# MP plans to train workers as it adds thousands of jobs

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/mp-plans-to-train-workers-as-it-adds-thousands-of-jobs/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [James Litinsky](https://realalpha.app/people/james-litinsky/) · Founder, Chairman & CEO, MP Materials · Founded MP Materials and JHL Capital Group, and leads MP as chairman and CEO.
- Host: [Chamath Palihapitiya](https://realalpha.app/people/chamath-palihapitiya/) · Founder & CEO, Social Capital · Led Facebook's growth team; his firm backed Slack and AI chipmaker Groq.
- Host: [Jason Calacanis](https://realalpha.app/people/jason-calacanis/) · Founder & CEO, LAUNCH · Early Uber angel; sold Weblogs Inc. to AOL; hosts This Week in Startups.
- Host: [David Sacks](https://realalpha.app/people/david-sacks/) · Co-founder & partner, Craft Ventures · PayPal's first COO, founded Yammer; White House AI & crypto czar 2025–26.
- Host: [David Friedberg](https://realalpha.app/people/david-friedberg/) · CEO, Ohalo · Founded The Climate Corporation, sold to Monsanto for about $1.1B in 2013.
- Show: All-In
- Episode: [Winning the AI Race Part 3: Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, James Litinsky, Chase Lochmiller](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/), Jul 23, 2025
- Moment: 7:21 to 10:24 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/mp-plans-to-train-workers-as-it-adds-thousands-of-jobs/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=441

## Quote

> “A maintenance worker can, an electrician, they can **make six figures today**.”
> — [James Litinsky](https://realalpha.app/people/james-litinsky/) at [10:06](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=606) · All-In

## Takeaways

1. MP has 850 employees and expects to add thousands more.
2. The company trains operators and maintenance workers in-house.
3. Some electricians and maintenance workers can earn six figures.

## About this segment

James Litinsky says MP expects to add thousands of workers for its Apple and DoD expansions and trains people on the job. Electricians and maintenance workers can earn six figures, though MP struggles to hire enough.

From “Winning the AI Race Part 3: Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, James Litinsky, Chase Lochmiller”, Jul 23, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[7:25](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=445) We can't be funding cutting-edge drone and robotics companies and then say, okay, but we're going to buy those magnets from China. That makes no sense. Do we have talent capacity or do we have a talent shortage? Secretary Burgum gave me a stat, which was pretty shocking to me, that we only graduate 200 people a year in the United States in mining, which is orders of magnitude different than China.

[7:48](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=468) What do we need to do to be competitive, to build the industry here? It's a great question. I think, Jason, I think about this question a lot. Dave. Oh my God, Dave, sorry. No, no, it's all good. I'm a huge fan of the pod, and I just embarrass myself. This is huge all the time. It's the old, it's the joke in white. I know, and you know I'm a fan of the pod since day one, and I've totally embarrassed myself.

[8:12](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=492) There's only one correction I'll make. Where am I messing with you? Was this intentional? Huge fan of the pod. Yeah, huge fan of the pod. Who are you again? We'll take a selfie later. And I'm not the AIs are. Go ahead. So we have we have eight hundred and fifty employees today at MP. We're going to hire when we include what we're building out for Apple, coupled with what we're going to build with DOD.

[8:38](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=518) We're going to need a couple thousand more people easily, not to mention the construction jobs. So this is this is a key existential question for all of us as we build out. This is where are we going to get the talent? I think what we have found at Mountain Pass, and we hire it all, electricians, maintenance operators, is you get people in, you train them, and then obviously you give people a career.

[9:03](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=543) And so we've been training a lot of people, and it's a little bit more painstaking, but there's absolutely talent out there. People are hungry to do it. Why do you think it's been so hard to establish that idea, meaning you find it straightforward to find good, hardworking people to get into these jobs, but the thought is always that, wow, these jobs are not desirable, but they really are desirable by many people.

[9:26](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=566) Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our median wage is now pushing $100,000 a year, and there's, you know, relative to some of the opportunities that, these are great jobs. What are the starting salaries? What's that? What's the starting salary? It really depends on the job function because there's, I mean, I think the easiest way to think about it is you can certainly, as an operator, make close to $100,000 a year with us because, by the way, everybody's an owner.

[9:57](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=597) We have an owner-operator culture. Everyone got stock when we went public in 2020. But somebody coming out of high school, they can make $40,000, $50,000, $60,000? Yeah, it depends. We can't find enough electricians. We can't find enough maintenance workers. A maintenance worker can, an electrician, they can make six figures today. Tell us, you said earlier that you suspect five years from now, we're going to look back and this deal with the DoD was a blueprint.

[10:22](https://realalpha.app/v/9WkGNe27r_Q/?t=622) Yeah.