The U.S.-China conflict over chip-making technology keeps ratcheting up. The latest twist is that Beijing is restricting exports of two metals that are critical to semiconductor manufacturing, using its dominance in production to put pressure on the U.S.
China produces around 60% of the world’s germanium and around 80% of its gallium, according to the Critical Raw Materials Alliance, an industry body. Materials incorporating the metals such as gallium nitride and gallium arsenide are used for power chips, radio frequency amplifiers, LEDs, and other applications.
“Although the metals are not rare, they have been kept cheap by China,” analysts at Oppenheimer wrote in a research note on Wednesday.
That might be about to change, although semiconductor companies were playing down the effects of the restrictions this week.
Navitas Semiconductor
(ticker: NVTS) said Wednesday that the restrictions wouldn’t affect its production of gallium nitride power chips. The chip manufacturer, which went public in 2021, said it could rely on multiple sources of gallium around the world
“Navitas does not expect customer deliveries to be impacted or its business to be adversely affected by the export restrictions,” the company said in a statement.
German chip maker
Infineon
(IFX. Germany) also said it isn’t expecting any disruption because it relies on suppliers in multiple places.
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