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12 May 2022

Critical Materials Can Make or Break America’s Semiconductor Supply Chains

Shubham Dwivedi Gregory D. Wischer

The most advanced semiconductors in the world—leading-node logic chips—are foundational for essential, “must-win” emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, and advanced wireless networks. It goes without saying that the potential of these applications for U.S. national security is enormous. Equally as great though is America’s utter dependence on East Asia for these chips via foreign supply links, which is in turn rife with market and geopolitical risks. While both the White House and Congress have prioritized semiconductor fabrications through bills like CHIPS for America Act (the CHIPS Act for short), which intends to address various supply chain vulnerabilities, the overriding focus on fabrication neglects the importance of critical materials: the minerals, industrial gases, and chemicals that are the building blocks of any computer chip.

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