China halts helium exports as Middle East conflict threatens AI chip manufacturing supply chains

China Temporarily Bans Helium Exports as US-Iran Tensions Flare Again

BEIJING, July 10 (Reuters) - China ⁠announced ⁠on Friday a temporary ⁠export ban on helium, effective immediately, as resumption of military conflict in the Middle East threatens to trigger new shortages of the gas critical for chip manufacturing. Earlier this year, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran ⁠led ⁠to helium shortages, disrupting companies globally, including in China, where the AI industry increasingly relies on domestic chips for training and running AI models. Helium is essential for heat management in semiconductor production. The helium ban is the latest example of Beijing seeking to prevent ⁠domestic shortages ⁠of critical materials by ⁠curbing exports. It has previously imposed similar measures on fuel, fertilisers and sulphuric acid. China is also looking to ⁠boost domestic chip manufacturing capacity and reduce the industry's dependence on cutting-edge Nvidia semiconductors that fall under U.S. export controls. CHINA RE-EXPORTS HELIUM China is heavily dependent on overseas helium despite efforts to expand domestic ⁠production. Still, the export ban could squeeze global supply further because Chinese ⁠companies have increasingly acted as intermediaries, importing Russian helium and re-exporting some volumes to overseas markets, including Europe. Analysts estimate China imports around 85% or more of its helium requirements. Qatar accounts for a major share of global helium output and has supplied more than half of China's imports in recent years. Helium is extracted from natural gas fields with ⁠unusually high helium concentrations and cannot be quickly manufactured from other industrial processes. In chipmaking, it is used for wafer cooling, plasma etching, chemical vapour deposition, atomic layer deposition, lithography support and leak detection. (Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Beijing Newsroom; editing by Andrei Khalip)

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan Warned Helium Could Choke AI Chips in June, and China's Export Ban Might Prove Him Right

In a surprising move, China has decided to restrict global helium supplies. The export ban appears to be blanket, but given China's limited market share of the global helium industry, it is unlikely to cause significant disruption in the semiconductor fabrication industry. Estimates from the US Geological Survey suggest that the US is the world's leading helium producer and is followed by Qatar, Russia, Algeria, and Canada. China's Helium Export Ban Could Create Tightness In Global Semiconductor Fabrication Industry Helium is used in several key phases of semiconductor fabrication. These include different categories of deposition, cooling the wafers, and etching. Additionally, the gas also performs the key role of cooling the advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines in the first stage of the manufacturing process. As a result, a disruption in the helium market can have serious implications for chip production at a time when demand is already high due to the multi-billion-dollar artificial intelligence buildout. With hostilities having started again in the Middle East, China, which accounts for a small portion of the global helium supply, announced today that it would freeze exports of the gas due to potential shortages. Data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) shows that China ranked sixth in global helium production as of March 2026 and tied with Poland, as both countries produced three million cubic meters of the gas for a 1.6% share. At the top was the US, courtesy of its 81 million cubic meters of production, with Qatar and Russia coming in second and third, respectively. With hostilities having flared up once again in the Middle East, China's decision to stop helium exports was made in order to support domestic chip production since the country imports most of its Helium. US sanctions on China have meant that the country has had to rely more on its domestic chip production capabilities as opposed to being able to import the latest products from countries such as Taiwan. With its domestic chip sector unable to meet global peers in scale, the criticality of uninterrupted supplies is even higher for the Asian country. A disruption or turmoil in the helium supply chain was also alluded to by Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan earlier this year. Speaking in a podcast in June, Tan discussed the different factors that were affecting the semiconductor industry: "And I think couple of bottlenecks for the AI demand and growth. One of course is everybody knows power constraint. Some country the power they just don't have that. . .and then secondly, a lot of people didn't realize, the helium impact can be also quite significant for the semiconductor." Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.

China temporarily bans helium exports as US-Iran tensions could trigger shortages

BEIJING, July 10 - China announced on Friday a temporary export ban on helium, effective immediately, as resumption of military conflict in the Middle East threatens to trigger new shortages of the gas critical for chip manufacturing. Earlier this year, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran led to helium shortages, disrupting companies globally, including in China, where the AI industry increasingly relies on domestic chips for training and ⁠running AI models. Helium is essential for heat management in semiconductor production. The helium ban is the latest example of Beijing seeking to prevent domestic shortages of critical materials by curbing exports. It has previously imposed similar measures on fuel, fertilisers and sulphuric acid. China is also looking to boost domestic chip manufacturing capacity and reduce the industry's dependence on cutting-edge Nvidia semiconductors that fall under U.S. export controls. China re-exports helium China is heavily ⁠dependent on overseas helium despite efforts to expand domestic production. Still, the export ban could squeeze global supply further because Chinese companies have increasingly acted as intermediaries, importing Russian helium and re-exporting some volumes to overseas markets, including Europe. Analysts ⁠estimate China imports around 85% or more of its helium requirements. Qatar accounts for a major share of global helium output and has supplied more than half ⁠of China's imports in recent years. Helium is extracted from natural gas fields with unusually high helium concentrations and cannot be quickly manufactured from ⁠other industrial processes. In chipmaking, it is used for wafer cooling, plasma etching, chemical vapour deposition, atomic layer deposition, lithography support and leak detection.