The Chip Shortage Is A Gulf Energy Crisis Wearing A Different Costume

BusinessEnergyThe Chip Shortage Is A Gulf Energy Crisis Wearing A Different CostumeByGüney Yıldız,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I focus on the nexus of AI adoption, energy, and geopolitics.Follow AuthorMay 18, 2026, 02:00am EDTAerial views of Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG export complex, the world's largest, processing gas from the massive offshore North Field (shared with Iran), which accounts for roughly 20% of the global supply of liquefied natural gas, Ras Laffan, Qatar, 1996. (Photo by Barry Iverson/Getty Images)Getty ImagesIran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz on February 28 has held roughly a fifth of global LNG supply off the market for 11 weeks. The piece chip supply chains have been slow to wire in is that Qatar also produces about a third of the world's helium as a byproduct of LNG processing. The fallout is now reaching foundry allocation letters, advanced packaging lead times, and 2026 memory pricing.Reuters reported extensive damage when Iranian missiles hit Qatar's Ras Laffan complex on March 18, three weeks into the war, and QatarEnergy declared force majeure on LNG deliveries the next day. A subsequent Reuters report put the permanent damage at 17% of Qatar's LNG export capacity for an estimated three to five years. The wider blockade matters more in the immediate term because Qatar has no alternative LNG export route. The first Qatari cargo to clear the strait since the closure, the Al Kharaitiyat, transited on May 9 under a Trump-brokered Iran-Pakistan arrangement. The rest of the fleet is still backed up.Qatar recovers roughly a third of the world's helium as a byproduct of those same LNG trains, and helium can't be substituted at scale in advanced lithography, cooling, or leak detection. When the gas flow stopped in late February, the helium stopped with it.Reuters reported on March 31 that South Korean chipmakers had enough helium inventory to last until at le...