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Start with isolated vertices. In each round, determine the current connected components of a graph, choose a least-weight outgoing edge for each component, add their union, and recompute the components. With distinct weights, each chosen edge is the unique lightest edge across that component's graph cut. The minimum spanning tree cut property puts every such edge in every minimum spanning tree, so the selected edges remain acyclic. Every nonfinal component has an outgoing edge in a connected input, and merging makes progress until a spanning tree remains. Duplicate choices of the same edge are one set insertion.

Each new component contains at least two old components, so there are $O(\log |V|)$ rounds. Scanning all edges per round gives $O(|E|\log |V|)$ time. Equal edge weights require a consistent secondary order to avoid choosing a cycle of tied edges.

Otakar Borůvka formulated the distinct-cost minimum-connection problem in 1926.^[ref]

A mathematician whose 1926 work introduced a component-merging method for the minimum spanning tree problem, now called Borůvka's algorithm.^[ref]