Today: Nvidia expands open-source AI weather-tracking models; startup mines rare earths from old tech; Chinese EVs en route to global reign.

Welcome back: Some 200 million people in the U.S. have been hit by a massive winter storm, which is straining the nation’s power grid and travel infrastructure. The storm already has been blamed for almost 12,000 flight cancellations and left more than 800,000 customers without power. 

The Energy Department ordered grid operators to make backup electricity generation from facilities such as data centers available in case of power outages caused by the extreme weather, its latest extraordinary step to address electricity shortages and high prices.

On Monday, in an effort to make it easier to track changes in the weather and climate, chipmaker Nvidia released a new suite of open-source artificial-intelligence models, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson writes.

Nvidia said its Earth-2 models will help users in gathering hyperspecific data about the climate and weather, including through 15-day global forecasts and local storm forecasts. The new open-source models will provide medium-range forecasts, highly detailed storm forecasts and snapshots of the atmosphere.

• U.S. grids are expected to grapple with unprecedented seasonal demand and the threat of blackouts after a damaging winter storm. (Bloomberg)

America’s next rare-earth mine is 2,000 metric tons of junk sitting in boxes in Mesa, Arizona, the Journal's Ed Ballard and Rhiannon Hoyle report.

The hoard contains electric motors from an assortment of expired electronic equipment, from e-bikes to drones, MRI scanners to hard-disk drives. They represent the hope that old gadgets, not new mines, are the fastest way to loosen China’s chokehold over the supply of rare-earth metals that are essential for the modern world.

China mines three-fifths of the world’s rare earths—metals such as neodymium and dysprosium—and has more than 90% of the capacity for refining them, according to the International Energy Agency. Beijing flexed its muscles last year, using rare-earth export restrictions as a weapon in the trade war with the U.S. New mining projects are under way in the U.S. and Europe—but building a mine can take a decade.

If the recycling facility in Mesa starts up in the next few months as planned, the milestone will come five years after the company that built it, Cyclic Materials, began life in Ontario. Its founder Ahmad Ghahreman describes the electronic products thrown away in North America every year as the world’s largest “aboveground deposit” of rare earths.

Not long ago, few would buy the idea that a Chinese electric-vehicle maker such as BYD could sweep European buyers off their feet, competing against Volkswagen, Toyota and even such luxury brands as BMW and Porsche, the Journal's Stephen Wilmot and Santiago Pérez write.

Yet BYD is leading a pack of Chinese automakers whose global export onslaught has surpassed even bullish expectations. The Shenzhen-based automaker delivered more than a million vehicles outside China in 2025, the company said, more than double the previous year’s total.

China surpassed Japan in 2023 as the world’s No. 1 auto exporter. Last year, it shipped 7.1 million vehicles from its pool of domestic automakers, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, up from 5.9 million the previous year. BYD, which ​replaced Tesla ​as the world’s biggest EV seller, is one of ​Beijing’s national champions.

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• Enphase Energy will reduce its workforce due to decreased demand for residential solar panels after a federal tax credit expired. (WSJ)
   
• Daimler Truck's Japan unit and Foxconn Technology to develop and sell electric buses in Japan and abroad. (WSJ)
   
• SSAB and Rheinmetall signed a letter of intent under which the Swedish steelmaker would supply fossil-fuel-free steel to the German firm. (WSJ)
   
• Why automakers are the key to cleaner steelmaking. (Canary Media)
   
• This January, Americans aren’t just giving up alcohol. They are giving up buying anything at all. (WSJ)
   
• Former Novo Nordisk executive to chair GRI standards board. (Trellis)
   
• Professional services firm EY appointed Velislava Ivanova as global chief sustainability strategist. (ESG Today)
   
• Tracking space debris using sonic booms. (WSJ)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.