Helium is extracted as a by-product of natural gas processing, so the halt at Ras Laffan froze its helium output, The Diplomat’s author Alvin Camba, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center, wrote on 9 April 2026. Iranian missile attacks on 18 March 2026 then caused “significant damage” at Ras Laffan, Qatar said, Al Jazeera reported. Camba put Qatar’s share of global helium supply at roughly one-third. Fabs blow helium across the back of silicon wafers to hold the thermal stability that manufacturing at three nanometres and below requires, according to the same analysis, which cites a professor at South Korea’s Sangmyung University who said there is no viable substitute for helium in wafer cooling.

The Strait of Hormuz is the only maritime exit for Qatar’s helium, according to The Diplomat. Around 200 specialised containers used to carry liquid helium were stranded near the strait when the war began, helium industry consultant Phil Kornbluth told The New York Times, as reported by US technology news site Tom’s Hardware on 27 March 2026. Kornbluth said repositioning, refilling and delivering those containers could take months. Chipmakers can store only about six weeks of supply before it starts heating up, Richard Brook, chief executive of helium consultancy Garrison Ventures, told the same newspaper, according to Tom’s Hardware.

On the same call, Huang said TSMC sources speciality chemicals and gases, including helium and hydrogen, “from multiple suppliers in different regions”. He also warned that prices for certain chemicals and gases were likely to increase because of the situation in the Middle East, and that “there may be impact to our profitability”, which he said was too early to quantify. TSMC reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of US$35.90 billion, up 40.6 per cent year on year, in its earnings release dated 16 April 2026.

Daniel Heyler, a senior analyst at Hong Kong-based investment manager EFM Asset Management, told CNBC that TSMC was well prepared through recycling and roughly three to six months of helium inventory, and that as the largest buyer it was likely to receive priority supply, according to a report by Detroit-based financial news site Benzinga on 14 April 2026.

Taiwan is exposed as well. It sourced 69 per cent of its helium from Gulf Cooperation Council states in 2024, according to The Diplomat, though a TechNews report relayed by TrendForce News on 23 March 2026 put Qatar’s share at about 30 per cent. South Korea sourced approximately 65 per cent of its helium from Qatar alone, The Diplomat said, and Tom’s Hardware described South Korean chipmakers as particularly vulnerable because two-thirds of the country’s helium imports came from Qatar in 2025. SK Hynix and Samsung reportedly hold approximately six months of helium supply, Camba wrote on 9 April 2026. Update, June 2026: the same two companies also make most of the high-bandwidth memory used in AI chips, and Samsung shipped the first HBM4E samples on 29 May 2026, ahead of SK hynix.

French industrial gases group Air Liquide said on 25 March 2026 that it expected a short-term helium shortage and was allocating helium from other places in the world, Reuters reported. Group vice president Armelle Levieux made the comments at the opening of the company’s first large-scale advanced materials factory in Taichung, Taiwan. Taiwan’s Economy Ministry said on 24 March 2026 that helium supplies remained stable, with imports available from the United States, according to the same Reuters report.

Trade data suggested that Taiwan’s helium import mix was moving away from Qatar and toward the United States, according to an analysis published on 13 April 2026 by Logistics Viewpoints, a supply chain news site that publishes research by industrial technology advisory firm ARC Advisory Group.

Heyler warned that if shortages persist beyond six months, production delays and shipment disruptions could follow, Benzinga reported on 14 April 2026. Camba wrote on 9 April 2026 that the global helium supply chain runs on roughly 45 days of liquid inventory before stockpiles boil off, and that Ras Laffan remained offline. On the same day, UAE newspaper The National reported that Qatar was reported to be mobilising engineers and workers for a planned restart, and that energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie did not expect Ras Laffan to be fully back online until the end of August at the earliest. In VCA’s reading, the weeks-long figures describe how long liquid helium keeps, and the months-long figures what individual chipmakers are reported to hold.

When helium runs short, semiconductor companies tend to outbid every other industry for supply, Brook told The New York Times, as reported by Tom’s Hardware, leaving sectors such as pharmaceuticals and medical imaging short. VCA’s assessment is that the chip-side risk sits with smaller fabs making mature-node chips for industrial and consumer products, which hold thinner inventories and less purchasing power than TSMC. In VCA’s view, electronics procurement teams should be mapping their second-tier chip suppliers’ helium sources.

Camba argued on 9 April 2026 that inputs such as helium had never been incorporated into the stress tests that governments and industry run on the chip sector. VCA’s view is that a buyer who tracks wafer capacity and equipment lead times now has a third line to watch, and one that is unlikely to come off the register when the strait reopens.

Correction, 23 September 2026: An earlier version of this article described Air Liquide’s new Taiwan plant as a helium production facility opened in April 2026; it is an advanced materials plant opened in March 2026. It also misstated TSMC’s first-quarter revenue (US$35.9 billion) and stated an unsourced helium inventory figure. These have been corrected.

Correction, 26 September 2026: An earlier version of this article said Iranian missile strikes on Ras Laffan preceded the closure of the Strait of Hormuz; an Iranian drone strike halted the facility in early March 2026, after the closure began, and missile attacks followed on 18 March. It credited TSMC’s first-quarter revenue figure to CNBC; the figure comes from TSMC’s earnings release of 16 April 2026. It said TSMC had stated that supply chain disruptions had not affected its financial results; TSMC said it expected no near-term impact on its operations from material supply and warned of a possible impact on profitability. It credited the view that TSMC was insulated from the shortage to analysts at Benzinga; the view is that of Daniel Heyler of EFM Asset Management, speaking to CNBC as reported by Benzinga. It said Samsung and SK Hynix sourced two-thirds of their helium from Qatar in 2025, citing Logistics Viewpoints; The Diplomat put South Korea’s share at approximately 65 per cent. It said Air Liquide would reallocate helium to Taiwan; Reuters reported that Air Liquide was allocating helium from other places in the world. It said Taiwan was shifting imports toward the United States and Australia; Logistics Viewpoints named the United States only. It now also notes a lower estimate of Taiwan’s reliance on Qatar. Statements that could not be sourced were removed, and sources were added for the remaining claims.

Update, 27 September 2026: Qatar restarted operations at Ras Laffan in June 2026. An explosion during the restart killed 13 people, and Qatar’s energy minister said it would not affect the country’s exports, Al Jazeera reported on 22 June 2026. The effect on helium output was not reported. This article describes the position as at 1 May 2026.