Cobalt
Advanced-node interconnect metal from the DRC
Cobalt is increasingly used as an interconnect and liner/capping metal in advanced logic nodes (replacing/complementing tungsten and copper for reliability), and remains critical for batteries in datacenter backup power. Roughly 70% of mined cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, with China dominating refining, creating combined ESG and geopolitical concentration risk. Its niche but growing role in leading-edge metallization ties it to the AI chip supply chain.
DRC mining share
~70% of global supply
Refining
China-dominated
Uses
Advanced-node interconnect, backup batteries
How it fits the stack
Cobalt with what it depends on (above) and what it feeds (below). The figure renders as a crawlable diagram and upgrades to an interactive 3D graph as it scrolls into view.
Cobalt in the AI stack. Cobalt with its immediate upstream dependencies (top) and downstream dependents (bottom) in the AI value chain. Hover a node in 3D, or read the full relationships below.
Graph data (text) — 2 entities, 1 relationships
- TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) —supplies→ Cobalt