We named an age after silicon chips, but microchips use barely 1% of the silicon we make. Most becomes aluminium alloys and silicones, and the booming slice is polysilicon for solar panels. The element is the second most abundant in the crust, it is sand, yet the refined grade is about 93% Chinese. Where silicon really goes, and who controls it. 2024 (USGS) · Compiled June 2026
Silicon metal made 2024
4.6 Mt
plus more as ferrosilicon for steel
China's share of silicon metal
85%
about 3.9 of 4.6 Mt
China's polysilicon
93%
the refined grade for solar and chips
Silicon used by microchips
~1%
of all silicon metal
Where the World's Silicon Metal Is Made (2024)
Colour intensity shows each country's share of silicon metal production. Hover a country for its tonnage. China makes most of it, and an even larger share of the refined polysilicon that follows.
Lower shareHigher share
2024 Silicon Metal Production by Country (kt)
China makes about sixteen times the next producer. Brazil, Norway, the United States and Russia split most of the rest, a long way behind.
The Refined Grade Is Even More Concentrated (polysilicon, kt)
Move one step downstream to polysilicon, the high-purity silicon for solar and chips, and China's share climbs to about 93%. Germany (Wacker) and the United States are nearly the only others left.
About 4.6 million tonnes a year, made tangible.
Big tonnages mean nothing until you anchor them to things you know. Here is what silicon's scale looks like in seconds, solar panels and purity. Verify-and-cite figures in the footer.
146 kg
every second
The world makes about 146 kg of silicon metal every second of the year.
1.2 bn
solar panels a year
The polysilicon made each year is enough for well over a billion crystalline-silicon solar panels.
1 in 1bn
chip-grade purity
Electronic-grade silicon is 99.9999999% pure: one foreign atom per billion. The purest material people make.
93%
polysilicon from China
China makes about 93% of the world's polysilicon, the refined feedstock for solar and chips.
The Purity Ladder (number of nines of purity, by grade)
Silicon starts as sand and climbs to the purest material we make. Metallurgical silicon is about 99% (two nines). Solar polysilicon is six nines. Chip-grade silicon is nine nines, one impurity atom per billion. Each step up is a thousand times cleaner.
Where Silicon Metal Goes
Here is the surprise. About 40% of silicon metal becomes aluminium alloys and another 38% becomes silicones. Polysilicon, the part that becomes solar panels and chips, is under a fifth. The "Silicon Age" runs on a small slice.
And Inside That Polysilicon Slice
Of the polysilicon made, about 95% goes to solar panels and only 5% to semiconductors. So the microchips the era is named for use roughly 1% of all silicon. Solar, not chips, is the volume story.
The Silicon Illusion
We named an age after silicon chips, yet chips use barely 1% of the silicon we make. Most of it quietly becomes aluminium alloys in engine blocks and wheels, and silicones in sealants, lubricants and cosmetics. The fast-growing slice is polysilicon for solar panels. The raw material could not be more common: silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, about 28% by mass, and it starts as ordinary sand. The hard part, and the valuable part, is purity. Turning that sand into the nine-nines crystal a microchip needs is one of the most demanding processes in industry, which is why the chip-grade sliver is worth so much more than the rest.
China's silicon metal
85%
of world production
China's solar polysilicon
96%
feedstock for panels
China's solar wafers
97%
the solar chokepoint
Polysilicon price 2024
~$5/kg
down from $39 in 2022
China's Grip on the Solar Chain (% of world)
Follow silicon into solar and China's share is near-total: 85% of silicon metal, 96% of solar polysilicon, 97% of solar wafers. The one exception is semiconductor-grade polysilicon, where the West still leads, marked in grey.
The Price Collapsed (solar polysilicon, USD per kg)
Polysilicon spiked to about $39/kg in 2022, then crashed below $5 as China built huge overcapacity. Cheap silicon is not the problem for the West. Concentrated silicon is.
The Supply-Chain Story
Silicon's supply story is about processing, not scarcity. The raw material is sand, the second most abundant element in the crust, so nobody runs out. The leverage is downstream, in the energy-hungry furnaces that make silicon metal and the refining that turns it into high-purity polysilicon. China built both at enormous scale: about 85% of silicon metal, 96% of solar-grade polysilicon and 97% of solar wafers, then drove the price below cost. The one grade it does not yet own is semiconductor-grade polysilicon, where Wacker in Germany and Hemlock in the United States still lead. For anyone trying to build solar or chips outside China, that single chain is the whole problem.
Why It Matters
Silicon is the material the modern world is built on, and almost nobody sees it clearly. We named an age after the chips, but the chips are a sliver. Most silicon becomes aluminium alloys and silicones, and the booming slice is polysilicon for solar power. The element is the second most abundant in the crust, so this is never a scarcity story. It is a purity and processing story. Turning sand into nine-nines crystal is one of the hardest things industry does, and China has built most of that capacity: about 85% of silicon metal and 93% of polysilicon, with the solar chain almost entirely in its hands. The one piece left is semiconductor-grade silicon, the purest and most strategic grade, which is exactly why it sits at the centre of the chip wars. So the silicon question is not whether we run out. It is who controls turning the most common element on Earth into the cleanest material on Earth.