Who actually makes the constrained things, from the mine to the buyer, and how hard each one would be to replace.
- Organisations
- 138
- in 29 countries
- Graded
- 101
- 28 would be hard to replace at all
- Existence verified
- 94
- of 138, from their maker rows
- Chain layers
- 10
- extraction through deployment
Read this first. The grades in this directory are unsourced judgements. What is verified is narrower and shown per row: which organisations make a covered material, each checked against a source you can open. A row saying “hard to replace” with no verified line under it is a lead, not a finding.
Industry
Chain
| Organisation | Makes | How replaceable | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extraction14 | ||||
| ExxonMobil | Helium from natural gas | US | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Gazprom | Listed as a maker only | RU | 1verified | Not graded |
| Impala Platinum | PGM mining | ZA | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Lynas Rare Earths | Rare-earth mining and separation | AU MY | 2unverified | Concentrated |
| Minsur | Tin mining and smelting | PE | 1verified | Competitive |
| MP Materials | Rare-earth ore | US | 1unverified | Concentrated |
| Nornickel | Nickel and PGM mining | RU | 1verified | Concentrated |
| PT Timah | Tin mining and smelting | ID | 1verified | Competitive |
| QatarEnergy | Helium from LNG | QA | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Russian Quartz | Listed as a maker only | RU | 1verified | Not graded |
| Sibanye-Stillwater | PGM mining incl. ruthenium | ZA | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Sibelco | High-purity quartz sand | BE US | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| The Quartz Corp | High-purity quartz sand | NO US | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Yunnan Tin | Tin mining and smelting | CN | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Refining & separation31 | ||||
| 5N Plus | High-purity specialty metals | CA DE | 2verified | Concentrated |
| AGC | Listed as a maker only | JP | 1verified | Not graded |
| Air Liquide | Industrial and electronic gases | FR | 2verified | Concentrated |
| Air Products | Industrial gases and helium | US | 1unverified | Concentrated |
| Aurubis | Listed as a maker only | DE | 1verified | Not graded |
| Baosteel Gases | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1unverified | Not graded |
| Chalco | Gallium from alumina refining | CN | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Chemours | Listed as a maker only | US | 1verified | Not graded |
| China Northern Rare Earth | Rare-earth separation | CN | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| China Rare Earth Group | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1unverified | Not graded |
| Cryoin Engineering | Listed as a maker only | UA | 1verified | Not graded |
| East Hope Group | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1verified | Not graded |
| Hemlock Semiconductor | Electronic-grade polysilicon | US | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Heraeus | Precious-metal refining | DE | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Iceblick | Neon and rare gases | UA | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Jiangsu Pacific Quartz | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1verified | Not graded |
| Johnson Matthey | PGM refining | GB | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Linde | Industrial and electronic gases | GB US DE | 2verified | Concentrated |
| Malaysia Smelting Corporation | Listed as a maker only | MY | 1verified | Not graded |
| Messer | Listed as a maker only | DE | 1verified | Not graded |
| Mitsubishi Materials | Listed as a maker only | JP | 1verified | Not graded |
| Nyrstar | Listed as a maker only | AU | 1unverified | Not graded |
| OCI | Polysilicon | KR MY | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Rio Tinto | Listed as a maker only | CA | 1verified | Not graded |
| Shenghe Resources | Rare-earth separation and trading | CN | 2verified | Chokepoint |
| Solvay | Listed as a maker only | FR | 1unverified | Not graded |
| Syensqo | Listed as a maker only | BE | 1verified | Not graded |
| Tokuyama | Electronic-grade polysilicon | JP MY | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Umicore | PGM refining and recycling | BE | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Wacker Chemie | Electronic-grade polysilicon | DE US | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Zhuhai Fangyuan | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1verified | Not graded |
| Conversion38 | ||||
| AMSC | Listed as a maker only | US | 1verified | Not graded |
| Applied Diamond | Listed as a maker only | US | 1verified | Not graded |
| Baosteel | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1verified | Not graded |
| Cleveland-Cliffs | Listed as a maker only | US | 1verified | Not graded |
| Coherent | SiC substrates, diamond, photonics | US | 2verified | Concentrated |
| Diamond Materials | Listed as a maker only | DE | 1verified | Not graded |
| Element Six | CVD synthetic diamond | GB IE | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Engineered Fluids | Listed as a maker only | US | 1verified | Not graded |
| Faraday Factory Japan | REBCO superconducting tape | JP | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Ferrotec | Quartz and fab consumables | JP CN | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Fujikura | REBCO superconducting tape | JP | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Furuya Metal | Listed as a maker only | JP | 1verified | Not graded |
| GlobalWafers | Silicon wafers | TW | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Indium Corporation | High-purity metals and solders | US | 1verified | Concentrated |
| JFE Steel | Listed as a maker only | JP | 1verified | Not graded |
| Less Common Metals | Rare-earth alloys and strip | GB | 1unverified | Chokepoint |
| MetOx | Listed as a maker only | US | 1unverified | Not graded |
| Momentive Technologies | Fused quartz crucibles | US | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Neo Performance Materials | Rare-earth magnets and materials | CA EE | 2unverified | Concentrated |
| Nippon Steel | Grain-oriented electrical steel | JP | 1verified | Concentrated |
| POSCO | Grain-oriented electrical steel | KR | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Resonac | SiC epitaxy and fab materials | JP | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Shanghai Superconductor | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1verified | Not graded |
| Shin-Etsu Handotai | 300 mm prime silicon wafers | JP | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Shin-Etsu Quartz | Fused quartz components | JP | 1unverified | Chokepoint |
| SICC | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1verified | Not graded |
| Siltronic | Silicon wafers | DE | 1verified | Concentrated |
| SK Siltron | Silicon and SiC wafers | KR | 1verified | Concentrated |
| SK Siltron CSS | Listed as a maker only | KR US | 1verified | Not graded |
| Stalprodukt | Listed as a maker only | PL | 1verified | Not graded |
| SUMCO | 300 mm prime silicon wafers | JP | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Sumitomo Electric | Listed as a maker only | JP | 1verified | Not graded |
| SuperPower | Listed as a maker only | US | 1verified | Not graded |
| Tanaka Kikinzoku | Listed as a maker only | JP | 1verified | Not graded |
| TankeBlue | Listed as a maker only | CN | 1verified | Not graded |
| THEVA | Listed as a maker only | DE | 1verified | Not graded |
| ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel | Listed as a maker only | DE | 1verified | Not graded |
| Wolfspeed | Silicon carbide substrates | US | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Equipment & consumables13 | ||||
| Applied Materials | Deposition, etch and process tools | US | — | Concentrated |
| ASM International | Atomic layer deposition | NL | — | Concentrated |
| ASML | EUV and DUV lithography systems | NL | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Canon | Lithography and nanoimprint | JP | — | Competitive |
| Carl Zeiss SMT | EUV projection optics | DE | 2verified | Chokepoint |
| JSR | Photoresists | JP | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| KLA | Process control and metrology | US | — | Concentrated |
| Lam Research | Etch and deposition | US | — | Concentrated |
| Nikon | Lithography systems | JP | — | Competitive |
| Shin-Etsu Chemical | Photoresists, masks and silicones | JP | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Tokyo Electron | Coaters, developers, etch | JP | — | Concentrated |
| Tokyo Ohka Kogyo | Photoresists and process chemicals | JP | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Trumpf | EUV plasma-source lasers | DE | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Fabrication6 | ||||
| GlobalFoundries | Mature and specialty nodes | US DE SG | — | Competitive |
| Intel Foundry | Leading-edge foundry | US IE IL | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Samsung Foundry | Leading-edge foundry and memory | KR | 1verified | Concentrated |
| SMIC | Foundry | CN | — | Concentrated |
| TSMC | Leading-edge foundry | TW | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| UMC | Mature-node foundry | TW | — | Competitive |
| Packaging & memory6 | ||||
| Amkor | Assembly and test | US KR | — | Concentrated |
| ASE Technology | Assembly and test | TW | — | Concentrated |
| Micron | High-bandwidth memory | US JP SG | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Samsung Memory | High-bandwidth memory | KR | 1verified | Concentrated |
| SK hynix | High-bandwidth memory | KR | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| TSMC Advanced Packaging | CoWoS-class packaging | TW | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Systems & silicon7 | ||||
| AMD | Accelerators and CPUs | US | — | Concentrated |
| Arista Networks | Datacentre networking | US | — | Competitive |
| Broadcom | Custom accelerators and networking silicon | US | — | Concentrated |
| Marvell | Custom silicon, optics and interconnect | US | — | Concentrated |
| NVIDIA | Accelerators and interconnect | US | — | Chokepoint |
| Supermicro | Server systems integration | US TW | — | Competitive |
| Vertiv | Datacentre power and thermal systems | US | — | Concentrated |
| Energy & grid8 | ||||
| ABB | Electrification and drives | CH | — | Concentrated |
| GE Vernova | Gas turbines and grid equipment | US | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Hitachi Energy | Transformers, HVDC, grid equipment | CH JP | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Mitsubishi Electric | Transformers and power electronics | JP | 1verified | Concentrated |
| NKT | High-voltage cable | DK | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Prysmian | High-voltage cable | IT | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Schneider Electric | Electrical distribution and datacentre power | FR | — | Concentrated |
| Siemens Energy | Grid equipment and turbines | DE | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Actuation & robotics7 | ||||
| ABB Robotics | Industrial robots | CH SE | — | Concentrated |
| FANUC | Industrial robots and CNC | JP | — | Concentrated |
| Harmonic Drive Systems | Strain-wave reduction gears | JP | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| KUKA | Industrial robots | DE CN | — | Competitive |
| Nabtesco | Cycloidal reduction gears | JP | 1verified | Chokepoint |
| Renishaw | Encoders and metrology | GB | 1verified | Concentrated |
| Yaskawa | Servo motors and robots | JP | — | Concentrated |
| Deployment & demand8 | ||||
| Amazon Web Services | Hyperscale compute buyer and custom silicon | US | — | Concentrated |
| Anthropic | Frontier model developer | US | — | Concentrated |
| CoreWeave | Specialist compute provider | US | — | Competitive |
| Hyperscale compute buyer and custom silicon | US | — | Concentrated | |
| Meta | Hyperscale compute buyer | US | — | Concentrated |
| Microsoft | Hyperscale compute buyer | US | — | Concentrated |
| OpenAI | Frontier model developer | US | — | Concentrated |
| xAI | Frontier model developer | US | — | Concentrated |
138 of 138
What these columns mean
- Makes
- How many covered materials this organisation is mapped as making, and whether any of those rows has been verified against a source.
- Hard to replace
- One or very few qualified suppliers, and no substitute on a horizon that matters. Removing it stops things.
- Few alternatives
- A handful of credible suppliers. Substitution is possible but slow, costly, or needs re-qualification.
- Replaceable
- Many credible suppliers. In the chain, but not a constraint on it — and saying so is what makes the other two grades mean something.