DOE adds helium to its critical materials list, citing chips and data centers
DOE left helium off its 2023 list because it is used to make chips but is not part of them. Reversing that sets a precedent for other process materials.
What happened
The Department of Energy announced on 23 October that Secretary Chris Wright has designated helium a critical material under the Energy Act of 2020. DOE says helium is essential to semiconductor production, with no viable substitute in many applications, and that global demand is growing faster than production. It adds that despite abundant US resources, limited refining capacity and long permitting timelines are holding back domestic output.
The accompanying Federal Register notice says helium is non-substitutable in semiconductor manufacturing, natural-gas leak testing and quantum computing, and that building US AI infrastructure will require more chip production. InsideTrade notes the move comes four years after helium was removed from the separate critical minerals list kept by the US Geological Survey.
Our take
This is a real change in approach. In its 2023 final determination, DOE declined requests to add helium on the grounds that materials used indirectly in manufacturing, rather than as part of the final product, were outside the assessment's scope. Designating helium now means DOE is treating process inputs for chipmaking as critical in their own right.
DOE itself points to the bottleneck: refining and permitting, not geology. A list designation does not build plants, but it can make helium projects eligible for DOE programs aimed at critical materials, which is the part to watch.
Why it matters for AI infrastructure
Helium is used to cool, clean and create inert conditions in chip fabs, and DOE explicitly ties the designation to AI and data-center supply chains. A helium shortage would hit wafer output long before it showed up in data-centre construction schedules.
We flagged helium's fragility when a Qatar outage sent prices up in March. Federal designation puts it on the same policy track as gallium and germanium, the other small-volume materials that chip supply depends on.
What we're watching
- DOE funding or loan programs opened to helium refining and storage projects
- Whether USGS restores helium to its own critical minerals list
- Permitting changes for helium-rich gas fields
- Chipmaker helium recycling and long-term supply contracts
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