Building on our last blog, this post will focus on their applications within economics and technology.
To begin, take something as mundane and cyclical as your morning commute. The gasoline in your tank has been refined using cerium and lanthanum catalysts that make fuel production cleaner and more efficient. These are molecular architects that transform crude oil into the fuel that powers millions of vehicles every day.
Oil refineries worldwide rely on these rare earth catalysts to meet increasingly stringent environmental standards while maintaining profitability. Without them, fuel would be even dirtier, more expensive, and less efficient. This is in no way dismissing the fact that this industry is still very environmentally damaging; yet it serves as an example of how rare earths enable entire industries to exist in their current form.
Rare earths hold a massive share in our economy. In North America alone, the rare earth industry directly supports nearly $800 million in shipments and over 1,000 direct jobs with a payroll of $116 million. Each job in this sector creates five more across the broader economy, supporting a total of over 6,300 jobs and generating more than $420 million in wages and salaries.
Looking beyond, rare earth-enabled products and technologies support $329.6 billion in economic output and employ over 618,800 workers in the U.S. and Canada. These elements are essential inputs for magnets, catalysts, batteries, motors, lasers, and sensors used in everything from healthcare and clean energy to automotive, lighting, communications, defense, and advanced optics, as discussed in my previous blog.
Moving on, rare earth elements are enabling technologies that previously wouldn’t have been possible. Quantum computers represent perhaps the best embodiment of this. These machines, can revolutionize everything from drug discovery to climate modeling, operate in conditions that would be impossible without rare earth elements.
This is a computer that requires a temperature lower than the vacuum of deep space, where quantum particles exist in multiple states simultaneously until they are observed. Rare earth elements are key in creating the ultra-stable magnetic fields and precise environmental controls that enable this quantum magic.
Companies like IBM, Google, and startup quantum firms are racing to build practical quantum computers that could solve problems in minutes that would take today’s supercomputers thousands of years.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is driving another wave of rare earth demand that many people are unaware of. As of now, AI processing facilities use insane amounts of energy. With this, some of the most advanced cooling systems are required. For this, REEs are primarily used. For example, the processors that are being designed to mimic human brain function produce an an incredible amount of heat due to generating billions of calculations per second. In order to keep these functioning REEs are needed.
As AI becomes more sophisticated and is adopted into daily life, the computational requirements are growing exponentially. The next generations of AI will need even more advanced management systems. Even data centers, which power everything from search engines to streaming services and AI chatbots, will need the same.
Point is, without these elements, life would not be as advanced as it is.
Tune in next week where we will discuss a specific element. Which? See you next month 🙂
Sources:
https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/rare-earths.pdf
https://www.precedenceresearch.com/rare-earth-minerals-market
https://discoveryalert.com.au/news/rare-earth-elements-strategic-resources-2025
https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/rare-earth-why-2025-will-be-a-tipping-point-for-circularity
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/29/us-china-rare-earth-minerals-metals-geopolitics-power.html
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-critical-minerals-outlook-2025
https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/what-will-happen-to-rare-earth-markets-in-2025/
https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/rare-earth-elements-global-market-report
https://www.army.mil/article/227715/an_elemental_issue
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