AI & Data Centers

Every advanced processor that trains or runs an AI model is wired, in part, with tungsten. The reason is a combination of properties that no other metal matches at the nanometre scale. Tungsten conducts electricity well, resists electromigration far better than aluminium, and tolerates the high temperatures of chip fabrication thanks to a melting point of 3,422 °C, the highest of any metal. Its thermal expansion closely matches silicon, so it does not stress the structures around it as a chip heats and cools billions of times. Those properties made tungsten the standard material for the vertical connections inside logic and memory chips decades ago, and the shift to 3D architectures has only increased the amount of tungsten deposited per wafer. As AI data centres multiply the number of accelerators, memory stacks and switches in service, they multiply tungsten demand with them.

Where tungsten is used

Contacts, vias and plugs in logic chips

In a modern GPU or CPU, the transistors sit at the bottom of a stack of a dozen or more metal layers. The first connections from each transistor up into that wiring stack are tungsten contacts and plugs, deposited by chemical vapour deposition into holes only tens of nanometres wide. Tungsten fills these high-aspect-ratio features without voids and stays stable through subsequent processing. Leading-edge nodes are also adopting tungsten and tungsten-based liners for local interconnects where copper becomes unreliable at very small dimensions.

Word lines in 3D NAND

Flash memory has moved from flat layouts to vertical stacks of 200 or more layers. Each layer's word line, the conductor that addresses a row of memory cells, is typically formed from tungsten. A single 3D NAND die therefore contains hundreds of tungsten layers, and the data centres storing training sets and model checkpoints consume this memory in enormous volume. DRAM, including the high-bandwidth memory stacked beside AI accelerators, also uses tungsten in buried word lines and contacts.

Advanced packaging

AI accelerators are assembled from multiple dies on interposers using through-silicon vias and dense redistribution layers. Tungsten is used in some via and barrier structures, and tungsten-based alloys appear in probe cards and test sockets used to validate every packaged device.

Heat spreaders and thermal management

Accelerators now dissipate several hundred watts to more than a kilowatt each. Tungsten-copper and tungsten-based composites are used as heat spreaders, substrates and baseplates because they combine high thermal conductivity with an expansion coefficient that matches the chips and ceramics they are bonded to. Tungsten also appears in the sputtering targets and furnace hardware used throughout the fab.

Cutting tools for the build-out

Data centres are physical infrastructure. Constructing and fitting out the halls, power systems, cooling plants and server racks requires cemented tungsten carbide tooling for machining, drilling and construction, and the same carbide is used to manufacture the fab equipment that produces the chips in the first place.

The AI build-out is often described as a race for compute, power and water. It is also a race for the materials inside the chips, and tungsten is one of the few with no established substitute.

Why supply is the problem

China produces roughly four-fifths of the world's mined tungsten and an even larger share of the refined products that semiconductor-grade tungsten precursors are made from. In February 2025, China introduced export controls on a range of tungsten products, and prices for tungsten concentrate and ammonium paratungstate rose steeply over the following months as buyers sought non-Chinese material.

The United States has had no domestic primary tungsten mine production for several years and imports its primary tungsten. Tungsten is on the U.S. Government's critical minerals list. At the same time, the United States is spending heavily to bring leading-edge chip fabrication onshore. New fabs in Arizona, Texas, Ohio and New York will need stable supplies of high-purity tungsten precursors, and the raw material for those precursors still originates overseas. Separately, the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act restricts Chinese-origin tungsten in Department of Defense procurement from 2027, which touches the defense and government computing segment of the data centre market.

Semiconductor supply chains are built on multi-year qualification cycles. A domestic tungsten source that can feed Western refiners would reduce a single-point dependency sitting underneath the entire AI hardware stack.

What it means for Gordon

Gordon Mining Group's Tungsten Tail Project is a past-producing scheelite property in Sierra County, New Mexico, on U.S. federal land. Historic shipments were recorded in 1942 and 1955, reported historical grades were in the range of 3 to 4 percent WO3, and more than 300 metres of underground workings were developed by earlier operators. There is no record of the property having been drilled.

Gordon intends to be the first company to drill Tungsten Tail. The project represents a U.S.-based tungsten exploration asset in a jurisdiction where the chip industry is being actively rebuilt and where a domestic mine-to-fab supply chain is a stated policy objective. The historic workings provide a physical guide to the mineralised structures, giving Gordon a rare starting point for a modern programme.

Historical information presented here has not been verified by a Qualified Person and is not a current mineral resource. A first drill programme is required to establish the modern geological understanding of the property.

Key takeaways

• Tungsten forms the contacts, plugs and word lines inside essentially all advanced logic and 3D NAND memory chips, with no established substitute.
• Tungsten-copper composites manage the heat from accelerators drawing hundreds of watts each.
• China produces roughly four-fifths of global tungsten and imposed export controls in February 2025; the U.S. has no primary mine production.
• Onshoring chip fabrication without onshoring tungsten leaves a critical dependency in place.
• Tungsten Tail is a past-producing scheelite property with reported historical grades of 3 to 4 percent WO3 and no recorded drilling; Gordon plans to drill it first. Historical data is unverified and not a current mineral resource.