MP Materials (MP), the only integrated rare earths miner and processor in the United States, reported second-quarter results that saw revenue nearly double and an adjusted break-even that beat market expectations, sending its shares up 2.2% to $48.52 in after-hours trading. The results mark both an inflection point in the company’s own transformation and a snapshot of the escalating US-China contest over critical minerals.
Below are the main takeaways.
MP posted a net loss of $20.3 million, or $0.11 per share, compared with a loss of $30.9 million, or $0.19 per share, a year earlier. Excluding start-up costs and other one-time items, the company broke even for the quarter, whereas analysts on average had penciled in a loss of one cent per share. The improvement was powered by the ramp-up of two new business lines: self-processed rare earths and magnetics.
The results also received direct support from the US government’s price protection agreement. MP recorded $17.6 million in price protection income during the quarter, bringing cumulative receipts to $110.9 million since the payments began in 2025. The mechanism, tied to a Pentagon arrangement, sets a price floor for the company’s products, effectively putting a safety net under revenue when market prices soften.
The Texas magnet facility has begun contributing to the top line. Second-quarter magnetics revenue came in at $16.5 million, generating an adjusted profit of $7.5 million. Over the same period, MP signed a multi-year gadolinium oxide supply agreement with an unnamed US aerospace manufacturer, a deal the company described as worth nine figures. A heavy rare earth separation circuit is being commissioned, with production of terbium and dysprosium expected later this year, extending MP’s reach further down the magnet value chain. In a move to close the recycling loop, the company has also broken ground on a magnet scrap recycling facility at its Mountain Pass site, a step aligned with US restrictions on the export of such scrap.
Chief Executive Officer James Litinsky described the current market as one of “controlled scarcity.” Heavy rare earths, he said, “are hardly leaving China,” while magnet supply has moved to a licensing regime, causing real disruption in aerospace and other industrial supply chains. That tightening grip is becoming commercial leverage for MP. Chief Financial Officer Ryan Corbett said China’s expanded export bans would have minimal impact on the company, citing years of work to make the supply chain resilient. Chief Operating Officer Michael Rosenthal confirmed that an upcoming switch of flotation reagents does not rely on Chinese sources.
MP stopped shipping rare earth concentrate to China for processing entirely in 2025. In the second quarter, revenue from self-processed material surged to $94.4 million — nearly four times the level of a year ago. Production of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide reached 840 metric tons, up 41% year-on-year despite an extended plant shutdown, while sales volumes topped 1,000 tons for a second straight quarter, rising 127%. Management expects third-quarter production to exceed 1,000 tons, with realized prices sustained in the high $90s per kilogram.
The company is pinning its long-term vision on drones and humanoid robots. Litinsky estimated current drone magnet demand at about 500 to 1,000 metric tons per year, with supply “almost entirely in China.” In response, MP launched “Project Swarm” to aggregate and standardize future demand from US and allied drone makers. Looking further out, he argued that a world producing 30 million to 40 million humanoid robots a year would consume 100% of global rare earth magnet capacity.
Financial pressures remain significant, however. Capital expenditure hit $230.3 million in the quarter. While the magnet facility contracted with General Motors and Apple is scheduled to begin commercial shipments in the fourth quarter, the larger 10X plant is still in the foundation stage, and the company has yet to swing to an operating profit. The alternative supply chain being willed into existence by industrial policy still needs time to deliver a return.
