Millions of people across the US South have gone without power or have been forced to evacuate following days of extreme downpours brought on by Hurricane Helene. North Carolina has borne the brunt of the devastation, with the state accounting for a third of all recorded fatalities to date. And as relief operations get underway, the eyes of the world are on a small town of about 2,000 in the western part of the state.
Spruce Pine sits about an hour northeast of Asheville, Mitchell County, and is home to the world’s biggest known source of ultrapure quartz—often referred to as high-purity quartz, or HPQ. This material is used for manufacturing crucibles, on which global semiconductor production relies, as well as to make components within semiconductors themselves.
Semiconductors are the fundamental building blocks of modern IT. Transistors, a type of semiconductor device, are the small electronic switches that perform computation functions in every tech gadget, from smartphones to electric scooters, data centers, and military aircraft. They make possible the processors that power most of the world’s smart gadgets.
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