tech
March 29, 2026
Executive Briefing: 33% of the World's Helium Supply Just Went Offline. Your AI Infrastructure Plan Doesn't Account for It.
The largest debt-funded infrastructure buildout in history has an unpriced dependency on a noble gas.

TL;DR
- The largest debt-funded infrastructure buildout in history relies on helium, a noble gas with no substitutes.
- The five largest US cloud and AI infrastructure providers plan to spend between $600 billion and $700 billion this year, 75% on AI infrastructure.
- A third of the world's helium supply was offline after a missile strike on a complex in Qatar.
- The helium disruption coincides with the most severe memory shortage in industry history.
- Geopolitical restructuring and energy asymmetries could structurally advantage Chinese semiconductor manufacturing over US-allied fabs.
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