Rare mineral from China saw a 1,500% increase in value, threatening chip production in the US

The political and economic dispute between the United States and China has increased the value of rare minerals from the Asian country. Yttrium, in particular, has seen an impressive 1,500% increase in price over the past 12 months, jumping from US$8 per kilogram at the end of 2024 to US$126 currently.

As expected, such a gigantic price increase should impact the semiconductor manufacturing segment – ​​mainly in the USA, which imports more than 90% of its rare minerals from China.

Tom’s Hardware explains that yttrium is used in several steps of the manufacturing process, including thin film deposition and wafer polishing.

The more selective restriction on rare minerals was one of China’s moves to escalate prices in trade tariffs with the United States. The measure was responded to with more taxes and the leaders of the two powers had to reach a truce in October of this year.

Among the terms of the truce, China agreed to ease its recent more restrictive measures on the export of rare minerals, but it appears supply remains difficult, inflating the value of yttrium even now.

US seeks alternatives to China for its rare minerals

Difficult access to rare minerals could prove to be one of the main obstacles in the US race to become the world’s leading advanced chipmaker. That is why, while China seeks to reduce its dependence on technologies from the United States, the land of Uncle Sam seeks to reduce its dependence on resources from the Asian country.

Read more:

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to allocate $2 billion from the CHIPS Act to grow its own domestic mineral supply chain, while approaching partners to import from more countries. Australia is already looking to extract more minerals to serve the USA and Canada has been going through the legal procedures to open a new mine since the beginning of the year.

With increases in rare minerals driven by tariffs and memory prices rising because of demand for AI, prices for hardware products are expected to jump in 2026.