A $250M Bet on Earth's Core: How Pulsed Power Could Redefine US Energy

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – June 25, 2026 – The U.S. Department of Commerce has placed a significant wager not just on a new kind of microchip, but on a new way to power the nation. In a definitive agreement announced today, privately held technology firm I-Pulse will receive a $250 million award from the CHIPS Research and Development Office. The funds are earmarked to advance a proprietary technology that lies at the intersection of semiconductors and a powerful, almost science-fiction-like concept: high pulsed power.

While the CHIPS Act is primarily known for its mission to reshore semiconductor manufacturing, this award illuminates a deeper strategic objective: leveraging advanced electronics to solve fundamental challenges in energy and national security. The investment, confirmed by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as a move to strengthen “America’s capabilities and enhancing its national and energy security goals,” is a bet that I-Pulse can unlock the vast, untapped reserves of geothermal energy buried deep beneath American soil.

At the heart of this initiative is the development of specialized, high-temperature silicon-carbide semiconductors. These are not the chips destined for our phones and laptops, but rugged, resilient components designed to operate in the most hostile environments imaginable. For I-Pulse, that environment is miles underground, where their technology aims to make drilling through hard granite as efficient as cutting through wood, potentially transforming the economics of clean, constant energy.

The Third Wave of Electricity

To understand the ambition of this project, one must look past the familiar electrical currents that power our world. I-Pulse claims to be pioneering the “third and most efficient fundamental way to use electrical energy,” moving beyond the alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) that have defined the electrical age since the days of Tesla and Edison. Their focus is pulsed power: the compression and release of immense electrical energy in incredibly short bursts.

“Pulsed power technologies were first employed in the 1960s by Sandia National Laboratories to simulate weapons effects,” noted Dr. Rick Spielman, President of I-Pulse Albuquerque and the company’s Chief Scientist. “Today, I-Pulse will deliver pulsed power technologies to the civilian sector with breakthrough products and capabilities.” This transition from military application to commercial enterprise is a classic American innovation story, and the CHIPS award is its latest chapter. Dr. Spielman, who once led the development of the 'Z Machine'—the world's most powerful pulsed power accelerator—at Sandia, now leads what co-founder Robert Friedland calls “the largest concentration of experts in pulsed power assembled at any American company.”

The government’s confidence in this approach is clear. “I-Pulse's next-generation silicon carbide-based technology is a game-changer for operations in extreme environments,” said Bill Frauenhofer, Executive Director for Semiconductor Investment and Innovation at the Department of Commerce. He emphasized that the company’s high-power switches are “engineered to withstand harsh shocks and temperatures, empowering critical industries to push past previous technical limits.” These are the very limits that have long constrained America’s energy ambitions.

Cracking the Code to Limitless Energy

The most profound implication of I-Pulse’s technology is its potential to solve the Achilles' heel of the renewable energy transition: intermittency. While solar and wind power are crucial, they are dependent on weather and time of day. Geothermal energy, the heat of the Earth itself, is constant. The challenge has always been accessing it.

Vast resources of this clean energy are trapped in 'hot dry granite' formations deep underground. Conventional drilling in these conditions is slow, expensive, and brutal on equipment, making most projects economically unviable. I-Pulse plans to change that calculus entirely.

Their system uses the advanced silicon-carbide switches, funded by the CHIPS award, to deliver powerful electrical pulses that fracture and soften the rock just ahead of the drill bit. The result, as demonstrated in company videos, is a dramatic increase in drilling speed and a vast extension of the drill bit’s lifespan. By “massively” reducing drilling costs, the company aims to enable a new generation of advanced geothermal power plants.

These plants could provide the kind of 24/7, secure, low-cost baseload power desperately needed to support the nation’s growing fleet of data centers and the reshoring of heavy industry. It represents a tangible path toward energy independence built not on fossil fuels, but on American innovation and the planet’s own internal furnace.

A Strategic Hub for a National Mission

The decision to center this ambitious research and development program in Albuquerque is no coincidence. The city is the undisputed global hub of pulsed power research, home to both Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. This CHIPS award doesn’t just fund a private company; it reinforces a strategic public-private ecosystem. It’s an act of industrial policy that builds upon decades of federal investment in national lab expertise, creating a feedback loop where defense-grade science is commercialized to solve civilian problems, which in turn strengthens the domestic industrial base for future security needs.

This award is a textbook example of the CHIPS Act’s broader vision. It directly addresses the goals of furthering American research, strengthening domestic production, cultivating a specialized workforce, and delivering commercial products that enhance the country's technological leadership. By funding the development of these critical components on U.S. soil, the government is actively working to reduce its reliance on fragile foreign supply chains for technologies essential to its future.

A Calculated Wager on an Industrialist’s Vision

Driving this vision is Robert Friedland, a co-founder and CEO of I-Pulse, who is perhaps better known in financial circles as a billionaire mining mogul. His career has been defined by taking on massive, capital-intensive resource extraction projects around the world with his firm Ivanhoe Mines. The partnership between a government pursuing a public good and a financier known for his success in the private resources sector is a powerful dynamic. It suggests a pragmatic understanding that unlocking America's geothermal potential requires both public investment and the kind of industrial-scale execution that has long been Friedland’s domain.

“We are excited to partner with the U.S. government to advance our unique, American technology suite to benefit our great nation,” Friedland stated. With this $250 million federal infusion, which nearly doubles the company’s previously reported capital base, the government is placing a substantial bet that his team, co-led by CTO Laurent Frescaline, can deliver on this promise. The project represents a confluence of public policy, national security, and private enterprise, all aimed at tapping a powerful new resource that could fundamentally reshape the American energy landscape for generations to come.