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Coupon Codes + Gaming Coupons o View Gaming Coupons o Kinguin Discount Codes o Loaded Discount Codes o Logitech G Promo Codes o SteelSeries Coupons Premium Forums Don't miss these ASML Semiconductors China's top chip execs claim ASML alternative 'small, fragmented, and weak' an Iranian Shahed drone Tech Industry Iran threatens Nvidia, Microsoft, other tech companies with strikes over alleged attack on Tehran bank Nexperia logo Tech Industry Nexperia China claims to be making chips using 12-inch wafers Nexperia factory in Newport. 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Tech Industry The ongoing Strait of Hormuz blockage will impact the semiconductor and AI industries with Aluminum, Helium and LNG shortages KS Pua Storage Phison CEO says NAND shortages can kill consumer electronics companies in 2026 GeForce RTX 5070 GPUs Nvidia warns of constrained supply of gaming GPUs, potentially signaling higher prices and shortages to come Heroic Launcher on Steam Deck Handheld Gaming Steam Deck shortage goes global Trending * TH Premium Deal * MacBook Pro * RAM Shortage * Bartlett Lake * RAM Combo Deals * Intel Xeon 600 * Ryzen AI 400 1. Tech Industry Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock -- SK hynix forced to diversify after 30% of global supply removed from the market News By Luke James published 12 March 2026 No restart in sight. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. 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[LOG IN] Subscribe to our newsletter QatarEnergy has not restarted helium production at its Ras Laffan complex -- one of the largest concentrations of helium production infrastructure globally -- nine days after Iranian drone strikes forced the facility offline. The ensuing disruption to supply has sparked concerns for South Korea's chip industry, Nikkei reports. Go deeper with TH Premium: Chipmaking tsmc (Image credit: tsmc) * A deeper look at the chipmaking supply chain * TSMC's $165 billion U.S. investments examined * China reportedly reverse-engineers EUV tool * China bets on DUV, as EUV blockade reshapes chipmaking The facility went offline on March 2 following drone strikes, removing approximately 30% of global helium supply from the market. QatarEnergy declared force majeure on existing contracts on March 4, freeing it from supply obligations to customers, and industry outlet Gasworld reported on March 7 that no imminent restart is planned. Helium consultant Phil Kornbluth, speaking at a Gasworld webinar on March 4, said that if the outage extends beyond roughly two weeks, industrial gas distributors could be forced to relocate cryogenic equipment and revalidate supplier relationships, a process that could stretch over months regardless of when Qatari output resumes. Article continues below You may like * Oil tanker and green lines. The ongoing Strait of Hormuz blockage will impact the semiconductor and AI industries with Aluminum, Helium and LNG shortages * Nvidia Rubin Ultra with NVL576 Kyber racks and infrastructure Shortages of crucial chip packaging material threatens AI accelerator supply chains * Nexperia factory in Newport. China warns of fresh chip shortage as Nexperia dispute escalates again - Dutch headquarters allegedly locked Chinese staff out of IT systems South Korea is among the most exposed countries, which, according to the Korea International Trade Association, imported 64.7% of its helium from Qatar in 2025. The country relies heavily on helium imports to cool silicon wafers during fabrication and is understood to have no viable substitute. The country's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources has reportedly launched an investigation into supply and demand for 14 semiconductor materials and equipment types with high dependence on Middle Eastern sources, Nikkei reported on Wednesday. Bromine, which is used in circuit formation, is another big concern, with South Korea sourcing 90% of its imports from Israel, also party to the ongoing conflict in Iran. South Korean memory giant SK hynix has since said it had diversified supplies for helium and secured sufficient inventory. Meanwhile, TSMC said that it doesn't currently anticipate a notable impact following Ras Laffan going offline, but that it's monitoring the situation. South Korea and Taiwan each account for 18% of global semiconductor production capacity, according to Boston Consulting Group and the Semiconductor Industry Association. The situation echoes a 2022 shortage of helium and neon, which was triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That event prompted South Korea to pursue supply diversification and domestic production of those gases, which are used in lithography to transfer circuit patterns onto wafers Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. [ ][ ]Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands[ ]Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors[Sign me up] By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Google Preferred Source Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source , to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. TOPICS SK Hynix See all comments (13) Luke James Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory. Read more Oil tanker and green lines. The ongoing Strait of Hormuz blockage will impact the semiconductor and AI industries with Aluminum, Helium and LNG shortages Nvidia Rubin Ultra with NVL576 Kyber racks and infrastructure Shortages of crucial chip packaging material threatens AI accelerator supply chains Nexperia factory in Newport. China warns of fresh chip shortage as Nexperia dispute escalates again - Dutch headquarters allegedly locked Chinese staff out of IT systems Annealed neodymium Chipmakers still suffering from rare earth shortages, says report tsmc Apple concedes it is constrained by TSMC's supply of advanced chips; storage and memory are also in short supply SK Hynix Server DRAM Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron team up to block memory hoarding Latest in Tech Industry a cable-laying ship working on the Africa2 project Iran conflict delays Meta's 2Africa undersea cable project Nvidia Hot Chips 2024 Tech titans team up to form optical interconnect alliance to solve the AI buildout's big data bottleneck Oil tanker and green lines. 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China's ByteDance to access 36,000 Blackwell GPU cluster through Malaysia cloud operator a cable-laying ship working on the Africa2 project Iran conflict delays Meta's 2Africa undersea cable project Nvidia Hot Chips 2024 Tech titans team up to form optical interconnect alliance to solve the AI buildout's big data bottleneck [ ] 13 Comments Comment from the forums * Shiznizzle This is no joke. This helium issue. I remember last year reading about the helium shortages and issues surround its acquisition. The article was just some random BBC written one page new filler that most paid no attention to. They also mentioned that some users were just squandering what we had. Now we are really in trouble. Not only is NAND at crazy levels in terms of price but it could be that within a month no NAND chips will be make in south korea. Relying on outside sources to supply nearly %70 of your needs......has its cost. https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/ 20250331-why-helium-shortages-are-worrying-the-world Reply * bit_user Shiznizzle said: This is no joke. This helium issue. Yeah, we need to get some fusion reactors online, quick!: D Reply * Notton Since it's not touched upon in the article, from what I could find... Helium is used to purge other gases in the fabrication chamber. Apparently, SK Hynix doesn't have a Helium recovery system, otherwise they could reuse it indefinitely. Reply * teletaggi Notton said: Since it's not touched upon in the article, from what I could find... Helium is used to purge other gases in the fabrication chamber. Apparently, SK Hynix doesn't have a Helium recovery system, otherwise they could reuse it indefinitely. Recovery is, of course, never 100% and very costly. While increasingly needed, evacuating the rooms/chambers, cooling the potentially mixed air down/compressing it to extract helium etc... Chips are already expensive and helium prices for mined helium haven't been high enough so far to restructure whole plants Reply * teletaggi bit_user said: Yeah, we need to get some fusion reactors online, quick!: D While I agree with the notion, I wouldn't be surprised if a single plant would need more fusion helium than the whole world could supply :D Reply * 80251 Nuclear fusion of H isn't used to make He is it? The good news just never stops.... It does make me feel better about buying an overpriced Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB though. Reply * bit_user 80251 said: Nuclear fusion of H isn't used to make He is it? Yes, though it's apparently not quite that simple. Experimental reactors use deuterium and tritium, heavier isotopes of hydrogen, in a process known as DT fusion. This reaction forms a helium nucleus and an energetic neutron. ... Since hydrogen has a single proton in its nucleus, it requires the least effort to attain fusion, and yields the most net energy output. Also, since it has one electron, hydrogen is the easiest fuel to fully ionize. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power Reply * Samlebon2306 I think Algeria has the third largest Helium reserves. Reply * Rakanyshu Samlebon2306 said: I think Algeria has the third largest Helium reserves. Seems like Algeria needs some freedom then, maybe they are one week from having nuclear weapons xD... Sorry for the joke, social media has bombarded me with Iran, Israel, USA stuff lately I couldn't help myself. Reply * Samlebon2306 Rakanyshu said: Seems like Algeria needs some freedom then, maybe they are one week from having nuclear weapons xD... Sorry for the joke, social media has bombarded me with Iran, Israel, USA stuff lately I couldn't help myself. You are not joking. It's a reality we live in: You own something, it's mine. 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