Boron: The Quiet Commodity With Billion-Dollar Potential
By Guest Contributor: Warren Buffett (Okay, not really — but let’s channel the Oracle of Omaha)
In business, I’ve always said: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” But perhaps the greatest opportunities lie in areas where people aren’t looking at all. Take boron, for example.
You’ve probably never seen it on the evening news. CNBC doesn’t shout its price movements from the rooftops. But if you’re an investor thinking 10, 20, 50 years ahead, boron might be one of the most quietly indispensable materials of the 21st century.
Let me explain why.
📦 The Product People Don’t See — But Can’t Live Without
Boron doesn’t grab headlines. Yet it shows up in everything from:
- Toughened glass (including your iPhone screen)
- Fertilizers that help feed the world
- Permanent magnets in electric vehicles
- Advanced semiconductors and energy-saving materials
- Nuclear shielding in reactors and fusion research
When a material plays this many roles across agriculture, tech, infrastructure, and energy — that’s not a coincidence. That’s a moat.
📈 A Supply-Demand Imbalance Investors Should Notice
Global demand for boron is expected to rise significantly, driven by:
- EV production (boron is crucial in NdFeB magnets)
- Precision agriculture (essential micro-nutrient for yields)
- Clean energy systems (glass fiber insulation, solar panels)
- Defense and aerospace
Meanwhile, supply is… limited. A handful of players — Turkey, the U.S., Argentina — dominate the export game. This creates a strategic dependency. And strategic dependencies often create pricing power.
💰 The Economic Moat Is Real
The best businesses are simple, understandable, have pricing power, and require minimal ongoing capital. Boron fits most of that profile — at least from the commodity ownership and infrastructure investment side.
It’s not just about digging it up and selling it. The real long-term value lies in processing, vertical integration, and applications. Companies that control multiple stages of the boron chain — from mine to magnet to microchip — are the ones that will benefit most.
This isn’t a gold rush. It’s a boron bottleneck — and bottlenecks are where margins live.
🛠️ Look for Businesses With Optionality
Charlie and I always loved businesses that can do more than they appear to at first glance. Boron is optionality in mineral form.
Tomorrow it may help grow food in drought-stricken soil. The day after, it may insulate your home, power your vehicle, or fuel a reactor. Optionality creates value. It also provides resilience — a trait that separates good companies from great ones.
🧠 Final Thought: Value Isn’t Always Loud
If you’re investing based on what’s trendy, you’ll often arrive late and overpay.
Boron isn’t flashy. But it’s useful. It’s scarce. It’s multi-purpose. That’s the kind of thing I’ve built a $800 billion business on.
I’d rather own a quiet compounder like boron than the noisiest startup in Silicon Valley.
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
— Warren Buffett
And when it comes to boron, most of the world hasn’t figured out its value yet.