As global supply chains strain under the pressure of electrification, AI, defense, and renewable energy demands, a quiet but critical asset class is moving to center stage: rare earth and strategic metals. These materials power everything from EV batteries and semiconductors to wind turbines and advanced defense systems—yet they remain largely inaccessible to everyday investors.
In this article, we explore the business case for rare earth metal investing with Louis O’Connor, a leading voice in the strategic metals space and the founder of Strategic Metals Invest. Louis brings a pragmatic, investor-focused perspective to an asset class traditionally reserved for governments and industrial giants. Rather than speculation, his approach centers on real-world demand, constrained supply, and long-term global trends—a framework that resonates with investors seeking true diversification beyond paper assets.
If you’re looking to understand how rare earth metals fit into a modern wealth strategy—alongside real estate, alternative investments, and tax-efficient planning—this conversation offers a compelling starting point.
Episode Highlights Here:
Brett
Before we jump into this episode, I want to invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward scale to billions and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support. It’s incredible to see your comments, and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me. Hello everybody, and welcome to the build to billions podcast where we got successful entrepreneurs and investors on their journey from millions to billions. We believe that the key to scaling and compounding your wealth and life starts every single day with the mindset and practice of stewardship over ownership and applying billionaire biblical principles. Our ultimate goal is to help you scale and compound your wealth and life, so you give more or all of it away to help MVPs. My name is Brett Swarts. In every episode, we’re joined by some of the world’s top entrepreneurs, millionaires and billionaires. They share their story, secrets and insights with us, so we can all level up and be able to make a bigger impact. I’m excited about our next guest. He’s out of Ireland, a place that I’ve always wanted to go to, but haven’t quite had a chance to go to, but maybe one day. This guest is the founder and principal of strategic metals invest, which provides a marketplace to private investors. Strategic metals invest enables private clients to acquire store and sell physical stocks of precious and strategic metals through its Logistics and Distribution platform, offering portfolio diversification and opportunities and so much more. Please welcome the show with me. Louis O’Connor, Louie,
Louis
very well, very well. Thank you. Brett, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Brett
Excellent. And for our listeners, get to know for the first time, would you give us just a little bit marabout your story and your current focus? Absolutely.
Louis
So, as you said, Louis O’Connor, you can tell from the accent that I’m not from Mississippi. I am coming to you from Ireland. However, we are European company. We’re based in Central Europe with a logistics and distribution platform right in Frankfurt, which is actually the crossroads of Europe. And we’ve been in business for 25 years, supplying industry manufacturers with technology, metals, rare earth elements, which, although people may not be familiar with the name, just a quick example, artificial intelligence, obviously, it runs on data, but it relies on rare earths for magnets, sensors, cooling systems that power computer chips and data centers themselves. In addition to that, these raw materials are in they’re needed in defense, modern technology, energy transition. So that’s our primary business, our core business. We buy and sell. We’ve over a billion dollars in business done. We’re a tier one supplier to many, many blue-chip companies. And what we’re going to talk about Brett is what you guys in America might call our side hustle, which is we have a side business. And that side business, which we’ve been doing since about 2010 is we invite private investors to physically own these raw materials, just like you would gold and silver. And we have a storage facility in Frankfurt. It was a bunker during World War Two, two levels below ground, one level above. And that’s our distribution and logistics platform, where, if somebody buys from us, and stores then they have access when they want to sell to our more than 4000 clients in 74 different countries. Amazing.
Brett
Louie, that’s fantastic. And by the way, if you want to learn more about what Louis is doing and how you too, can buy and invest in strategic metal. So, you should go to strategic metals. Invest.com a strategic metals. Invest.com profit from scarcity and growth. So, let’s dive into the seek the top secret to building wealth within this rare earth and technology, metals. Place. Louie, what? What is the number one secret to that? And let’s, let’s dive in a little more for that.
Louis
Okay, okay, so I’ll use gallium as a case study. So, gallium is, I mean, it’s got multiple applications, but one of the key ones is it’s used in computer chips. Gallium, you won’t find a mine, a significant mine, just for gallium or any of these metals that we’ll discuss. The reason for that is Brett gallium is a byproduct of aluminum mining. So, these are these raw materials. They don’t occur naturally in the Earth’s crust. They’re always a byproduct of another raw material. So, what that means is supply is there’s an inflexibility, or there’s an inelasticity to supply. I’ll give you one example, hafnium is a raw material that’s needed in super alloys in jet engines and nuclear reactors, as well as space technology rocket engines.
Brett
So, if you’d like this little, short clip of the interview I just did, click over here to watch the full interview, and please don’t forget to subscribe to. Thank you so much everybody.
Watch the episode here:
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About Louis O’Connor
Louis O’Connor is the Founder and CEO of Strategic Metals Invest, a firm that provides private investors access to physical ownership of rare earth elements and strategic technology metals. With an international background and decades of experience in global business development, Louis has positioned himself at the intersection of geopolitics, industrial demand, and alternative investing.
Through Strategic Metals Invest, Louis works with established industrial suppliers to open a historically closed market to private capital—allowing investors to diversify into materials that underpin modern technology and national infrastructure. He is a frequent guest on podcasts, webinars, and investor forums, where he educates audiences on why strategic metals are less about short-term speculation and more about long-term positioning in a rapidly changing global economy.
Louis is known for his clear, grounded explanations of complex supply chains and his emphasis on tangible assets backed by real-world use, not financial engineering.
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