Necessity was the mother of invention.
From a basement in Charlestown to a Department of Energy contract, Peter Godart's journey traces the arc of a civilization reckoning with its material dependencies. What began as a vision for aluminum-powered spacecraft became, through the pressures of geopolitical reality, a domestic answer to one of America's most acute supply chain vulnerabilities. Found Industries now stands at the intersection of clean energy and critical metals — a reminder that necessity, more than invention, often shapes the technologies a society ultimately builds.
- China's grip on 99% of global gallium production has quietly become a chokepoint for American defense, semiconductor, and energy industries — and export restrictions imposed in late 2024 turned a latent risk into an active crisis.
- When Found Industries' own aluminum fuel technology was held hostage by foreign-controlled gallium supply chains, founder Peter Godart didn't wait for a solution — he invented one, developing an electrochemical extraction process that works on domestic industrial byproducts.
- The U.S. Department of Energy responded with $5.4 million in funding, validating what started as an internal fix as a genuine national security asset.
- Found Industries is now splitting into two divisions — Found Metals targeting gallium, indium, and germanium extraction by 2027, and the original aluminum fuel business scaling toward megawatt-level industrial power generation.
- The two tracks are not parallel bets but a single interlocking system: the metals division secures the inputs the energy division needs, while the energy business justifies the scale the metals operation requires.
Peter Godart first imagined aluminum as a fuel while working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — a metal 40 times more energy-dense than lithium-ion batteries, capable of reacting with water to produce electricity. He pursued the idea through a PhD at MIT and, by 2022, had launched Found Energy from his Charlestown basement with a working kilowatt-scale system. The company grew fast, licensing MIT technology and moving into a 20,000-square-foot facility, with a vision of tapping the 70 million tons of aluminum already circulating through global supply chains.
Scaling the business, however, exposed a critical weakness. The catalyst powering Found's aluminum reactors required gallium — a metal China produces with near-total global dominance. When Godart tried to source extraction tools independently, he found the supply chain effectively closed to Western companies. Rather than accept the dependency, he developed his own solution: an electrochemical process to extract gallium from Bayer liquor, a byproduct of aluminum refining, that works continuously and recovers the metal even at low concentrations.
The timing proved consequential. When China began restricting gallium exports toward the end of 2024, what Godart had built as an internal fix suddenly carried national security weight. Gallium underpins defense systems, semiconductors, and energy infrastructure — and its concentration in a single country had become a vulnerability the U.S. government was urgently trying to close.
In April 2026, the Department of Energy awarded Found Industries $5.4 million to commercialize domestic gallium recovery. The company is now launching Found Metals as a dedicated division, with plans to extract gallium, indium, and germanium by end of 2027. Meanwhile, the aluminum fuel side continues to advance, with a 100-kilowatt demonstration running and industrial orders for several megawatts in progress. What began as a thought experiment about powering spacecraft has become two interlocking businesses — one supplying the critical metals America needs, the other building the clean industrial power infrastructure that could reshape how energy moves through the economy.
Peter Godart was working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when he had what he calls a crazy idea: aluminum, the same metal used to build spacecraft, could be turned into fuel. The metal is roughly 40 times more energy-dense than lithium-ion batteries. All it needs is an oxidizer—water, for instance—and a catalyst to unlock that stored energy. He spent years chasing that vision, first at NASA exploring how such a system might power operations on other planets, then back at MIT, where he earned his PhD in 2021, refining the chemistry to make it work on Earth.
By 2022, Godart had launched Found Energy from his basement in Charlestown, Massachusetts, with a working system that could feed aluminum treated with a special catalyst into a reactor alongside water and produce electricity at the kilowatt scale. The company licensed technology from MIT, grew quickly, and moved into a 20,000-square-foot facility. The vision was straightforward: take the 70 million tons of aluminum already moving through global supply chains each year, treat it as a fuel source, and generate industrial heat and power. The reaction leaves behind hydrated aluminum oxide, which can be recycled or sold.
But as Godart scaled the business, he hit a wall. The catalyst at the heart of his aluminum reactors required gallium, a metal that China produces 99 percent of globally. When he tried to source the tools and materials needed to extract gallium himself, he found doors closed. China's dominance over gallium production—and the extraction equipment that dominance creates—meant Western companies had few alternatives. So in 2024, facing a supply chain vulnerability that threatened his own business, Godart developed a new technology: an electrochemical process to pull gallium directly from Bayer liquor, an industrial byproduct of aluminum refining. Unlike traditional extraction methods that rely on foreign-controlled chemicals and resins, his approach works continuously and can recover gallium even at low concentrations.
Then, toward the end of 2024, China began restricting exports of critical metals including gallium. What had started as an internal solution to a supply problem suddenly looked like a national security asset. Gallium matters far beyond aluminum fuel reactors. It's essential to defense systems, semiconductors, and energy infrastructure. The concentration of its production in a single country, combined with export controls, had become a vulnerability the U.S. government was actively trying to address.
In April 2026, the Department of Energy selected Found Industries for its $5.4 million program to recover gallium from domestic feedstocks. The company is now launching Found Metals as a separate division, with plans to begin extracting gallium, indium, and germanium by the end of 2027. Godart says the move is partly about necessity—controlling your inputs is now table stakes for any company dealing in physical goods—but also about timing. The government needs domestic sources of critical metals. Found can provide them while simultaneously securing the supply chain for its own aluminum fuel business.
Meanwhile, the aluminum fuel division continues to advance. Found is running a 100-kilowatt demonstration system and working through orders for several megawatts from large industrial companies. Godart's long-term vision is to scale the technology to power major industrial facilities—aluminum refineries alone consume hundreds of megawatts of continuous thermal power. What began as a thought experiment about fueling spacecraft has become a dual-track business: one branch producing the metals America needs, the other producing the clean industrial power that could help reshape how energy is distributed across the economy. Both depend on each other now. Both are moving toward deployment.
Notable Quotes
Gallium is the world's most critical metal, as it's 99 percent controlled by China. We couldn't get our hands on some of those tools, so we were forced to come up with a new technology.— Peter Godart, founder of Found Industries
You need to be able to control your inputs. By focusing on metals, it improves the likelihood of success for our aluminum fuel business.— Peter Godart
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did Godart need to solve the gallium problem himself? Couldn't he just wait for someone else to build that supply chain?
Because waiting wasn't an option. He had customers ready to buy his aluminum fuel systems, but he couldn't get the catalyst material to build them. China controls the production and the extraction tools. He was stuck.
So this wasn't some grand plan to fix American supply chains. It was survival.
Exactly. He needed gallium for his own reactors. But once he'd solved that problem, he realized the government was desperate for exactly what he'd built. The timing aligned.
Does the aluminum fuel business actually work at scale, or is this mostly about the metals extraction now?
Both are real. He's got a 100-kilowatt demo running and industrial orders. But he spends most of his time on gallium now because that's where the government funding is and where the immediate need sits. The fuel business is the long game.
What happens if China decides to lift its export restrictions?
Then the pressure eases, but the domestic supply chain still matters. Once you've built the capability, you don't lose it. And companies will want to control their own inputs anyway. That's the new reality for manufacturing.