A quiet reshuffle is underway in the gas supply chain that keeps fabs running. Chipmakers across Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, spooked by months of Middle East turmoil, are buying more helium from the US. DigiTimes warns the switch simply moves the concentration problem to a new address.
Helium is indispensable in chip manufacturing, where it is used in etching, cooling, and leak checks. The old dependency was Qatar, which supplied the bulk of South Korea’s and Taiwan’s imports before the Iran conflict disrupted output and China restrictions squeezed other routes. Japan was the outlier, sourcing about half its supply from the US with reserves on both sides of the Pacific.
Now the US is the emerging supplier of choice. Fitch Ratings had already flagged the tail risk in March, noting South Korea sourced 64.7% of its helium from Qatar in 2025 and Taiwan depended on Qatar for the majority of its imports.
The new reliance is safer geopolitically, but it is still a single point of failure. DigiTimes reports that fab operators who spent the last year diversifying away from Qatar are now clustering their purchases with American suppliers, recreating the vulnerability they tried to escape. Industry analysts advise building buffer inventories and keeping multiple suppliers, since the Middle East conflict shows no sign of ending.
