The US Imports More of 7 Minerals Inside AI Data Centers

The U.S. Geological Survey names 17 minerals as key to data centers, from the copper in server boards to the gallium in chips. In its Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, published in February, the share of U.S. consumption met by net imports was higher in 2025 than in 2024 for 7 of them, by our count from the USGS tables.

Five of the 17 were 100% import-reliant in both years: arsenic, fluorspar, gallium, indium and tantalum. China is among the top three import sources for 8 of them, on the USGS figures for 2021 to 2024. The USGS says demand for data centers is rising, “especially to support new AI technologies that are computationally intense.”

Business Pill · GPUS

A short explainer on the chips inside AI data centers. It teaches the general idea only and makes no claim about the minerals or figures in this story.

The Count

Our count compares the USGS estimate for 2025 with its figure for 2024, both from the 2026 edition. Refined copper rose from 45% to 57%. Palladium rose from 34% to 57%, rare-earth compounds and metals from 53% to 67%, silver from 68% to 77%, platinum from 85% to 89% and refined tin from 75% to 77%.

Silicon, counting ferrosilicon and silicon metal together, moved from under 50% to over 50%, which we count as the seventh rise. Aluminum was the one decline, from 62% to 60%. Germanium stayed above 50% and barite above 75%, the USGS ranges.

Boron was a net exporter in both years. Gold was a net exporter in 2024; for 2025 the USGS gives no figure, saying “Large unreported investor stock purchases preclude calculation of a meaningful net import reliance.”

What Was Posted on X

Bloomberg, 19 October 2026: it writes that microbial miners are being deployed to ease the copper supply crunch for electric cars, AI and power grids. As we read it, that is the copper line in the USGS table above, where refined copper’s net import reliance rose from 45% in 2024 to an estimated 57% in 2025.

CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla, 19 October 2026: he quotes a FedWatch note saying helium scarcity means fewer GPUs, longer delivery times, delayed data-center buildouts and higher compute costs, and that markets are pricing in a helium shortage that is turning structural. The 19 October update above sets that view against the USGS helium figures.

Where Each Mineral Goes

The USGS groups the minerals by part of the data center. Server boards and circuitry use silver, gold, copper, tin, tantalum, palladium and platinum; the agency says they require minerals “able to efficiently conduct electricity and are resistant to corrosion – especially copper.”

Heat sinks use aluminum and copper. Semiconductors and microchips use arsenic, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, indium, palladium, platinum, silicon and tantalum; the USGS calls microchips and processors the “brains” of data centers. Barite, boron and rare earth elements go into magnets and data storage.

The commodity pages add the uses. Integrated circuits accounted for 73% of U.S. gallium consumption, the USGS says, and hydrogen fluoride made from fluorspar is “essential in the cleaning and etching process during semiconductor manufacturing.” On indium it writes that “some electrical components in data centers use indium-based solder alloys.”

Who Supplies Them

The USGS lists the leading import sources for 2021 to 2024. China is first for arsenic (45% of imports, all forms), tantalum (22%) and rare-earth compounds and metals (71%). It is second for germanium (23%, behind Belgium at 41%) and barite (21%, behind India at 39%).

China is third for gallium metal (18%, after Canada and Japan), indium (12%, after South Korea and Japan) and fluorspar (10%, after Mexico and Vietnam). That makes 8 of the 17 where China is a top-three source, by our count.

For the others the leading source is elsewhere: Chile for refined copper (68%), Mexico for silver (47%), Peru for refined tin (31%), South Africa for palladium (37%) and platinum (49%), Canada for aluminum (56%) and gold (27%), Brazil for silicon (25%) and Turkey for boron (90%).

What China Has Already Restricted

The USGS records the moves. China banned all gallium exports to the United States in December 2024 and, in November 2025, lifted that ban for one year; the agency says China accounted for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production.

U.S. imports of germanium metal were estimated to have fallen 67% in 2025 to 7,000 kilograms, which the USGS attributes to China’s 2024 ban on germanium exports to the United States. In February 2025, China’s Ministry of Commerce put new export restrictions on several critical minerals, including indium; China produces 70% of the world’s indium, the USGS says.

The import-source shares above are averages for 2021 to 2024, so they mostly predate those bans. For the wider picture on export controls, see our report on the IEA and China’s rare-earth controls.

Why the USGS Made the List

The agency’s data-center page says data centers “require large amounts of energy and mineral resources to build, including critical minerals.” It adds that “The U.S. relies on imports from other countries for many of these minerals.”

It also cites the 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report by Shehabi and colleagues: “By 2028, data centers could consume 12% of total U.S. electricity.” On indium, the 2026 summaries say “Artificial intelligence was expected to increase demand for specialized chip materials, including those made of InP.”

The supply question is getting attention elsewhere too. On 19 October Bloomberg wrote that “Microbial miners are being deployed to ease the copper supply crunch for electric cars to AI and power grids.” Local limits on new sites are a separate constraint, covered in our report on AI’s local limits.

Update, 19 October: The USGS Helium Numbers Behind a Scarcity Warning

On Monday afternoon CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla posted a FedWatch note on helium scarcity: “The result is fewer GPUs, longer delivery times, delayed data‑center buildouts, and higher compute costs—and with markets already bracing for an AI capex slowdown .., they’re now also pricing in a helium shortage that’s turning structural.” The quoted text gives no supply figures.

Helium is not among the 17 minerals in the table above, and the United States sits on the other side of the trade. The helium and rare gases chapter of the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 lists the country as a net exporter of helium in every year from 2021 to 2025. US sales of Grade-A and gaseous helium were an estimated 81 million cubic meters in 2025, valued at an estimated $970 million; exports were 38 million cubic meters and imports 8 million. The USGS puts world production at an estimated 190 million cubic meters in 2025, with 81 million for the United States (a figure that includes helium extracted in Canada and purified in the US) and 63 million for Qatar.

The USGS groups semiconductors with controlled atmospheres and fiber optics, which together took 17% of US helium use in 2025. On cryogenic uses in general, it says “Nothing substitutes for helium in cryogenic applications if temperatures below −429 degrees Fahrenheit are required.” The estimated base price for Grade-A helium was about $12 per cubic meter in 2025, “with producers posting surcharges to this price.” US imports came from Canada (47%), Qatar (28%), Algeria (10%) and China (5%) over 2021 to 2024, and the EU and US import ban on Russian helium continued into 2025.

The larger import gap is in the rare gases the same chapter covers. Semiconductors took 32% of US neon use, 67% of krypton use and 36% of xenon use in 2025, and the USGS puts US net import reliance for those gases at 52%, 93% and 98%.

As we read it, the USGS figures put the United States on the supply side for helium itself, while the neon, krypton and xenon used in chipmaking are where its import reliance is highest.

Update, 20 October: Micron Funds Indium Corporation Refining in New York

Micron announced on 20 October 2026 an investment in critical minerals processing that is expected to support the expansion of Indium Corporation’s capabilities in Central New York, “restarting domestic processing of critical minerals essential to advanced semiconductor manufacturing,” according to its release. Micron will provide strategic funding for Indium Corporation to expand its refining and manufacturing operations in Rome, New York, and the two companies will enter into a long-term supply agreement that gives Micron access to the high-purity minerals.

The release says the investment is part of Micron’s plan, announced in July, to invest up to $3 billion in the U.S. semiconductor supply-chain ecosystem, and that it complements plans to increase Micron’s expected U.S. spend to more than $250 billion through 2035. “Advanced memory manufacturing depends on a reliable supply of critical minerals,” said Ben Tessone, Micron’s chief procurement officer. The release does not state the size of the investment.

As we read it, the link to this piece is in the company’s product list: the release describes Indium Corporation’s portfolio as including indium, gallium, germanium and tin, and indium and gallium are two of the five minerals that were 100% import-reliant in both years on the USGS figures above. The release does not say which minerals the Rome expansion will process.

Update, 23 October: The Energy Department Names Helium a Critical Material

On 23 October the Department of Energy announced that Energy Secretary Chris Wright has designated helium as a critical material under the Energy Act of 2020. “Helium is essential to producing the semiconductors and advanced technologies that power our economy,” Wright said in the release. The department said helium’s unique properties make it “indispensable to semiconductor production, with no viable substitutes in many critical applications.”

The release says global demand for helium is growing faster than production, and that limited refining capacity and lengthy permitting timelines continue to constrain US production despite the country’s abundant helium resources. CBS News reported that the designation makes more federal financing available for helium producers, that helium is now one of 20 materials the department has designated critical, and that the last addition was metallurgical coal in 2025.

CBS also reported that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in February trapped one-third of the global helium supply in the Persian Gulf, and that Iranian strikes in March hit Ras Laffan, a facility in Qatar that produces helium. Qatar was the second-largest producer in the USGS figures in our 19 October update above.

As we read it, this is the Energy Department’s list under the Energy Act of 2020, not the USGS critical minerals list that the table above draws on. The release does not name a funding amount or a programme for helium producers.

The Structural Read

As we read it, the rises sit mostly in the metals of the boards and circuitry: refined copper, silver, tin, palladium and platinum all moved up, on the USGS figures. The chip minerals were already at or near the ceiling, with five at 100% in both years.

As we read it, the supplier map splits in two. Board metals come mostly from the Americas and South Africa, while China is a top-three source for eight, most of them chip and storage minerals: arsenic, tantalum, rare earths, germanium, barite, gallium, indium and fluorspar.

As we read it, the USGS figures cover every use of these minerals, not only data centers, so they show exposure rather than data-center demand. The agency itself links data-center demand to AI technologies that are “computationally intense.”

Three Implications

PALLADIUM AND RARE EARTHS MOVED MOST On the USGS figures, palladium rose from 34% to 57% and rare-earth compounds and metals from 53% to 67% between 2024 and 2025, the two largest rises on the list by our count; refined copper rose from 45% to 57%.

CHIP MINERALS WERE ALREADY 100% Arsenic, fluorspar, gallium, indium and tantalum were 100% import-reliant in both years, the USGS figures show.

EXPORT POLICY IS PART OF THE SUPPLY The USGS records China’s December 2024 gallium ban on the U.S., lifted in November 2025 for one year, and February 2025 restrictions that include indium.

The Business Engineer Lens

This story maps onto the Business Engineer framework AI’s Geopolitical Chokepoint.

The framework puts it this way: “The digital economy rests on a physical foundation that most people in that economy never see.”

As we read it, the USGS list is a map of that foundation for a single building type, the data center. The framework was published in December 2025 and does not discuss the 2026 USGS figures.

What Is Not Established

The USGS does not say what share of each mineral’s U.S. use goes into data centers; net import reliance covers all uses, from wiring to wood preservatives. The 2025 figures are estimates. The import-source shares are 2021 to 2024 averages, before the latest Chinese measures took full effect.

Some USGS figures are ranges, such as “>50” for germanium and silicon, so a rise or fall inside a range would not show. The USGS lists the same minerals as its January 2026 graphic, which used the 2025 edition; we used the newer 2026 edition, so some of its 2024 values are revised.

The Bottom Line

Of the 17 minerals the USGS names as key to data centers, the U.S. imported a larger share of 7 in 2025 than in 2024, by our count from its tables, and imported all of 5. China is a top-three supplier of 8, on 2021 to 2024 data.