XTRIUM

It’s 9am on a Tuesday, your CEO just got a call asking where exactly the #Gallium comes from. More importantly can you trace it and provide evidence. Every supply chain executive’s nightmare. That is what the recent EO-14415 requires with no waivers. Something every manufacturer needs even if your customer is not the federal government. Just knowing where the mines are isn’t sufficient. Material supply chain is defined as everything from exploration and mining to concentration, separation, alloying, recycling, reprocessing, packaging into a sub component. Your customer now requires you to trace a material from bedrock to end use. Essential if you want resiliency in your supply chain. This data from Varcolacus tracks 32 critical raw materials across mined origin, refining location, and real bilateral trade and shows some very interesting insights. For 18 of 32 the top exporter is not the top miner. The real leverage is with the refiner and the trade routes, not the country with the ore. On paper, the government is asking defense and industrial suppliers to map critical supply chains “from raw materials to end products.” In practice, most manufacturers do not have a clean way to see • where their materials are mined • who actually refines them • which trade partners and routes they depend on • how those patterns changed over the last 20 years If I were a supply chain executive, here is how I would go about tackling this requirement. 1. Build an indentured bill of materials that traces each component back to raw origin and refining chokepoint. 2. You need to test how many of those paths cross a single refiner, country, or route. 3. Ask how quickly your team can update that view when supply moves. Once you try to do that with more than a few materials you realize the complexity and scale of the requirement. A static report prepared by a consultant isn’t going to be enough. A living map of the critical materials system you are actually using connected to your bill of material that takes into account your business constraints is what’s needed. 💫Dr. Sirisha K. Raghunandan Lisa Brian Andrew Carolina Katie XTRIUM Vidhya Chris Critical Materials America Critical Minerals, Materials, & Manufacturing at CMEI United States Department of War U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science

These 10 weeks have flown by, and today marks the end of the internship for Zoe Mathes and Aanchal Narayan at XTRIUM. Through the DivInc NextGen Internship Program, in collaboration with Blackstone LaunchPad and BASTA, we had the opportunity to welcome Zoe and Aanchal into the fast-paced world of startups and have them become a part of the XTRIUM team. Over the past 10 weeks, both brought a lot of curiosity, energy, and new ideas to the team. Zoe Mathes joined us as a Marketing, Outreach & Research Intern. She played a big role in designing our new website, supporting our branding and marketing efforts, and contributing to our go-to-market work. Aanchal Narayan joined us as a Business Operations & Research Intern. She supported customer research, helped with grant and fellowship applications, and contributed to our media and outreach efforts. Working in a startup means things move quickly, priorities can change, and there is always something new to figure out. We really appreciated how willing Zoe and Aanchal were to jump in, learn, ask questions, and contribute their ideas along the way. Thank you, Zoe and Aanchal, for all the time, effort, and thought you put into your work over the past 10 weeks. It was great having you both as part of the XTRIUM team, and we’re excited to see where your experiences here take you next. A big thank you to DivInc for creating this opportunity and helping introduce the interns to the startup world. We also want to thank Blackstone LaunchPad and BASTA for hosting workshops, providing support, and making sure Zoe and Aanchal had the resources and guidance they needed throughout the internship. We’re excited to see what’s next for both of you. Thank you for being part of XTRIUM! 💫Dr. Sirisha K. Raghunandan Mathur Malur Narayan #Interns #startups #DivInc #Blackstone #BASTA #Internship

Cost has always been a major consideration in supply chain. But with critical materials, unit cost alone can be very misleading. #CriticalMaterials and #RareEarths are often used in relatively small quantities in products like EVs, semis, and electronics. Yet their impact on product delivery, margin, and revenue can be significant. I mean, that is why we call them critical. My 3 observations on critical materials supply and pricing: 1️⃣ Higher material prices ≠ materially higher end-product prices. 2️⃣ Supply concentration is great for cost. But not that great for resilience. 3️⃣ Diversification often is expensive on paper. But dependence gets expensive in reality. The real risk is losing billions in revenue when a bottleneck, disruption, or policy hits because you haven’t fully mapped the supply chain. In critical materials, supply chain visibility is more than a nice-to-have. It is the foundation of resilience. 💫Dr. Sirisha K. Lisa Morales-Hellebo Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA Luis Solana Andrew Eil Carolina C. Murphy XTRIUM Raghunandan Mathur

Vikram -1 by Skyroot Aerospace is India’s first private company to put a rocket into space, making #India only the 3rd country after the US and China to do so. #3Dprinters are changing the #aerospace landscape from a design, manufacturing and #supplychain landscape. Skyroot Aerospace used #carbonnanocomposites and 3D printed components to build their engines and manifold. #SpaceX has also utilized 3D printing to optimize their components and invest heavily in steel and incomel. 3D printing eliminates weak points from joints, lowers manual labor costs, and cuts engine production time from months down to mere days. Despite these massive leaps in material independence, the commercial space sector has a glaring vulnerability: #semiconductors. Thats why Elon Musk has entered this frontier with his #TerraFab idea. He needs chips for both his Tesla and Space X enterprises. To learn more and for a deep dive check out today's "What's the Matter?" newsletter - click link in comments and subscribe.

This morning has just been full of great news for XTRIUM … Thanks for the shoutout Remarkable Ventures Climate Andrew Eil Vidhya Subramanian Lisa Morales-Hellebo Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA

All three XTRIUM founders are part of DivInc 2026 Innovation & Influence Accelerator Cohort. Big things ahead as they move toward Demo Day! 💫Dr. Sirisha K.Raghunandan MathurMalur Narayan #XTRIUM #Founders #DIVINC #StartUp #DemoDay

Technical skills alone are no longer the biggest differentiator in today’s market. Our Founder & CEO, Malur Narayan recently joined the Born in Silicon Valley podcast hosted by Jake Villarreal to discuss why businesses need system thinkers who take ownership, solve complex problems, and help organizations grow through change. The conversation also dives into how leaders can navigate supply chain challenges, build resilient operations, and use technology as a true competitive advantage. Watch the full episode for valuable insights on hiring, leadership, and the future of business growth. Worth a watch if you want a deeper look into how we think about building at XTRIUM. #XTRIUM #MatchRelevant #SupplyChain #Leadership #Innovation #BusinessGrowth

The Women of XTRIUM - we celebrate and appreciate them every day, including on International Women's Day 2026 … Brilliance, talented, and a team that leads with empathy and just gets stuff done. I’m inspired to be led by them. 💫Dr. Sirisha K. Lisa Morales-Hellebo Gloria Chyr Vidhya Subramanian Rekha Muralidharr Radnyi Jagtap Aanchal Narayan Tina Mular Chaoqun Gao Neha Shah And the many other women who are quietly rooting for us! Thank you for your passion and commitment.