Dow drops 500 points in sudden move after Trump’s China tariff threat
Trump threatens economic retaliation on China amid dispute over critical rare earths
By Donald Judd, Kylie Atwood
President Donald Trump blasted Chinese leader Xi Jinping on social media over China’s ramped-up efforts to impose export controls on critical rare earths, threatening economic retaliation and saying he no longer sees any reason to meet with Xi during a scheduled visit to the region later this month.
“Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would ‘clog’ the Markets, and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China.
cnn.com
Rare earth stocks jump after Trump says China holding world ‘captive’ over the metals, threatens countermeasures
Published Fri, Oct 10 2025
Beijing is requiring foreign entities to obtain a license to export products that contain rare earths worth 0.1% or more of the goods’ value, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. Companies will also need export licenses if they use China’s extraction, refining or magnet recycling technology.
cnbc.com
Yes, rare earths are used in data centers, primarily for their use in powerful magnets for hard drives and cooling fans, and in other components for servers and networking equipment. Elements like neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium are essential for high-performance parts that are critical for data storage and efficient operation, which is leading to increased demand for these materials.
- Data Storage:
Hard disk drives (HDDs) rely on rare earth magnets, particularly neodymium-iron-boron magnets, to allow the read/write heads to move precisely across the disk surface at high speeds.
- Cooling and Fans:
The motors in cooling fans and other high-speed equipment within data centers use rare earth magnets for efficiency and performance.
- Servers and Networking:
Rare earth elements are also used in other components of servers and networking equipment to ensure high performance and energy efficiency.
- Increased Demand:
The growth of AI and cloud computing is driving a significant increase in the demand for data centers, and subsequently, for rare earth elements needed for their hardware.
- Recycling Efforts:
Due to the importance of these materials, companies are starting to mine old hard drives and other electronics to recover rare earths, creating a circular economy for these critical minerals.
Excess data centers will eventually provide ample supply of rare earths. |
