Elon Musk's vision. Sure.
I'll just leave next phrase summarizing it here:
"We'll coup wherever we want, deal with it"
"...the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"
Thucydides
Note lithium isn't a rare earth element, it's actually pretty common but some sources are cheaper than others. As for Tesla, I believe they don't get lithium from Bolivia and have upcoming chemistries that don't use cobalt at all. Not sure about other EV or phone companies.