America Is Making the Same Critical Semiconductor Error with Gallium Nitride That It Made with Silicon

Summary

The United States faces a severe strategic vulnerability in gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, as China controls 99% of the world's primary gallium supply and imposed a complete export ban to the U.S. in December 2024, finding the U.S. National Defense Stockpile with zero gallium reserves. This situation mirrors America's earlier failure with silicon semiconductors, where U.S. innovation was gradually offshored, ultimately ceding manufacturing dominance to Taiwan — a mistake only partially addressed by the slow-moving and controversy-laden 2022 CHIPS Act. Gallium nitride is critically important for national security, serving as the foundational technology in modern radar and electronic warfare systems used across U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and allied defense platforms. The article argues that the solution is not more research funding, but rather a decisive shift toward heterogeneous integration — combining GaN's high-frequency power capabilities with silicon's digital processing strengths — supported by a fully domestic supply chain from raw material extraction to advanced chip packaging. Without bold industrial policy action at production scale, the United States risks repeating the same catastrophic loss of manufacturing sovereignty with GaN that it experienced with silicon over the past five decades.