The Middle East war triggered a helium crisis: the global semiconductor industry is facing a moment of suffocation.

As global attention focused on oil tankers and liquefied natural gas carriers in the Strait of Hormuz, a colorless inert gas is becoming the most vulnerable link in the semiconductor industrial chain. According to multiple sources, helium gas prices have soared by more than 50%, and the procurement services of major global chip manufacturers, such as three-star electrons, SK Hercules, and accumulators, have monitored price fluctuations and supply of key materials on a daily basis. The immediate trigger for this supply crisis is the Iranian attack on the Las Lavan industrial facility in northern Qatar. The region is the largest liquid gas export base in the world, and the core hub for the production of helium in Qatari countries. More than 30% of the global helium supply disappears from the market in the short term because helix gas extraction is tied to the LNG processing depth. Worse still, helonic gas cannot accumulate on the same scale as oil or food. South Korea was the most hit country. Korea’s helium imports in 2025 amounted to $226.9 million, of which about 64 per cent came from Qatar; and Qatari sources accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the high-purity helmonium required for semiconductor manufacturing. Three-star electrons and SK Hercules have initiated an emergency inventory verification mechanism. Industry officials warned that supply could tighten and directly increase chip manufacturing costs if the crisis persisted. The shock of helium shortages is transmitted down to the industrial chain through multiple pathways. U.S. Wade Bush Stock Exchange analysts have argued that building an artificial intelligence infrastructure will face critical material supply chain problems if the conflict continues until May; if it is eased by mid-April, it will affect it. From January to February 2026, China imported 379.4 tons of helium from Qatar, a 15.7% decrease in the same year, down from more than 60% a few years ago to 41%. The annual energy capacity of the nine-rich sources has risen to 1.5 million squares, and Hang Oxy shares have made a breakthrough in the national production of liquid helmet tanks. This helium break-off crisis, ignited by geo-conflict, has exposed the deep fragility of the global semiconductor industrial chain: when an irreplaceable raw material is monopolized by a few countries, and in the midst of war, there is also the risk of suffocation by an advanced technological system. The American Journal of National Interest is sobering: the real risk has never been an escalation of the war itself, but the supply chain begins to "physical failure."