As the new year approaches, governments, corporations, and investors alike are asking: what will critical material supply chains look like in the year to come?
In this podcast, Trivium Co-founder Andrew Polk and Cory Combs, Head of Critical Mineral and Supply Chain Research, discuss where global supply chains and diversification efforts stand today – and how they are likely to shape up in 2026.
Starting from the latest need-to-know specifics and working up to the broader strategic takes from Team Trivium, the lads discuss:
- What's going on with China's general licenses and export trends
- Trends and issues in US rare earth and broader critical mineral diversification efforts – including our take on the brand new international "Pax Silica" initiative
- How the rest of the world is responding to all this, both reactively and proactively
- How China is responding to global diversification efforts – including where it is and is not pushing back, and why
Putting it all together, they take a stab at framing the bigger strategic issues ahead.
- We've all heard plenty about the tactics of supply chain decoupling – e.g., China's from US chips and Dutch lithography machines, and the US's from China's processed critical minerals
- But this all begs key questions, like: What is a desirable end state for both sides? And what does "security" actually look like? (Hint: it's not full decoupling.)
- Despite the fierce problems at hand, the gents land on a surprisingly optimistic vision of where US-China relations could land in the next few years – a happy note on which to enter the holidays after a tumultuous year.
