Emily Flippen

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Welcome back to Motley Fool Money.

As we wrap up the show today, we'll have to talk about one of the key aspects of any operating system, which is, unfortunately, the materials that make it up.

We do have some new news out today that the U.S.

Department of Commerce has used its CHIPS program to invest a non-binding $1.5 billion into USA Rare Earth.

That's a domestic mining company that has increasingly attracted attention from investors as a business that is increasingly maybe critical to national security.

It

clearly an investment aimed at reducing reliance upon foreign materials.

Jason, I spent four years living and studying in China, and in my experience, it was really common for the Chinese government to invest in or even control private companies that they deemed were operating in critical industries whose operations were important for national security reasons.

And historically, on average, although not always, the U.S.

government, I think, has been more reluctant to get involved in private enterprises, even if they are critical for national security.

So I'm curious, what do you think is driving this investment?

And as an individual investor, does investing alongside the government change your risk assessment at all?

It's a beautiful segue for the question I had for you, Asit, which is, you know, it's really easy when individual investors see headlines like this with USAR, that's the USA Rare Earths ticker.

They're skyrocketing on the news.

They're up over 100% in the past month.

It's easy for individual investors to feel FOMO, this fear of missing out whenever they see share prices increase like that.

I mean, how should investors handle these policy changes or avoid trying to get swept up in the hype when they see this type of news?

And it certainly sounds like there are some operating layers that are much more riper for investments than others.

Jason and Azad, I think I generally agree with you that in the case of these rare earth minerals, it's not my favorite aspect of the operating layer to invest in.