U.S. Helium Supply Faces Force Majeure, Impacting Medical and Semiconductor Industries

Ask AI · Could helium shortages slow down the pace of the AI chip industry’s development?

【Global Times Finance & Economics, comprehensive report】Bloomberg reported on March 25 that AirGas, one of the largest packaged gas distributors in the United States, on March 17 officially announced that, due to force majeure events, it expects to cut some customers’ monthly helium supply to 50% of normal levels, and add a surcharge of $13.50 per hundred cubic feet. This move marks that the shock to the global helium supply chain has shifted from upstream to downstream distribution channels, and the supply chain disruption has entered a stage with tangible impacts.

AirGas is a subsidiary of French liquid air group Air Liquide SA and one of the largest packaged gas distributors in the United States. The announcement of force majeure comes at a time when the global helium supply is facing severe challenges.

Qatar is the world’s most important helium supply country, accounting for about one-third of global supply. Recently, energy infrastructure in the region has been hit, causing Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) production to come to a halt. Since LNG production is a key upstream step for helium extraction, Qatar’s national oil and gas company later issued a warning, saying that helium exports face a risk of collapse.

With upstream production capacity disrupted, U.S. end markets have started to feel the pressure of tighter supply. AirGas’s reduced supply and surcharge policy has become a clear signal that the supply chain crisis is being transmitted to actual end users.

Helium is irreplaceable in both industrial and medical fields. In healthcare, hospitals rely on helium to keep MRI magnetic resonance imaging equipment operating normally, and it is also used to treat patients with certain respiratory system diseases. On the manufacturing side, helium is a core inert gas in the production process of high-end semiconductors, and is especially indispensable for the processes of cutting-edge products such as Nvidia’s AI acceleration chips.

According to a market update report released by Vizient, a healthcare purchasing services organization, when allocating limited supply, AirGas has clearly placed priority for customers in the medical sector above other industries. Currently, practitioners in the U.S. medical imaging sector say that the helium market’s volatility has not yet caused any material impact on patients’ diagnosis and treatment.

However, as the supply gap continues to widen, the disruption to the semiconductor industry may run even deeper. If wafer foundries such as TSMC face long-term limitations in helium supply, they could experience major capacity shortfalls. The semiconductor industry is at a critical juncture in responding to the wave of data center construction and the resulting demand at extremely large scale. Any systemic contraction in raw material supply will directly amplify existing capacity bottlenecks.

If the tense situation in the region continues, the time window for Qatar’s LNG production to resume will be difficult to predict, the helium supply gap will keep expanding, and this will in turn impose tangible constraints on global AI chip capacity. (Chen Shiyi)