this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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Global News

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Qatar supplies a third of the world's helium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but the nation had to halt production shortly after the war erupted three weeks ago.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://fortune.com/2026/03/21/iran-war-helium-shortage-qatar-chip-supply-chains-ai-boom/


Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

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[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Hold on to your phones like they were the very last ones ever made. No helium = no computing at all.

Hard drives use helium. Aluminum/tig and other Welding uses helium, all chip making processes use helium, laser cutters use helium, fusion energy LOL, uses helium like a total bitch. Some chemistry uses helium.

We are soooo fucked.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

Party balloons.... Some use hydrogen and methane.. Right?

[–] Steve@startrek.website 24 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Too bad you cant just bomb AI itself

[–] curiousaur@reddthat.com 15 points 1 day ago

You literally can. The data centers are fragile as fuck.

[–] LMurch@thelemmy.club 5 points 1 day ago

Since AI is running the Defense Department, if we tried to bomb AI, wouldn't it just go, "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that"?

[–] tiny_hedgehog@piefed.social 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Finally… some good news.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's also needed in medical diagnostics.

[–] tiny_hedgehog@piefed.social 13 points 1 day ago

Alright, back to bad news.

[–] youcantreadthis@quokk.au 1 points 1 day ago

Nobody in qatar who deserves to live was ever gonna get an mri.

[–] rafoix@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 day ago

lol this shit is getting funnier by the day.

[–] GenderIsOpSec@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

Iran is kicking off the butlerian jihad and I'm supposed to be mad at them?

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

When these AI companies eat shit, we can buy their stuff cheap. But maybe they'll still be valuable with the shortage. Sigh.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No way. Nvidia will buy them back and throw them away so they don’t flood their market, like they did for crypto booms.

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 day ago

Or they get destroyed for tax purposes. So much waste.

[–] Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Let's say we get access to those. What can a regular person do with them? Can we use it as a daily driver computer? Or are we talking about GPUs on the cheap?

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

For the H100 and up? They’re headless, basically compute only, as they don’t have enough ROPs to game.

I think the A100 technically can game, in the same way you’d use a laptop GPU not hooked up to the display. They’re kinda like giant RTX 3090/ though, so YMMV.

They’re great at GPU compute apps though, same as any Nvidia card would be.

[–] youcantreadthis@quokk.au 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Im told some of the ram is salvageable.

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

As i understand, its not the same ram we christians use

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've read that ai chips can't be used for anything but ai, but maybe that ram will hit the market and be useful for something.

[–] Ildsaye@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago

There will be a need for mass desoldering shops to transfer the ram ICs off of the datacenter boards and onto consumer ram wafers

[–] stephen01king@piefed.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Oh no! Anyway...

[–] Danarchy@lemmy.nz 5 points 1 day ago

Scapegoat located

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Honestly didn't know Qatar was a chip producer. Wack

[–] testaccount372920@piefed.zip 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't think they are, at least not a major one. Helium is important in chip production, Qatar probably captures some from their oil/gas fields and exports it.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ohhhhh, I didn't read "supply chains" my fault I am eepy

[–] youcantreadthis@quokk.au 4 points 1 day ago

Go back to fucking sharks.