Authored by Sean Tseng via The Epoch Times,
In early May, the head of an American chipmaker told investors his company was running short of a material most people have never heard of. A week later, he was on a plane to China alongside President Donald Trump, hoping to pry loose the export licenses his factories needed.
People view an AI data center at the SK networks stand during the MWC (Mobile World Congress), the world's biggest mobile fair, in Barcelona on March 3, 2025. Manaure Quintero/AFP via Getty ImagesThe company was Coherent, the executive was chief executive Jim Anderson, and the material was indium phosphide, a compound that turns electricity directly into laser light.
Anderson went in part to press China over the delays it had placed on shipments of the material, according to Reuters, citing three people familiar with the matter. Without indium phosphide, the warehouse-sized computer facilities behind America's push into artificial intelligence cannot move data between chips fast enough to keep up. China, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, produces about 70 percent of the world's supply.
That bottleneck is one half of a broader squeeze on America's AI build-out. On the material front, China has restricted export
