Billionaire Turns Pentagon Into Trump's Defense Investment Wing

Just four months into his tenure at the Pentagon, private equity billionaire Steve Feinberg has landed his first big deal: a $400 million bet on the US’s only miner of rare-earth elements, a key commodity in the rivalry with China.

The equity investment in MP Materials Corp. - the first in modern Pentagon history - was a priority for the Cerberus Capital Management co-founder, who took over as deputy secretary of defense in March, according to people familiar with the efforts. The deal, which comes alongside $1 billion in financing from JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is to be the first of several aimed at leveraging Pentagon support and Wall Street cash to jump-start efforts to break China’s lock on global supplies of rare earth minerals, the people said.