Helium Shock Hits Global Chipmaking as Qatar Facility Goes Offline

Iranian drone attacks knocked QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan helium facility offline, triggering roughly a 30% drop in global helium supply and threatening chip production since helium is essential for cooling wafers during fabrication. South Korea, which sourced a large share of its helium from Qatar, and Taiwan are diversifying procurement and stockpiles while regulators review critical materials; experts warn that a prolonged outage could force months-long realignments in industrial gas supply chains.