Jake Paul Backs Project to Revive US Titanium Sponge Output

(Bloomberg) -- Social media influencer turned professional boxer Jake Paul is backing a Silicon Valley startup that's planning to revive US production of titanium sponge, a semi-processed form of a metal used in jet engines and missiles.

American Advanced Materials will use funds from a $12.5 million seed round led by Amity Ventures LLC to grow its team and design a commercial titanium sponge plant. Anti Fund, co-founded by Paul and tech entrepreneur Geoffrey Woo, participated in the round along with venture capital firm Human Capital, AAM said in a statement.

Titanium is a critical mineral used in aerospace and military applications, including aircraft frames and engines as well as satellites, ships and submarines. The metal's high strength relative to its weight, along with its resistance to heat and corrosion, makes it difficult to substitute.

While the US retains significant melting and manufacturing capacity, it didn't produce any titanium sponge – the intermediate product between ore and metal – in 2025. Instead, it imported a record 44,000 tons, mostly from Japan, according to the US Geological Survey. The last major US producer, Titanium Metals Corp.'s Henderson, Nevada, plant was idled in 2020.

"Titanium is critical for anything that flies," AAM co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Alex Liegl said in an interview, adding that the timing was right for a new facility. "You have geopolitically driven supply-chain vacuums, where a new entrant can come in and own a category that was neglected or orphaned by incumbents – titanium sponge being a prime example."

While industrial metals aren't familiar territory for many Silicon Valley investors, AAM has assembled a team including veterans from former titanium sponge producers Timet and ATI Inc., as well as engineers from Tesla Inc., Liegl said.

"Venture capitalists are also seeing a government and an industry that are only now willing to partner with early-stage companies," said the CEO, who previously founded a renewable-energy Bitcoin-mining company and a fintech platform for electric vehicles and home electrification.

AAM is targeting initial annual capacity of about 20,000 tons, with a long-term goal of meeting US demand in full. The company is considering both brownfield and greenfield locations, most likely in a US Gulf Coast state, and hopes to finalize details in six to nine months, Liegl said.