RARE/EARTH
The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals and the AI Supply Chain
4:30 p.m. | Labyrinth Book Sale + Wine and Cheese Reception
5:30 p.m. | Panel Discussion

The global AI ecosystem is deeply dependent on critical minerals—primarily sourced from countries in the Global South—that are essential to hardware production, energy infrastructure, and the deployment of AI systems. As the tech economy rapidly expands, so too does its appetite for natural resources: critical minerals, energy, land, and water.

The emergence of generative AI has not only introduced new geopolitical dynamics but also intensified long-standing tensions over access to the natural resources that power its extensive supply. A growing contest over critical minerals—described by some as the next “critical mineral supercycle”—is reshaping global power relations and heightening geopolitical tensions, particularly between China and the United States.

Join leading scholars in AI, geopolitics, infrastructure, and resource extraction as they explore this pivotal moment. Together, they will examine the intersections between the AI value chain and the extractive economies on which it relies, offering insight into how this evolving terrain is shaping the future of technology and international relations.

This event is supported by the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Collaborative Research, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.

Registration for this free event is required, available in-person and virtually

Labyrinth Books will be on-site for a book sale beginning at 4:30 p.m. featuring the following authors and publications:

Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War by Howard French
Everything Under the Heavens by Howard French
Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford
Death Glitch by Tamara Kneese
Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador by Thea Riofrancos