What are Gallium and Germanium? China curbs exports of metals critical to chips and other tech
China is restricting exports of two niche metals that are key to manufacture electronics and semiconductors, as the tech battle with the U.S. and Europe heats up.
Germanium and gallium are the two metals in the spotlight.
But what and how crucial are they?
Why is China slapping export curbs on the metals?
China and the U.S. have been locked in a technology trade war that has been escalating since 2019. The U.S. has used trade blacklists and sweeping export restrictions to cut China off from key technology components and semiconductors or chips.
These critical pieces of tech have become a focal point in the battle between the two superpowers.
China has not retaliated much so far, but in May labelled U.S. chip firm Micron a “major security risk.” Now, Beijing is looking to areas it has some strength in — the metals and materials that go into electronics and semiconductors.
China’s commerce ministry on Monday said that new regulations will require exporters of gallium and germanium to get a license to ship the metals. Beijing brought in the new rules on national security grounds.
What are germanium and gallium?
Germanium and gallium are metals that are not found naturally. They are instead formed, usually as a by-product of the refineries of other metals.
Germanium, a silvery-white metal, is formed as by-product of zinc production. Fellow soft, silvery metal Gallium, meanwhile, is a by-product of processing bauxite and zinc ores.
What are germanium and gallium used for?
Germanium has several uses, including in solar products and fiber optics. The metal is transparent to infrared radiation and can be employed in military applications, such as night-vision goggles.
The solar panels that contain germanium have applications in space.
Gallium is used for manufacturing the gallium arsenide chemical compound, which can make radio frequency chips for mobile phones and satellite communication, for example. That compound is also a key material in semiconductors.
Which country produces the metals?
China produces 60% of the world’s germanium and 80% of gallium, according to the Critical Raw Materials Alliance, an industry body.
Gallium arsenide is complex to produce, and only a few companies in the world can do so. One is located in Europe, while the others are in Japan and China, the CRM Alliance says.
How big of a deal are China’s curbs?
“A warning shot, not a death blow,” Eurasia Group said in a note on Monday.
“But these latest measures are more limited in scope, and while the new rules require Chinese exporters to first obtain a license, no language automatically bars export to specific countries or end-users.”
The U.S. and Europe don’t import huge amounts of these materials. The U.S. received $5 million of gallium metal and $220 million of gallium arsenide in 2022, according to government figures.
Germanium intake was higher, with the country taking $60 million of the metal, while the EU imported $130 million of Germanium in 2022, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Other countries are also able to produce these metals. Belgium, Canada, Germany, Japan, and Ukraine can manufacture germanium. Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, Russia and Germany meanwhile produce gallium.
There are also potential substitutes for these metals.
China’s scale allowed it to produce them at a lower cost than elsewhere, but Eurasia Group notes that Beijing’s moves will have a “limited impact on global supply given the targeted scope.”
“It is a shot across the bow intended to remind countries including the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands that China has retaliatory options and to thereby deter them from imposing further restrictions on Chinese access to high-end chips and tools,” Eurasia Group said.
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, holds hundred dollar bills as he speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
Marco Bello | Getty Images
The Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange Bullish filed for an IPO on Friday, the latest digital asset firm to head for the public market.
The company, led by CEO Tom Farley, a veteran of the finance industry and former president of the New York Stock Exchange, said it plans to trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “BLSH.”
A spinout of Block.one, Bullish started with an initial investment from backers including Thiel’s Founders Fund and Thiel Capital, along with Nomura, Mike Novogratz and others. Bullish acquired crypto news site CoinDesk in 2023.
“In the first quarter of 2025, Bullish exchange executed over $2.5 billion in average daily volume, ranking in the top five exchanges by spot volume for Bitcoin and Ether,” the company said on its website. The prospectus listed top competitors as Binance, Coinbase and Kraken.
The IPO filing says that as of March 31, the total trading volume since launch has exceeded $1.25 trillion.
The filing is another significant step for the cryptocurrency industry, which has fought for years to convince institutions to embrace digital assets as legitimate investments.
It’s already been a big year on the market for crypto offerings, highlighted by stablecoin issuer Circle, which has jumped more than sevenfold since its IPO in June. Etoro, an online trading platform that includes services for crypto investors, debuted in May.
Novogratz‘s crypto firm Galaxy Digital started trading on the Nasdaq in May, moving its listing from the Toronto Stock Exchange. And in June, Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange and custodian founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, confidentially filed for an IPO in the U.S.
Meanwhile, investors continue to flock to bitcoin. The digital currency is trading at over $117,000, up from about $94,000 at the start of the year.
President Donald Trump, on Friday, signed the GENIUS Act into law — a set of regulations that establish some initial consumer protections around stablecoins, which are tied to assets like the U.S. dollar with the intent of reducing price volatility associated with many cryptocurrencies.
In its filing with the SEC, Bullish says its mission is partly to “drive the adoption of stablecoins, digital assets, and blockchain technology.”
Crypto industry players, including Thiel, Elon Musk, and President Trump’s AI and Crypto czar David Sacks spent heavily to re-elect Trump and have pushed for legislation that legitimizes digital assets and exchanges.
WATCH: Trump’s crypto plan
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