The next domino to fall in the Strait of Hormuz could be… helium? And it might spell trouble for chipmakers.

While drivers across the US will already have seen gas prices shooting up because of the war in the Middle East, and may soon notice challenges getting hold of cheap Chinese imports — because something like 11% of all global trade traverses the narrow strait, per United Nations figures — there’s another problem ahead: helium supplies could be crimped because of the war.

The alarm bells were rung by South Korean government officials last week, who cautioned that semiconductor production could be disrupted if key materials from the Middle East cannot be sourced, including helium.

Because it’s chemically inert and nonreactive, manufacturers use helium as a blanket and purge gas around silicon wafers to insulate the process from unwanted reactions as the wafers are etched.

As AI interest peaked, so did demand for helium. The semiconductor industry overtook the previous biggest consumer of helium across industries — use in MRI machines — in October 2025, data from analytics firm TechCET shows.

Roughly a third of the world’s supply of helium comes from Qatar as a byproduct of the country’s massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) production, which itself is facing headaches trying to get its cargoes out of the Middle East and to the rest of the world.

The Takeaway

QatarEnergy halted production at its massive Ras Laffan facility — the planet’s biggest LNG export hub — after Iranian drone strikes in the early days of the conflict. Because no LNG tankers have been able to leave the region, producers are shutting their gas wells — meaning that the byproducts, like helium, aren’t entering the market either. Two of the country’s three helium plants are tied directly to LNG production, which means helium output depends on LNG continuing to flow through the strait.

Experts expect that in the coming weeks, major helium suppliers will start declaring force majeure with their customers, customers which as it stands are on the hook for a whole lot of chips that lots of large companies are counting on.