Microsoft has invested in a rare earth materials startup focused on recycling hard drives.
Canada’s Cyclic Materials this week announced it has received an equity investment from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund. Terms of the investment were not shared.
Founded in 2021, Cyclic Materials is a metals recycling company that has developed a patent-pending technology, CC360, to address the challenge of recovering rare earths contained in end-of-life hard drives.
While hard drives are typically sent to an IT asset disposal (ITAD) company at the end of life, Cyclic said the disposal process is designed for data destruction and recovering metals such as gold and silver. Rare earth materials, however, are generally not currently recovered.
CC360 can reportedly allow ITAD companies to separate a portion of hard drives for rare earth recovery, while retaining the rest of the hard drives for their traditional process.
“Microsoft is working to achieve zero waste across our direct operations, products, and packaging by 2030. This means adopting a circular economy approach,” said Brandon Middaugh, senior director, Climate Innovation Fund, Microsoft.
“As demand for rare earth elements continues to grow in importance, we’re excited to support the creation of a sustainable supply of these materials with this investment.”
Cyclic Materials closed its $27 million Series A Funding in Spring 2023. The round was led by BMW i Ventures (BiV) and Energy Impact Partners (EIP), with participation from Fifth Wall, Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC), and seed investor Planetary Capital. Last year also saw the Sustainable Development Technology Council of Canada (SDTC) invest CA$3.6m ($2.6m) in the company.
“We’re thrilled by this endorsement from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund as a key strategic investor who is like-minded in creating a circular supply chain for rare earth elements contained in hard drives used in their data center operations,” said Ahmad Ghahreman, co-founder and CEO of Cyclic Materials.
“This support enables us to accelerate the deployment of our commercial facilities, which is a critical step in growing the domestic supply of rare earths in North America that support the energy transition. Additionally, we value the input that SLS has provided, helping us to validate our new CC360 technology that we believe will prove invaluable to large data center operators such as Microsoft as they work towards their circularity and sustainability goals.”
Cyclic Materials recently opened its Kingston, Ontario-based “Hub100” plant – the first facility to produce recycled Mixed Rare Earth Oxide (rMREO) in North America using its proprietary hydrometallurgical technology, REEPure.
Hub100 has a design capacity to recycle 100 tonnes of magnetic material per year, producing recycled mixed rare earth oxides (rMREO) that can be reused in the rare earth magnet supply chain, as well as nickel and cobalt hydroxides.
Other investments made by Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund include carbon capture firms CarbonCure, Climeworks, and Heirloom; low-carbon steel firm Boston Metal; microgrid firm AutoGrid (acquired by Uplight); geothermal firm Eavor; battery firm Group14; and Flexidao, among others.
