The White House is reportedly considering using $2 billion of CHIPS Act funds for investments in rare-earth mining and processing within the U.S. According to Reuters, the Trump administration wants to use the already existing funds that the Biden administration has allocated for semiconductor investments so that it doesn’t have to request additional funding from Congress for this initiative.
Although not exactly directly related to chip manufacturing or research and development, these critical minerals are crucial to the electronics and defense industries. For example, you can find dysprosium in hard drives and EVs, while scandium is often used in Wi-Fi modules. There’s also germanium, gallium, and several more elements — all of which are used in various applications, from semiconductor and wireless communication to medical imaging and nuclear power.
