< Previous136 SEPTEMBER 2025 SITE SELECTION R are earth elements may be tedious to extract but their capabilities have become irreplaceable in modern technology and industrial processes. These elements are found interspersed in numerous minerals, coal and coal by-products. China is the current heavyweight with 44 million metric tons (MMT) of rare earth reserves identified, followed by Brazil (21 MMT), India (6.9 MMT), Australia (5.7 MMT), and Russia (3.8 MMT), Vietnam (3.5 MMT), the U.S. (1.9 MMT) and Greenland (1.5 MMT). The Trump Administration seeks to sever U.S. dependence on imports of rare earths, critical minerals and materials, especially from China. However, as of 2024, China satisfied 77% of the nation’s rare earth imports, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In August 2025, it was announced that the administration would consider up to $1 billion in new funding dedicated to ramping up development of U.S. critical minerals and materials essential to U.S. national security. Proposed funding from the U.S. Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains details upwards of $500 million to expand U.S. critical minerals and materials processing, battery manufacturing and recycling, in addition to $135 million to scale the nation’s rare earth elements supply chain through commercial activity. Prior to the late 1990s, the U.S. led in rare earth elements production, before environmental regulations, mine closures and an overall shift in industrial priorities left the nation behind as REE production in China climbed from some 8,500 metric tons in 1985 to 210,000 metric tons as recently as 2022. Mining activity in Wyoming, however, has uncovered raw commercial opportunity. The Element(s) of Surprise Over two years ago, Ramaco Resources was in the midst of exploratory drilling at its 15,800-acre Brook Mine when the team discovered what was ultimately the tip of the iceberg of a now identified 1.7-million-ton Total Rare Earth Oxide deposit. That estimate only reflects deposits found on an initial 4,500 permitted acres of the Sheridan, Wyoming, coal mine. Anticipate those numbers to rise following the July 2025 opening of the Brook Mine Carbon Ore Rare Earth project and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s second five-year land use approval. By securing these permits, Ramaco gains 4,549 additional acres cleared for further operations. Brook Mine represents the nation’s first and largest rare earth mine in over 70 years and the state’s first new coal mine in more than 50 years. Ramaco estimates 565 metric tons, or about 40% of future production, will introduce rare earths key to the aerospace & defense, automotive, electronics, energy and semiconductor industries. “We are strongly encouraged by the progress that has been made on our emerging rare earth element and critical mineral front at the Brook Mine in Wyoming,” said Ramaco Resources CEO Randall Atkins in May 2025. “Last month, China banned the export of terbium, dysprosium and scandium to the United States. This comes on top of last year’s ban of gallium and germanium exports. Together, these five REEs and critical minerals are anticipated to make up the vast majority of both our future revenue and cash flow from the Brook Mine.” In an August earnings call, Atkins noted that the DOE will essentially become the company’s partner in providing resources needed for the exploration, processing, refinement and production of materials and metals from the mine. Aside from other customer inquiries, Ramaco is also engaged with several federal agencies beyond the DOE to advance critical mineral development. “In sum, we are rapidly taking steps to develop our REEs into a commercial business,” Atkins said. by ALEXIS ELMORE alexis.elmore@siteselection.com RARE EARTH OPERATIONS Piles of rare earth oxides praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium and gadolinium. Archive photo by Peggy Greb courtesy of USDA-ARS The Rare Earth Shift SITE SELECTION SEPTEMBER 2025 137 T he Site Selection editorial team here takes on a state whose $4.1 trillion GDP, the International Monetary Fund determined in the spring, is the fourth largest in the world, ahead of Japan, India and the United Kingdom. Why a $4 Trillion Company is Placing All Its Chips on Santa Clara When the world’s most valuable company makes a bet that your community is the best place to build its global headquarters of the future, it’s safe to say that your area is winning. Welcome to Santa Clara, California, where Nvidia is investing nearly $1 billion into real estate acquisitions designed to position the company for sustainable, long- term success. The artificial intelligence chip-making juggernaut with a market capitalization of $4.43 trillion as of August 13 has been on a property-buying spree the likes of which we haven’t seen in Northern California in a long time. Santa Clara, a city of 134,587 people about an hour south of San Francisco, lies just west of San Jose in Santa Clara County, a Silicon Valley mainstay of 1.9 million people. Three of the largest microchip makers in the world — Nvidia, Intel and AMD — call this county home. But it’s Nvidia that’s leading the charge into the AI-powered future of semiconductors. Nvidia’s graphics processing unit (GPU) has cornered the market of chips being used to drive the AI hyperscale data centers being developed and deployed worldwide. And right now, those digital infrastructure builders can’t secure Nvidia’s industry-standard microchips fast enough. Founded by Jensen Huang in 1993, Nvidia became the first company in history to surpass $4 trillion in valuation this summer. Just two months ago, Nvidia filed plans to raze on old warehouse next to its Santa Clara HQ and replace it with a much larger office building. Nvidia intends to construct a 324,000-sq.-ft. office facility on this 11-acre site and add a parking garage with 3,000 spaces. California STATE SPOTLIGHT Nvidia’s futuristic 1.25 million-sq.-ft. headquarters campus is located in Santa Clara, California. Photo courtesy of Nvidia The State That Could Be a CountryADVERTISEMENT N estled at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and 40 miles east of Los Angeles, the City of Rancho Cucamonga is quickly becoming a standout example of suburban transformation. Once rooted in agriculture, Rancho Cucamonga has grown into a leading economic hub with flourishing professional, retail, office, and manufacturing sectors. Businesses and entrepreneurs continue to be drawn to the city’s strategic location and strong workforce. Moreover, the city’s supportive economic environment, with its welcoming policies and initiatives, makes it an ideal place for companies to establish and grow. A Vision for Mobility and Transit Connectivity Rancho Cucamonga’s commitment to transit-oriented development is reshaping how residents and visitors live, work, play, and move throughout the city. The strategic vision for Rancho Cucamonga focuses on creating a balanced and sustainable urban environment. This includes fostering mixed-use developments that blend residential, commercial, and recreational spaces. The City aims to reduce reliance on cars, encourage public transit use, and create walkable neighborhoods by promoting high- density, human-scale blocks, and mixed-use developments along key corridors, all while preserving the character and charm of its existing neighborhoods. At the heart of the General Plan is the HART District, a transit-oriented, mixed-use area bordered by Haven Avenue, Arrow Route, and Rochester Avenue. Designed to scale up over time, the HART District will transform into a vibrant, walkable destination featuring a diverse mix of housing, jobs, dining, shopping, hospitality, and entertainment—creating a culturally rich and dynamic urban experience. Strategically located within the HART District, Cucamonga Station is a multi-modal transportation hub that provides direct connection to air, bus, and local passenger rail. Brightline West will connect Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas with stops in Hesperia and the Town of Apple Valley, and will be the first true high-speed passenger rail system in the nation. With planned projects and enhancements, Cucamonga Station will further elevate the region as a travel and economic destination. Sustainability is at the heart of Rancho Cucamonga’s growth plans. The City is committed to reducing its carbon footprint, enhancing green spaces, and promoting environmentally friendly practices. This includes expanding public transit options, encouraging the use of electric vehicles, and developing green infrastructure. A Thriving Hub for Business and Innovation Rancho Cucamonga offers a stable environment with many lifestyle amenities, a thriving arts and entertainment scene, first-class shopping, and a vibrant culinary scene. With a highly skilled workforce, reasonable lease rates, quality office and retail development, and more than 43 million square feet of industrial, manufacturing, and distribution space, Rancho Cucamonga is the place to grow your business. Rancho Cucamonga offers a unique blend of urban amenities and suburban charm, making it an attractive destination for both startups and established firms. Whether you’re just starting your company, looking to relocate or planning to expand, Rancho Cucamonga officials know the best way to attract business is by making it easy to do business. The City of Rancho Cucamonga has expanded by listening to business’ needs and constantly improving its business environment to strengthen its competitive advantage in the marketplace. Every day, companies in the retail, service, technology, and manufacturing sectors choose Rancho Cucamonga as their base of operations. Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, FiveStar Gourmet Foods, Inland Empire Health Plan, Evolution Fresh, Arlon Electronic Materials, PneuDraulics, Inc., WestLAND Group, Inc., and ConvergeOne, Inc. are just a few of the many companies that have chosen to invest here. Rancho Cucamonga’s approach to growth is rooted in intentionality. Beyond its amenities, Rancho Cucamonga is a city defined by its sense of community. The City’s investment in transit-oriented development is setting a foundation for a healthier, more connected, and vibrant community. Through strategic land use, planning, improved transit access, and integration of outdoor amenities, the city is leading California’s Inland Empire’s shift toward sustainable suburban living. To find out more information about the advantages of doing business in Rancho Cucamonga, California visit www.CityofRC.us/ EconomicDevelopment or call 1-909-477-2750. A WORLD-CLASS COMMUNITY: WHERE VISION MEETS VITALITY 140 SEPTEMBER 2025 SITE SELECTION e move comes months after Nvidia paid $ million to buy a -building offi ce park right before the company purchased an additional three offi ce buildings near it for $ million. Combined with Nvidia’s purchase last year of its own existing HQ campus from its landlord, the fi rm has spent approximately $ million on real estate since May of . Nvidia completed construction on building two on its main campus three years ago. Altogether, the fi rm now occupies . million sq. ft. in the Endeavor and Voyager buildings in Santa Clara — built at a total cost of $ million. In various public statements, Nvidia has indicated that the new property acquisitions are designed to support the fi rm’s plans to invest up to $ billion over the next four years into constructing AI supercomputers — and the fi rm says it will do all of this in the U.S. Where AI Skills Congregate Mark Muro, senior fellow at Brookings Metro, says that “Nvidia lies at the white-hot center of the global AI ecosystem and so it absolutely must remain in the nation’s superstar region of AI. AI skills, knowledge and scale-up are massively concentrated in the Bay Area, where the two main metros — San Jose and San Francisco — account for fully % of all job postings with AI skills. In terms of headquarters sitings, OpenAI, Anthropic and Databricks are in San Francisco, and Google, Nvidia and Apple are in Greater San Jose, making the region’s gravitational fi eld irresistible for high- tech development and dealmaking.” What sets San Francisco and Silicon Valley apart from all other metro areas in the country, says Muro, are AI-readiness assets. Nationwide, % of all online profi les of workers with AI skills congregate in these two metro areas. Other factors driving fi rms like Nvidia to cluster and expand in the Bay Area, he says, include: • Eight percent of all federal AI R&D spending goes to the Bay Area. • Nine percent of all AI publications and % of all AI patents go there. • Stanford, University of California, Berkley, and other top schools are there. • Fully % of all private AI startups founded after operate in these two metros. • irty-two percent of total seed and early- stage VC funding for AI startups went to these two metros over the past two years, including the largest deal, valued at $ billion, raised by San Francisco-based startup Databricks. In light of these assets, says Muro, “it’s basically inevitable that Nvidia would pile onto its presence in the Bay Area. e place is in a class of its own for AI development and really there’s no other place for them to go in the U.S, even though we note several dozen quite impressive AI cities in our recent report on AI-ready metros. Nvidia’s needing to stay there and invest even more in Santa Clara refl ects the special power of high-tech clusters, especially for emergent industries.” 120 Miles North, Sacramento Gets All A’s Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, says that Northern California is on an unprecedented roll. “When you BY THE NUMBERS CALIFORNIA Higher Ed. R&D Expenditure in $000s: $12,867,611 # of NCRCs: 30,278 | % Improved 2023–24: 12.97% Business Tax Climate Rank Change 2024–2025: 0 Industrial power cost (¢/kWh): 18.64 Total Rev. as Share of Total Expenses, FY 2008-22: 100.91% 2024 Workers’ Comp Index Rate: 2.26 Selected Top Projects by Capital Investment COMPANY CITY INVESTMENT $M Novartis Ag San Diego 1,100 Chan Zuckerberg Institute For Advanced Biological Imaging Redwood City 375 Snowfl ake Menlo Park 200 Fuse Energy Technologies Corp. San Leandro 152 Pleaser Usa Walnut Creek 100 Source: Conway Projects Database Jensen Huang, a graduate of Stanford University and Oregon State University, is founder, president and CEO of Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company. Photo courtesy of Nvidia144 SEPTEMBER 2025 SITE SELECTION look at the Greater Sacramento region — about 120 miles north of San Jose — we are among the 10 fastest-growing metros in the country, and we are seventh in job growth. We also have the top three locations for tech workers, according to LinkedIn; and we are rapidly moving up to become a top 10 town for semiconductors.” He adds that Sacramento now has nine of the top 10 semiconductor companies in the world. “Rancho Cordova in Sacramento County is a hub for that sector,” he says. Bosch, for example, is investing $1.9 billion to convert its Roseville facility in nearby Placer County into the largest silicon carbide semiconductor production site among its global investments. The operation will create 1,700 jobs. Blaize, a developer of AI computing solutions, went public earlier this year and raised $150 million. The El Dorado Hills-based firm was founded in 2010 by former Intel engineers and had raised a total of $335 million from investors before it went public. And that’s not even Sacramento’s highest-profile win. That would be the former Oakland Athletics — now known as just the Athletics. For three seasons, this one-time American League powerhouse will play all of its home games at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. A recent three-game series against the San Francisco Giants sold out every seat and garnered national media attention. Could that be a harbinger? Broome thinks so. “We have two objectives: Land a Major League Baseball team in 2028 and land a Major League Soccer franchise. Sacramento Republic FC has a huge following. We are building a $175 million soccer stadium in the rail yards. We think it should be home to an MLS team soon.” — Ron Starner Life Sciences Reverberate Throughout the State Fresh data revealed in Biocom California’s 2025 Life Science Economic Impact Report indicate many of the state’s metro regions are well poised to lead domestic and international life sciences R&D and manufacturing innovation. Last year the industry contributed a $395.7 billion total economic output statewide, bolstered by over 17,220 life science companies supporting more than 1.15 million jobs, 452,445 of which are directly employed life sciences workers. Manufacturing- focused roles make up 31.2% of the state’s total life science workforce, ranking California above Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Digital technology will play an important role in guiding fresh corporate investment. Deloitte’s survey of 150 C-suite executives revealed that almost 60% plan to increase deployment of generative AI into operations, which could create up to 11% in value creation relative to revenue within functional areas by 2030. The Golden State Impact The state’s $65.6 billion direct labor income impact in 2024, although impressive, could have been stunted by a 3.1% decrease in payroll employment which saw a loss of more than 14,400 jobs across the industry. Sub-sectors that experienced the brunt of layoffs were concentrated within areas such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, nanotechnology R&D, biotechnology R&D, medical laboratories and medical equipment wholesale. Each of the state’s leading life science regions, minus Orange County within manufacturing, saw a decline in overall employment during this time. Regardless, sectors like surgical and medical equipment manufacturing, for example, helped offset these losses by adding over 1,000 new jobs over the year. New opportunities are on the horizon as 468 new project investments, totaling over $19.1 billion, were announced by biopharmaceutical, medical device, health tech and Dx/tools companies in 2024. As a whole, California’s life sciences industry drew in $63.1 billion in new investment deals. Some highlights for the year include: • Switzerland-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Lonza invested $1.2 billion to acquire Genentech’s former large-scale biologics manufacturing facility from Roche, located in Vacaville, California. The company announced an additional $500 million would be used to upgrade the site to prepare for next- generation mammalian biologics therapies. • As part of $23 billion in planned U.S. investment over the next five years, Novartis will construct a $200 million manufacturing facility in Carlsbad expand 2024 LIFE SCIENCES DEALS IN CALIFORNIA $10.2B in 148 biopharma deals $2.6B in 83 Dx/Tools deals $3.8B in 153 Health tech deals $2.5B in 84 Med Device deals SITE SELECTION SEPTEMBER 2025 145 its radiopharmaceutical portfolio. The plant, anticipated to be complete by 2026, will be the company’s third U.S.-based radioligand therapy production facility. The company is also establishing its second global R&D hub in the U.S. in San Diego, a $1.1 billion investment. Biocom’s report notes that California’s life sciences industry is driven by six major sectors including biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and equipment, research and testing, scientific research tools and food and agriculture biotechnology. Dominance within these areas is reinforced by a steady stream of research funding. Of all U.S. states, California receives the most National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) funding, pulling in a combined $5.7 billion across 10,624 awards in 2024. Regional Insights The Bay Area’s nine counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma — continue to serve as the nucleus of California’s life sciences industry, leading with a $123.6 billion total economic output in 2024. A closer look at the county-level economic impact shows that San Mateo County ($50.3 billion), Santa Clara County ($29.6 billion) and Alameda County ($25 billion), led the region in total output activity. Nearly 150,500 of the state’s industry employees are located in the Bay Area, a majority of which are employed within biotechnology, research and testing and biopharmaceutical sectors. These counties hold over 3,800 life sciences operations. Industry leaders located throughout the region include Abbott Laboratories, Bayer, Intuitive Surgical, Johnson & Johnson, Genentech and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Top research institutions University of California San Francisco; Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley, are a powerful pull to the Bay Area, churning out an array of diverse talent. The region’s prime research capabilities made it the beneficiary of $2.15 billion in NIH and NSF funding over the year. Greater Los Angeles was the second-highest- performing California region in 2024, contributing a $60.2 billion total economic output. It actually tops the Bay Area in the number of life science establishments with over 3,966 in the region, portfolio toppers Amgen, Grifols, Kite Pharma and Takeda among the major employers. San Diego follows with a $54.1 billion 2024 economic output impact. The region holds over 72,300 more employees than Greater Los Angeles at 166,907 workers. Direct employees total 71,448 among the region’s 2,042 life science companies. The research and testing sector holds the highest concentration of regional talent as several major life sciences companies have located R&D centers here, including Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Hologic, Pfizer and Vertex. — Alexis Elmore Rockets Over California California is home to one-third of all U.S. space tech startups and is also the recipient of over 70% of venture capital space tech funding in the country, having received $60.8 billion in defense contract spending in 2023 and generated over 66,200 jobs, $18.5 billion in economic output and $1 billion in state tax revenue. Coined “Space Beach” for its long-standing reputation as a major aerospace & defense (A&D) hub, Long Beach has also welcomed the operating locations and headquarters of several companies such as JetZero, Rocket Lab and Boeing. In early 2025, Colorado-based aerospace & defense technology company True Anomaly Inc. revealed it would also call Space Beach home with a 90,000-sq.-ft. facility that will include a 20,000-sq.-ft. office space. “Long Beach is the perfect location to usher in a new era of space defense, and we’re thrilled to establish an epicenter of defense disruption there,” says Even Rogers, True Anomaly CEO and co- founder. “At a time when space is the most promising University of California San Francisco is one of several universities that help the Bay Area lead in talent and in R&D. Photo by Barbara Ries courtesy of UCSFNext >