The Heart of the Matter
We begin the tour of the Noops Research stack from 'atoms to applications' with the material world.
'Atoms' often refers to silicon and other semiconductors - but this isn't a story about silicon, one of the most abundant elements on Earth.
Many other elements and materials provide material support for artificial intelligence. Some of them had been little regarded, until quite recently. These elemental chokepoints serve as fundamental limits to growth in the AI economy.
Some systems can move at the speed of $11,000,000,000,000. Many can't. Some break. Deeply grounded in physical constraints, matter moves slowly. Refining or extraction are concentrated in one or two places and take years to expand.
Matter is the first cab off the rank at AI Investor because NOOPS Research considers it the pace car, determining how fast any other layer above it can operate.
Helium
NOOPS Research's first white paper covered Australia's strategic advantage in helium, a rare element on earth (while comprising nearly a quarter of the observable universe) essential for the fabrication of advanced semiconductors.
The US sold its strategic reserve of helium. Qatar was dominant but its helium infrastructure and ability to export have been severely impacted by the US/Iran war in the Persian Gulf. There are no substitute elements that chipmakers can use for purging and cooling during the fabrication process. A severe helium shortage could bring advanced semiconductor fabrication to a halt.
Bromine
Israel and Jordan provide two thirds of global supply from the Dead Sea, while South Korea imports 97.5% of its bromine from Israel. Hydrogen Bromide is considered irreplaceable for etching memory transistors. The US/Iran war puts those supplies at risk, and if supplies get disrupted, the RAM shortage gets far worse.
Yttrium and erbium
Yttrium gets used in ceramic capacitors, LEDs, lasers and microwave filters, while erbium finds its way into optical amplifiers on fibre links. China mines ~90% of yttrium and processes 100% of ore to usable oxide; China supplies all erbium oxide. China's controls on erbium were suspended in Nov 2025 for 12 months, while Yttrium exports were cut by 75%; Beijing will make another decision about erbium this November, against increasing US/China tensions.
Advanced Ceramics
Toto, famed for their very comfy "automated" toilets, actually makes a lot more of their revenues from advanced ceramics used in semiconductor fabrication. They're now the second-largest producer of electrostatic chucks for NAND production; its advanced-ceramics division was up +34% by mid-year, and now accounts for 55% of operating profit.
Glass
Corning cut a deal with Nvidia to provide optical interconnects, as Nvidia reaches the transmission limits of copper. Glass could replace ~5,000 copper cables per NVIDIA rack, operating at far higher speeds. At the other end of the scale, Corning's on-chip glass interconnects speed processing within the chip packages themselves. Corning will be in an enviable position: both within data centres and composing the screens of household AI devices.
Silicon Carbide (SiC)
Data centres have become the killer app for solid-state transformers (SST) made from silicon carbide. Conventional large transformers are hand-wound copper on steel, bespoke, with lead times of years. SSTs use high-frequency SiC switching; they're modular, built on semiconductor lines; and convert grid AC straight to the 800VDC data center racks consume.
Mo matter, mo chokepoints
Gallium, germanium, neon, tungsten, photoresist, high-purity quartz (silicon dioxide), polysilicon, lithium, uranium, and rare-earth magnets are all in increasing demand because of the global AI buildout.
We don't yet know where all of the chokepoints are. Others will emerge as $11,000,000,000,000 in capital forces its way through the AI ecosystem.