From the Council on Foreign Relations’ [Task Force Report on U.S. Economic Security](https://on.cfr.org/3KdLsNz):Â
China’s near monopoly on critical minerals extraction and refining is a significant risk, given the importance of those inputs for semiconductor manufacturing and data center components. The United States relies on China for 70 percent of its rare earths and nearly 100 percent of its heavy rare earths, which together are used for polishing semiconductor wafers and as insulation for advanced chips, among other applications. The United States is completely dependent on China for all of its arsenic and holmium copper, which are critical for producing silicon chips and quantum cryocoolers, respectively. Though other countries, including the United States, boast significant critical mineral reserves, they do not have scaled infrastructure to refine mineral concentrates into usable compounds. China’s vast refining and processing capacity, therefore, poses an additional challenge to de-risking efforts, as minerals mined elsewhere often pass through China.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
Tool: Datawrapper
ryanjbanning on
That Jumper movie was right on the money. Need to find me a Chinese wife
Potato_Octopi on
My understanding is if we want to supply these ourselves we can, it just has been easier / more profitable to buy from China.
cheddarcheeseballs on
The moment the US decides to strategically bring back the mining and refining of rare earth metals, environmentalists will try and stop them because of how pollutant the extraction and refinement it causes. I hope this doesn’t happen but China did make the sacrifices to completely corner the market.
BornPraline5607 on
We can mine them ourselves. But let’s first schedule our subcommittee for environmental protections of small rivers and ponds
0xB01b on
We don’t need large quantities of rubidium though? Like it’s literally just gonna be 1 atom per qubit in the end.
cowlinator on
These all seem to be about quantum computer hardware and none of them seem to have anything to do with AI
aaffpp on
The USA has to develop clean mining solutions. How? Ask AI on a quantum computer. Or, get 3-4 smart people in a room and come up with a real plan.
![[OC] The U.S. depends on China for 70% of the rare earths used in AI and quantum](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/czlcznwnr15g1-714x1536.png "[OC] The U.S. depends on China for 70% of the rare earths used in AI and quantum")
8 Comments
From the Council on Foreign Relations’ [Task Force Report on U.S. Economic Security](https://on.cfr.org/3KdLsNz):Â
China’s near monopoly on critical minerals extraction and refining is a significant risk, given the importance of those inputs for semiconductor manufacturing and data center components. The United States relies on China for 70 percent of its rare earths and nearly 100 percent of its heavy rare earths, which together are used for polishing semiconductor wafers and as insulation for advanced chips, among other applications. The United States is completely dependent on China for all of its arsenic and holmium copper, which are critical for producing silicon chips and quantum cryocoolers, respectively. Though other countries, including the United States, boast significant critical mineral reserves, they do not have scaled infrastructure to refine mineral concentrates into usable compounds. China’s vast refining and processing capacity, therefore, poses an additional challenge to de-risking efforts, as minerals mined elsewhere often pass through China.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
Tool: Datawrapper
That Jumper movie was right on the money. Need to find me a Chinese wife
My understanding is if we want to supply these ourselves we can, it just has been easier / more profitable to buy from China.
The moment the US decides to strategically bring back the mining and refining of rare earth metals, environmentalists will try and stop them because of how pollutant the extraction and refinement it causes. I hope this doesn’t happen but China did make the sacrifices to completely corner the market.
We can mine them ourselves. But let’s first schedule our subcommittee for environmental protections of small rivers and ponds
We don’t need large quantities of rubidium though? Like it’s literally just gonna be 1 atom per qubit in the end.
These all seem to be about quantum computer hardware and none of them seem to have anything to do with AI
The USA has to develop clean mining solutions. How? Ask AI on a quantum computer. Or, get 3-4 smart people in a room and come up with a real plan.