Gallium and germanium are indispensable for AI chips, 5G and military radars. Here’s how they work and why China’s near-monopoly scares the West
In recent years, rare earths have become one of the main points of conflict between the United States and China. Their importance for the hi-tech sector on the other hand it is indispensable. However, there are others critical raw materials without which it is impossible to create the technologies of the future, from AI chips to military radar, passing through 5G networks and much more.
Two of the most important of these critical raw materials are gallium and the germaniuma soft metal and a semi-metal respectively essential for high technology and defense.
The role of gallium in the hi-tech supply chain…
Let’s start from gallium. This soft metal is not extracted in dedicated mines, but is instead obtained industrially as a by-product of bauxite, the same material useful for the production of aluminium.
Pure gallium melts at around 29.8 °C (it melts in the palm of a hand) and for this reason it is almost never used alone, but combined with other elements to create new generation semiconductors much faster and more efficient than traditional silicon.
Its presence is essential in smartphones for connections 5GWi-Fi, GPS and infrared facial recognition sensors.
Given its resistance to high voltages and temperatures, it is used in rapid chargers compact for phones and laptops, in electric vehicle inverters and even in data centers for artificial intelligence.
The combination of gallium with nitrogen, phosphorus or arsenic is also the chemical basis of LED diodes which emit blue, white and infrared light, as well as lasers for optical reading and optical fibers.
It doesn’t end there, because this soft metal is also used in advanced military radars and in satelliteswhich use gallium chips for their radiation resistance and high energy efficiency.
Finally, in medicine, radioactive gallium isotopes are used in diagnostic imaging to detect infections and tumors.
…and that of Germanium
Let’s now move on to germaniuma semi-metal that just like the gallium is not extracted from any dedicated minebut is instead obtained as a by-product of the processing of zinc and coal ash, and is then refined until it reaches extreme purity.
Germanium is a semi-metal with a very high refractive index and particular transparency to infrared rays, characteristics that make it irreplaceable in various strategic sectors.
Let’s start from optical fiberswhich are its main use worldwide. Germanium dioxide is added to the glass core of optical fibers to increase the refractive index and prevent the light signal from straying along undersea and land cables.
Another field in which it is used is that of infrared optics. Germanium is transparent to infrared light but blocks visible light, characteristics that guarantee its use in night vision goggles and in thermal imaging cameras and military missile targeting systems.
Combined with silicon, it allows you to make much faster and more efficient transistors. These chips are used for example in automotive radars (anti-collision sensors) and in wireless network infrastructures.
Without gallium and germanium, therefore, the functioning of technological society would be simply impossible.
China’s quasi-monopoly
China holds almost absolute control over the production of both metals, a position which, combined with its primacy in the refining of rare earths, gives it enormous geopolitical weight.
In 2025, Beijing represented the 98.9% of the world’s primary gallium production and the 68.6% of that of germanium. On the other hand, both elements are by-products of large-scale industrial supply chains (aluminum and zinc) that China has dominated for decades.
Aware of this leverage, from July 2023 China imposed export restrictions on gallium and germanium, requesting licenses for the so-called “dual-use items”, i.e. materials that can be used in both the civil and military fields.
Trade tensions with Washington then led, at the end of 2024, to a total ban on exports to the United States for both metals, a measure at the center of trade talks between Beijing and Washington.
The impact on the markets could only be severe. Suffice it to say that in 2025 there were exports of unprocessed gallium almost zerowith prices in Europe rising by 365%; processed germanium saw a decline in exports of 60% and an increase in prices of 400%. Western dependence therefore remains a strategic weak point, impossible to fill in the short term.
