Geopolitics Alpha

North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers

Published . Updated .

Engineering degrees output is less than half the roughly 600 a year implied by DOE's estimate of need, and about a 15th of China's.

Directly affected

  • No company is named in this report.

Indirectly affected

  • NVDA NVIDIA

    Chip makers and their suppliers move when export rules or Taiwan risk changes

  • TSM Taiwan Semiconductor

    The main advanced-chip manufacturer sits in Taiwan

  • ASML ASML

    Chipmaking-equipment sales follow export rules

  • AVGO Broadcom

    Chip makers and their suppliers move when export rules or Taiwan risk changes

  • AMD AMD

    Chip makers and their suppliers move when export rules or Taiwan risk changes

  • AMAT Applied Materials

    Chip-equipment makers feel export controls

  • LRCX Lam Research

    Chip-equipment makers feel export controls

  • SMH VanEck Semiconductor

    A fund of semiconductor companies

  • SOXX iShares Semiconductor

    A fund of semiconductor companies

  • QQQ Invesco QQQ

    Big tech moves with chip-supply risk

Price reaction, T-5 to T+3

TickerT-5T-3T-1T0T+1T+2T+3
NVDA———————
TSM———————
ASML———————
AVGO———————
AMD———————
AMAT———————
LRCX———————
SMH———————
SOXX———————
QQQ———————

Engineering degrees output is less than half the roughly 600 a year implied by DOE's estimate of need, and about a 15th of China's.

Source: Mining.com

The price since 25 Sep 2026: USA Rare Earth (USAR) versus the S&P 500

Since the first closing price after “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers,” USA Rare Earth (USAR) is -30.10%. The S&P 500 fund (SPY) is +0.15% over the same days, a -30.24% difference versus the market. technology stocks (XLK) is +3.34%, a -33.43% difference versus that group of stocks.

USAR
SPY
XLK

Taiwan Strait on the map for this story

Taiwan Strait has 49 linked stories in the last 7 days and 49 in the last 30 on the page that also carries “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers.” The recent pace is rising.

USA Rare Earth (USAR) on one side of this semiconductors story

Companies carried with this story

  • USAR USA Rare Earth

    USA Rare Earth (USAR) is linked, with no stored direction, high confidence in the 25 Sep 2026 story “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers.” Reason on file: GA selected USAR as a RELATED security because its canonical security name directly matches this event's themes: rare earth, earth, rare. This is an explainable DERIVED market relationship, not a claim that the security was named in the source article

  • HL Hecla Mining

    Hecla Mining (HL) is linked, with no stored direction, medium confidence in the 25 Sep 2026 story “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers.” Reason on file: GA selected HL as a RELATED security because its canonical security name directly matches this event's themes: mining. This is an explainable DERIVED market relationship, not a claim that the security was named in the source article

  • MP MP Materials Corp. / DE

    MP Materials Corp. / DE (MP) is linked, with no stored direction, medium confidence in the 25 Sep 2026 story “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers.” Reason on file: GA selected MP as a RELATED security because its canonical security name directly matches this event's themes: materials. This is an explainable DERIVED market relationship, not a claim that the security was named in the source article

  • RYAM Rayonier Advanced Materials

    Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) is linked, with no stored direction, medium confidence in the 25 Sep 2026 story “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers.” Reason on file: GA selected RYAM as a RELATED security because its canonical security name directly matches this event's themes: materials. This is an explainable DERIVED market relationship, not a claim that the security was named in the source article

  • ARIS Aris Mining

    Aris Mining (ARIS) is linked, with no stored direction, medium confidence in the 25 Sep 2026 story “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers.” Reason on file: GA selected ARIS as a RELATED security because its canonical security name directly matches this event's themes: mining. This is an explainable DERIVED market relationship, not a claim that the security was named in the source article

  • ATCX Atlas Critical Minerals

    Atlas Critical Minerals (ATCX) is linked, with no stored direction, medium confidence in the 25 Sep 2026 story “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers.” Reason on file: GA selected ATCX as a RELATED security because its canonical security name directly matches this event's themes: critical minerals. This is an explainable DERIVED market relationship, not a claim that the security was named in the source article

From Taiwan Strait to USA Rare Earth (USAR)

The 25 Sep 2026 story “North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers” names USA Rare Earth (USAR) because of Taiwan Strait.

The link for USA Rare Earth (USAR) is this: GA selected USAR as a RELATED security because its canonical security name directly matches this event's themes: rare earth, earth, rare. This is an explainable DERIVED market relationship, not a claim that the security was named in the source article

Also listed, Hecla Mining (HL): GA selected HL as a RELATED security because its canonical security name directly matches this event's themes: mining. This is an explainable DERIVED market relationship, not a claim that the security was named in the source article

What this semiconductors story puts on the calendar

HL traded between 14.65 and 19.29 across 20 sessions. The latest close on file is 15.04. MP traded between 38.61 and 51.35 across 20 sessions. The latest close on file is 38.97. USAR traded between 9.82 and 17.10 across 20 sessions. The latest close on file is 10.08.

How solid the semiconductors case looks

46 out of 100

“North America is building rare earth plants faster than it is building rare earth engineers” scores 46 out of 100. The score uses 1 sources, and 6 linked companies.