Green Owl

Chips

What AI chips take

AI chips depend on more than silicon. Five manufacturing inputs lead to four countries, not just China.

Numbers as of 27 Sept 2026

The full story

  1. A green-outlined chip with the NVIDIA logo sits in the centre. Five inputs connect to it. Above: a silicon disc, Japan, about 50 percent; printing film, Japan, about 90 percent. Below: quartz sand, United States, about 80 percent; tungsten, China, 79 percent; cobalt, DR Congo, 76 percent. Five input
  2. Input one of five, the silicon disc. Answer: Japan. Two Japanese companies, Shin-Etsu and SUMCO, make about half of the world's silicon discs. It starts as sand, which is melted and cleaned until it is 99.9999999 percent pure, under one wrong atom in a billion, then sliced into thin discs that circu
  3. Input two of five, cobalt. Answer: DR Congo, which mined 76 percent of the world's cobalt in 2024. Most cobalt goes into batteries for phones, laptops and electric cars. In a chip it is a thin coat that protects the tiny copper wires. Same metal, a very different job.
  4. Input three of five, tungsten. Answer: China, which mined 79 percent of the world's tungsten in 2025. It is the wire in old light bulbs and melts at 3,422 degrees Celsius, the highest of any metal. In a chip it forms tiny contacts that join the switches to the wiring. Since February 2025 exporters n
  5. Input four of five, the printing film, called photoresist. Answer: Japan again. Japanese makers held about 90 percent of the market in a 2025 report; other estimates are lower, about 80 percent. A film coats the disc, light prints the circuit into it, then it is washed off, again and again for every
  6. Input five of five, quartz sand. Answer: the United States. One small town, Spruce Pine in North Carolina, supplied about 80 percent of the world's ultra-pure quartz sand in a 2024 estimate. It makes the pot silicon is melted in and never enters the chip. In September 2024 a hurricane stopped the mi
  7. The short version: five inputs, one pattern. Silicon disc, Japan, about 50 percent, starts as sand. Cobalt, DR Congo, 76 percent, the battery metal. Tungsten, China, 79 percent, the light-bulb wire. Printing film, Japan, about 90 percent, washed off the chip. Quartz sand, United States, about 80 per
  8. Which one worries you most? Choices: Japan's film, US quartz, China's tungsten, DR Congo's cobalt. A storm, or a permit? Follow Green Owl if you want more.

Which input would you have guessed wrong?

Japan's Shin-Etsu and SUMCO supply about half of the world's silicon wafers, the discs circuits are built on (Mordor). Company nationality, not factory location.

Japanese makers held about 90% of the photoresist market in Nikkei reporting carried by TrendForce in November 2025. Other reports give lower estimates. This light-sensitive printing film is washed off.

Spruce Pine, North Carolina supplied about 80% of ultra-pure quartz sand in a 2024 BloombergNEF estimate reported by Grist. It makes pots for growing silicon, not a layer inside the chip.

China mined 79% of world tungsten in 2025; DR Congo mined 76% of cobalt in 2024 (USGS estimates). Tungsten forms tiny contacts; cobalt can protect copper wiring.

These mix supplier market shares, quartz supply and mining from different dates, not NVIDIA's purchases. Flags identify the companies' home country or material origin as stated. Sources are not exclusive.

Illustrative manufacturing inputs, not a verified parts list for a specific NVIDIA GPU. Chipmaking depends on materials far upstream of the final factory.

Want to see how this looks now?

When enough people ask, we re-check the numbers and redraw it.

Where the numbers come from

Show all 25 sources

Companies in this picture

Nvidia

More like this

+3+8 cards+8+7 cards+6