A Looming Rare Earth Shortage Threatens Critical Tech

China’s near-total control of erbium and yttrium creates a concentrated supply-chain risk for critical infrastructure, with direct implications for fiber-optic networking, data-center growth, power-generation systems, and other electronics that IT organizations depend on. For CIOs and technology leaders, the strategic issue is not just component availability but business continuity: a disruption or policy shift could delay capacity expansion, increase costs, and expose digital operations to geopolitical leverage.