Critical for AI
It's critical for lithography, the process that makes all of the magical chips that make the modern world function.
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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WSJ is corporatist slop, so it’s no surprise they decided to lead with “ai”. Gotta keep pumping the market.
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Never mind AI, MRIs are more important.
At least we have the US Helium Res— dammit, Biden!
The U.S. just sold its helium stockpile. Here’s why the medical world is worried
Dammit, Obama maybe - the act was passed by Congress in 2013.
Clinton was the one that started selling off the helium reserves. Obama signed something that changed shit about it, so he certainly didn't do anything to help the situation.
Ah, good catch.
Right!? MRI machines need them way more.
Can I remind everyone that it is impossible to produce helium in a practical way?
It is literally only produced through a fusion reaction, and that happens in stars and in incredibly tiny quantities in fusion reactors.
Whenever it's released, it basically just floats away into space and is lost forever.
It’s also produced (slowly) through radioactive decay underground where it becomes trapped with other gasses. That’s the reserve we’ve been working with.
The one we can mine is drawn off together with natural gas, and was produced over geological timescales as product of alpha decay of uranium
Can I remind everyone that it is impossible to produce helium in a practical way?
Sun has been doing it for millions of years and it's a big dumb ball of energy.
Is it practical? No. Is it producing any Helium right now? No. Is it probably just a big investor scam? Sure. But still more practical than trying to conquer Iran.
That doesn't actually sound like they intend on producing usable helium though. That sounds like they intend on doing a really difficult and expensive fusion reaction to produce helium 3, which they will then use in a cheaper and easier to do fusion reaction, and the end result of all of that should be electricity and no net new helium since it's expensive and rare AF and they need it all to make the whole process remotely plausibly profitable.
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Can the AI just talk in a lower voice? I don't see why this is that critical.
The media really can't get it can they I'm fine with AI having problems, I'm supposed to feel sorry for them upsetting some way but I just don't.
So THIS is how they hallucinate.
So it's going to be rerouted from the MRIs I take it…
LOL.
LMAO even.
I'm reading all of these comments with the helium-voice in my head.
Unfortunately it's also critical for MRIs.
Yeah, what a crazy headline that AI was the thing mentioned and not 1 of the many other real life uses that offer greater solutions to us.
If only I could believe that's because MRIs are more important so their supply isn't in jeopardy.
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And making your voice sound funny
Sulfur hexafluoride does the opposite:
IIRC it's also one of the worst greenhouse gasses in existence, unfortunately.
Edit: the worst greenhouse gas. Why are cool things always secretly terrible?
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Okay, but do you really think we're going to prioritize the enormous loss-leading CSAM engines over lifesaving medical diagnostics machines?
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Maybe we'll get lucky, and by the time the helium supply is restored, we've done away with the shitty not-really-AI craze, saving more helium for things of use to humanity.
Maybe this is why they're now ramping up going back to the moon? Gonna start fuckin the moon up for all that sweet Helium 3.
We could be at war with Iran for a century, sending strike teams in to siphon helium out of the ground and smuggle it back to the US in stealth jets and submarines, and it would still be significantly cheaper than trying to mine the moon.
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It's not like its really used on AI inference, but it's used in high grade semiconductor manufacturing. so helium shortage will hit anything with a modern semiconductors in it. So it's not "whatever".
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I'd guess that most industrial users of helium don't consume it and could theoretically recover it from whatever process it's involved in rather than just releasing it.
EDIT: Hard drives being an exception, as apparently some ship helium-filled; there, it's actually being consumed during the manufacture.
The problem is that helium is notoriously hard to contain. It's transported and stored super-cooled, but it still gases off, and to release pressure they just have to release it into the atmosphere. It effectively has a shelf life and so it has to be constantly replenished.
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I realize there are benefits to attacking Iran, but it's still wrong.
This is bad news that feels like good news. Like when your house burns down, but it kills your abusive parents, so you’re kind of happy about it because it means you didn’t have to go through with your plans, and it means you don’t have to become a murderer after all.
No more medical imaging.
No more fibre optics.
No more semiconductors.
No more laparoscopic or eye surgery.
No more hard drives.
No more titanium.
No more rockets.
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Helium is needed for MRIs.
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It's not just AI, it's integrated electronics in general.
This sounds like good news.
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