bring Tem into your world? Because he represents more than expertise — he symbolizes legacy, resilience, and the drive to shape what’s next. Don’t miss your chance to meet Tem IRL at our SF Climate Week event on 4/23. Limited availability - https://lu.ma/d16nh5mj

Mining doesn’t give its employees enough freedom to innovate. As a result, the industry transitions more slowly toward the innovations that actually move it forward. There’s a quiet class of innovators in the shadows. They are testing better ways to mine, process, and decarbonize, often with nothing more than Excel, intuition, and after-hours grit. But not every idea can or should be grown inside the system that created it. In fact, many shouldn’t. Industrial systems are designed for control, not speed. Ideas with the highest long-term potential often look like the biggest short-term distractions. This is not a failure of talent, but of structure. We’ve seen four pathways for innovators to scale their ideas. 1. Leave the company. This is the riskiest move for the founder, but the most conducive to speed and scale. They raise early funds from friends, family, and angels to validate traction. If the solution proves viable, VC may follow. The upside is full control over the IP, the ability to build without internal politics, and a direct line to commercial traction. The downside is that it requires personal risk, and generalist investors don’t understand mining well enough to evaluate the opportunity. The founder must find investors who grasp both the complexity of the problem and the magnitude of the market. 2. Build it inside. This assumes the company is willing to provide time, resources, and protection from competing priorities. If successful, the company may keep the solution in-house, providing recognition but rarely financial upside to the internal founder. The innovation risks being under-utilized, siloed, or eventually deprioritized if leadership changes or commodity cycles turn. Example: VECKTA First built inside Worley, Veckta helps companies deploy onsite energy systems. It later spun out to scale independently. We backed it at seed in 2022, betting it would grow faster outside. 3. Spin it out. If the company sees external scale as the best route forward, it may support a spinout. In this case, the corporate retains some equity, transfers IP to the new entity, and allows the innovation team to lead the new venture. This model preserves alignment while giving the team the independence they need to grow. Example: Endolith We helped Endolith spin-out out of Cemvita Inc. 4. Get the someone to back you from the outside. Rare, but possible, especially when there’s trust, technical traction, and a clear ROI for the customer. Nomadic Venture Partners backed founders who left to solve the problems their employers wouldn’t fund. Some innovations will never see the light of day if it's being grown in the wrong environment surrounded by people with conflicting incentives. Mining needs more of them.

We’re excited to announce that Satyajeet Salgar will be joining us as one of the featured speakers for SF Climate Week at our event: Minerals to Megawatts: Can Innovation Close the AI Data Center Supply Chain Gap? Satyajeet is the Director of Product and UX at Google AI, where he leads teams developing transformative products at the intersection of artificial intelligence, media, and technology. With a deep passion for how AI can reshape the way we create, learn, and grow, his insights will bring a powerful perspective to the conversation around sustainability, innovation, and the global race for critical minerals. Join us as we explore how the AI boom is fueling demand for critical minerals—and what that means for climate, infrastructure, and the future of technology. Register here: https://lu.ma/d16nh5mj #SFClimateWeek #AI #Sustainability #CriticalMinerals #DataCenters #GoogleAI #TechForGood #MineralsToMegawatts

Can climate innovation rise to meet AI’s growing appetite for critical minerals? As artificial intelligence accelerates, so does its demand for energy and resources. Join us during SF Climate Week for an evening of forward-thinking conversations on the infrastructure behind the AI boom. 📅 Wednesday, April 23 🕓 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM PDT 📍Hanwha AI Center - San Francisco, CA You’ll hear from an incredible lineup of speakers, including: Satyajeet Salgar – Director of Product and UX, Google AI Tem T. – Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Nomadic Venture Partners Jef Caers – Founder, Stanford MineralX More to be announced soon! Register now to be part of the conversation: https://lu.ma/d16nh5mj #SFClimateWeek #ClimateTech #AIInfrastructure #CriticalMinerals #EnergyTransition #CleanTech #SustainableAI #DataCenters

During a recent webinar, people asked about the impact of tariffs on the critical minerals sector and the potential effects on our work at Nomadic Venture Partners. My response may have surprised some: we anticipate increased opportunities for tech companies aiming to produce critical minerals domestically. Given China's history of imposing export bans and controls on critical minerals, we foresaw potential retaliatory measures. Indeed, today, China added several additional metals and alloys to their export control list. Pick your favorite rare earth element and it's on the list. These developments raise several critical questions: - Will such disruptions reshape global supply chains for critical minerals and push prices higher? - Do we expect to see regional price disparities? - Could we witness significant arbitrage opportunities in traded metals? - How do you take smart exposure in these opportunities? I wrote about this in my Mining Through the Valleys of Death article a few years ago and called that the Metals Transition is here. Reach out if you want to talk to us about it. https://lnkd.in/gXPhWBba source: https://lnkd.in/g97_um7Z

Mining isn’t optional. It’s the backbone. Yet capital often chases end-use cases, while the foundation of the energy transition gets overlooked. At Nomadic Venture Partners, we’re investing in the innovators transforming the raw side of the clean energy equation—like Endolith, unlocking critical minerals with microbial power; Strayos, bringing AI intelligence to mining operations; VectOres Science, accelerating critical mineral discovery; and Maverick Metals Co., expanding metal production through biology. Cleaner extraction. Smarter processing. Faster discovery. This is the infrastructure the transition stands on— And it’s where outsized returns will come from next. #EnergyTransition #CriticalMinerals #MiningInnovation #ClimateTech #ImpactInvesting #HardAssets #NomadicVenturePartners