Insider Brief
- Comstock and GenMat have entered into an agreement that realigns existing equity investment agreement.
- Comstock’s prior investment agreements called for a milestone-based investment of $50,000,000 for 50% of GenMat’s fully diluted equity, of which approximately $15,000,000 has now been paid.
- Comstock’s overall commitment is reduced from $50,000,000 to $40,000,000, with participation and drag-along rights on future financing and liquidity events by GenMat.
PRESS RELEASE — Comstock Inc. (NYSE: LODE) announced the realization of a series of key milestones by Comstock’s strategic investee, Quantum Generative Materials LLC (“GenMat”), including commencement of early adopter sales, qualifying GenMat for significant additional financing at increased valuations that capitalizes on broadly increased investment interest in developers of generative artificial intelligence technologies. Comstock and GenMat have accordingly entered into an agreement that realigns existing equity investment agreements while simplifying and positioning GenMat for accelerated growth.
Key Highlights
- GenMat’s physics-based AI software for high throughput materials discovery is now proven to simulate tens of thousands of new material properties with unique structures at upwards of more than 98% accuracy, dramatically reducing trial and error cycles and accelerating months of development time down to hours.
- GenMat is in discussions with several early adopters, including globally recognized stakeholders in high value applications, for commercializing across several industries starting with batteries and semiconductors.
- GenMat’s hyperspectral orbital imaging satellite the GENMAT-1 successfully launched into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and has established continuous contact with GenMat’s proprietary Mission Control Software (MCS).
- GenMat developed ready for use generative AI-based software that predicts relevant information pertaining to precious mineral deposits, validated on USGS and Comstock data, and is also currently commercializing.
- GenMat’s realization of these and other confidential technical milestones by GenMat’s world-class technical team mark a pivotal moment in GenMat’s evolution from conception to maturity, as GenMat’s technology transitions to a technology readiness level of 6 (prototype demonstration in relevant environments).
- Comstock’s prior investment agreements called for a milestone-based investment of $50,000,000 for 50% of GenMat’s fully diluted equity, of which approximately $15,000,000 has now been paid.
- Comstock and GenMat have agreed to realign the investment agreement based on GenMat’s significant achievements to date and current strategic, technical, and commercial development plans as follows:
- Comstock’s previously paid $15,000,000 at a circa-2021 post-money valuation of about $46,000,000, now represents approximately 32% of GenMat’s fully diluted equity;
- Comstock has committed up to another $25,000,000 over four years at a current post-money valuation of $200,000,000, increasing Comstock’s stake to up to 40% of GenMat’s fully diluted equity, until such time as GenMat accesses outside capital (expected for later this year); and,
- Comstock’s overall commitment is reduced from $50,000,000 to $40,000,000, with participation and drag-along rights on future financing and liquidity events by GenMat.
- Comstock will license GenMat’s technologies on a modified non-exclusive early adopter basis in mining applications and on an exclusive early adopter basis for biofuels development and applications.
Maturing Rapidly
OpenAI’s ChatGPT employs a generative large language model to generate new, valuable information for a wide range of use cases at orders of magnitude faster than what was previously possible. GenMat’s AI operates similarly, but instead of generating words and language for a wide range of use cases, it generates new atoms, molecules, and physical systems for a wide range of materials applications, harnessing aspects of humanity’s collective knowledge of physics and chemistry combined with proprietary synthetic datasets to discover new materials in an exponentially shorter time than traditional methods have allowed. To put this into perspective, new material discovery typically takes decades and tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. GenMat’s AI can simulate tens of thousands of unique new materials in some cases at more than 98% precision and accuracy within just a matter of hours.
“GenMat has built an exceptional team, a remarkable data infrastructure and platform, and achieved a series of critical technical milestones and readiness surrounding its physics-based AI, simulation, engineering, and satellite remote sensing technology, remarkably, with less than $15 million to date, and they are now actively commercializing its solutions with sophisticated, industry leading technical, industrial and governmental partners,” said Corrado De Gasperis, Comstock Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “GenMat’s technologies are maturing much faster than anticipated when we first invested in 2021, qualifying GenMat for significant additional financing at increased valuations that capitalize on broadly increased investment interest in developers of generative AI-based technologies. The realignment and simplification of our investment agreements positions GenMat to accelerate its commercialization and monetization efforts in every way while we retain our rights in the biofuels and mining fields.”
Comstock’s operations primarily involve the innovation, development, commercialization, and monetization of intellectual properties and related assets, with teams focused on each core function in dedicated lines of business. Comstock also makes, owns, and manages investments in strategic technology developers to support its businesses, as recently demonstrated with significant realized and unrealized gains in Comstock’s metals investments.
Comstock’s investment in GenMat was and remains highly strategic to the expansion and monetization of our mineral estate and the advancements in the production of breakthrough renewable replacements for fossil crude at cost parity.
