Terra AI announces clients and fundraise
Terra AI Secures Seed Funding and Signs Major Clients to Transform Mineral Exploration with AI
Backed by Khosla Ventures and Rio Tinto, Terra AI’s breakthrough AI platform slashes exploration costs and timeframes for critical mineral and energy projects.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Terra AI, the artificial intelligence platform solving subsurface uncertainty for mineral and energy exploration, today announced new funding and strategic partnerships with several major mining and energy companies, including Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO), Ero Copper (NYSE: ERO), and Ramaco Resources (NASDAQ: METC). The announcement marks a major milestone for the company as it emerges from stealth with field-proven technology and rapidly scaling global deployments.
Terra AI’s mission is to fundamentally reshape how the world discovers and develops mineral and subsurface energy resources. With AI demand, energy transition needs, and geopolitical pressures driving historic spikes in mineral demand, the exploration industry faces an urgent bottleneck. Current exploration methods are costly and slow—resulting in false positive rates exceeding 90% and project timelines stretching to nearly two decades.
“We are entering a new era of global demand for subsurface resources—facing an exploration gap that will define whether we meet our climate, energy, and AI ambitions,” said John Mern, CEO and Co-Founder of Terra AI. “Our platform brings a paradigm shift to exploration decision-making—reducing uncertainty, integrating diverse datasets, and helping teams choose where to drill, faster and more intelligently than ever before.”
A Breakthrough in Subsurface Intelligence
Terra AI applies patent-pending generative modeling techniques and real-time geophysical simulations—some 125,000x faster than traditional methods—to create thousands of geologic models conditioned on real-world data. Like a self-driving car mapping potential paths on the road ahead, Terra AI explores millions of geologic possibilities underground to guide the most impactful next steps in exploration. The result: 40% reductions in drilling meters and major gains in confidence and accuracy.
Alex Moyes, Director of Critical Minerals, Ramaco Resources, said:
“Integrating Terra AI into our workflow is a generational leap forward. It’s not just enhancing our understanding—it’s transforming how we explore rare earths.”
Mike Hocking, VP Exploration, Ero Copper, added:
“Terra’s tools helped us prioritize targets with more confidence. Their technology complemented our process and accelerated parts of our workflow.”
Pablo Mejia, former VP Exploration at Ero Copper, said:
“Terra AI helped us discover unexpected insights—renewing our understanding of the mineralization we were seeking.”
Industry and Investor Backing
Terra AI’s $3.4M seed round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Storyhouse Ventures, Plug and Play, The TomKat Center for Sustainability, Climate Capital, and Rio Tinto, which also serves as a client and strategic partner.
Pekka Santasalo, Head of Growth & Ventures at Rio Tinto, said: ““As demand for critical materials grows, so does the need to discover them with less impact. Terra AI’s technology has the potential to bring a step-change to interpreting and processing the geological and exploration data. We first backed them through our Accelerator Program and look forward to seeing what comes next”.
In total, Terra AI has worked with global majors and emerging juniors across critical mineral, rare earth, and carbon storage projects, delivering value on billions in potential resource development.
A New Standard for Exploration
Founded in 2023 by Stanford AI PhDs John Mern and Anthony Corso—with backgrounds at Boeing Phantom Works, Kobold Metals, and NASA—Terra AI aims to become the backend intelligence engine of every exploration decision in mining and energy. The company is already partnering on high-impact projects spanning copper, rare earths, and offshore carbon storage.
“There are thousands of exploration-stage deposits active today, and hundreds that will define our energy and industrial future,” said Mern. “Terra AI is building the platform to unlock them.”
About Terra AI
Terra AI solves the world’s most critical subsurface problems with cutting-edge artificial intelligence. The company’s patented platform fuses geophysics, geochemistry, and drilling data to generate probabilistic models of the underground—driving faster, more accurate, and lower-cost resource exploration. Backed by Khosla Ventures, Rio Tinto, and others, Terra AI has already created hundreds of millions in value for mining and energy companies globally. Learn more at www.terraai.com.
Media Contact
Danny Donahue
Head of Growth
Terra AI Secures Seed Funding and Signs Major Clients to Transform Mineral Exploration with AI
Backed by Khosla Ventures and Rio Tinto, Terra AI’s breakthrough AI platform slashes exploration costs and timeframes for critical mineral and energy projects.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Terra AI, the artificial intelligence platform solving subsurface uncertainty for mineral and energy exploration, today announced new funding and strategic partnerships with several major mining and energy companies, including Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO), Ero Copper (NYSE: ERO), and Ramaco Resources (NASDAQ: METC). The announcement marks a major milestone for the company as it emerges from stealth with field-proven technology and rapidly scaling global deployments.
Terra AI’s mission is to fundamentally reshape how the world discovers and develops mineral and subsurface energy resources. With AI demand, energy transition needs, and geopolitical pressures driving historic spikes in mineral demand, the exploration industry faces an urgent bottleneck. Current exploration methods are costly and slow—resulting in false positive rates exceeding 90% and project timelines stretching to nearly two decades.
“We are entering a new era of global demand for subsurface resources—facing an exploration gap that will define whether we meet our climate, energy, and AI ambitions,” said John Mern, CEO and Co-Founder of Terra AI. “Our platform brings a paradigm shift to exploration decision-making—reducing uncertainty, integrating diverse datasets, and helping teams choose where to drill, faster and more intelligently than ever before.”
A Breakthrough in Subsurface Intelligence
Terra AI applies patent-pending generative modeling techniques and real-time geophysical simulations—some 125,000x faster than traditional methods—to create thousands of geologic models conditioned on real-world data. Like a self-driving car mapping potential paths on the road ahead, Terra AI explores millions of geologic possibilities underground to guide the most impactful next steps in exploration. The result: 40% reductions in drilling meters and major gains in confidence and accuracy.
Alex Moyes, Director of Critical Minerals, Ramaco Resources, said:
“Integrating Terra AI into our workflow is a generational leap forward. It’s not just enhancing our understanding—it’s transforming how we explore rare earths.”
Mike Hocking, VP Exploration, Ero Copper, added:
“Terra’s tools helped us prioritize targets with more confidence. Their technology complemented our process and accelerated parts of our workflow.”
Pablo Mejia, former VP Exploration at Ero Copper, said:
“Terra AI helped us discover unexpected insights—renewing our understanding of the mineralization we were seeking.”
Industry and Investor Backing
Terra AI’s $3.4M seed round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Storyhouse Ventures, Plug and Play, The TomKat Center for Sustainability, Climate Capital, and Rio Tinto, which also serves as a client and strategic partner.
Pekka Santasalo, Head of Growth & Ventures at Rio Tinto, said: ““As demand for critical materials grows, so does the need to discover them with less impact. Terra AI’s technology has the potential to bring a step-change to interpreting and processing the geological and exploration data. We first backed them through our Accelerator Program and look forward to seeing what comes next”.
In total, Terra AI has worked with global majors and emerging juniors across critical mineral, rare earth, and carbon storage projects, delivering value on billions in potential resource development.
A New Standard for Exploration
Founded in 2023 by Stanford AI PhDs John Mern and Anthony Corso—with backgrounds at Boeing Phantom Works, Kobold Metals, and NASA—Terra AI aims to become the backend intelligence engine of every exploration decision in mining and energy. The company is already partnering on high-impact projects spanning copper, rare earths, and offshore carbon storage.
“There are thousands of exploration-stage deposits active today, and hundreds that will define our energy and industrial future,” said Mern. “Terra AI is building the platform to unlock them.”
About Terra AI
Terra AI solves the world’s most critical subsurface problems with cutting-edge artificial intelligence. The company’s patented platform fuses geophysics, geochemistry, and drilling data to generate probabilistic models of the underground—driving faster, more accurate, and lower-cost resource exploration. Backed by Khosla Ventures, Rio Tinto, and others, Terra AI has already created hundreds of millions in value for mining and energy companies globally. Learn more at www.terraai.com.
Media Contact
Danny Donahue
Head of Growth
Terra AI Secures Seed Funding and Signs Major Clients to Transform Mineral Exploration with AI
Backed by Khosla Ventures and Rio Tinto, Terra AI’s breakthrough AI platform slashes exploration costs and timeframes for critical mineral and energy projects.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Terra AI, the artificial intelligence platform solving subsurface uncertainty for mineral and energy exploration, today announced new funding and strategic partnerships with several major mining and energy companies, including Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO), Ero Copper (NYSE: ERO), and Ramaco Resources (NASDAQ: METC). The announcement marks a major milestone for the company as it emerges from stealth with field-proven technology and rapidly scaling global deployments.
Terra AI’s mission is to fundamentally reshape how the world discovers and develops mineral and subsurface energy resources. With AI demand, energy transition needs, and geopolitical pressures driving historic spikes in mineral demand, the exploration industry faces an urgent bottleneck. Current exploration methods are costly and slow—resulting in false positive rates exceeding 90% and project timelines stretching to nearly two decades.
“We are entering a new era of global demand for subsurface resources—facing an exploration gap that will define whether we meet our climate, energy, and AI ambitions,” said John Mern, CEO and Co-Founder of Terra AI. “Our platform brings a paradigm shift to exploration decision-making—reducing uncertainty, integrating diverse datasets, and helping teams choose where to drill, faster and more intelligently than ever before.”
A Breakthrough in Subsurface Intelligence
Terra AI applies patent-pending generative modeling techniques and real-time geophysical simulations—some 125,000x faster than traditional methods—to create thousands of geologic models conditioned on real-world data. Like a self-driving car mapping potential paths on the road ahead, Terra AI explores millions of geologic possibilities underground to guide the most impactful next steps in exploration. The result: 40% reductions in drilling meters and major gains in confidence and accuracy.
Alex Moyes, Director of Critical Minerals, Ramaco Resources, said:
“Integrating Terra AI into our workflow is a generational leap forward. It’s not just enhancing our understanding—it’s transforming how we explore rare earths.”
Mike Hocking, VP Exploration, Ero Copper, added:
“Terra’s tools helped us prioritize targets with more confidence. Their technology complemented our process and accelerated parts of our workflow.”
Pablo Mejia, former VP Exploration at Ero Copper, said:
“Terra AI helped us discover unexpected insights—renewing our understanding of the mineralization we were seeking.”
Industry and Investor Backing
Terra AI’s $3.4M seed round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Storyhouse Ventures, Plug and Play, The TomKat Center for Sustainability, Climate Capital, and Rio Tinto, which also serves as a client and strategic partner.
Pekka Santasalo, Head of Growth & Ventures at Rio Tinto, said: ““As demand for critical materials grows, so does the need to discover them with less impact. Terra AI’s technology has the potential to bring a step-change to interpreting and processing the geological and exploration data. We first backed them through our Accelerator Program and look forward to seeing what comes next”.
In total, Terra AI has worked with global majors and emerging juniors across critical mineral, rare earth, and carbon storage projects, delivering value on billions in potential resource development.
A New Standard for Exploration
Founded in 2023 by Stanford AI PhDs John Mern and Anthony Corso—with backgrounds at Boeing Phantom Works, Kobold Metals, and NASA—Terra AI aims to become the backend intelligence engine of every exploration decision in mining and energy. The company is already partnering on high-impact projects spanning copper, rare earths, and offshore carbon storage.
“There are thousands of exploration-stage deposits active today, and hundreds that will define our energy and industrial future,” said Mern. “Terra AI is building the platform to unlock them.”
About Terra AI
Terra AI solves the world’s most critical subsurface problems with cutting-edge artificial intelligence. The company’s patented platform fuses geophysics, geochemistry, and drilling data to generate probabilistic models of the underground—driving faster, more accurate, and lower-cost resource exploration. Backed by Khosla Ventures, Rio Tinto, and others, Terra AI has already created hundreds of millions in value for mining and energy companies globally. Learn more at www.terraai.com.
Media Contact
Danny Donahue
Head of Growth
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