The Gas the World Can't Make — And Just Ran Out Of

There's one element in the universe humans cannot manufacture — and in 2026, a war on the other side of the planet knocked out a third of its global supply overnight. This is the story of helium: from a yellow line in an 1868 eclipse, to the US selling its strategic reserve, to a missile strike on Qatar's Ras Laffan facility that hit hospitals, chipmakers, and rocket labs all at once.

#helium #heliumshortage #Qatar #supplychain #geopolitics #AI #semiconductors #MRI #energy #2026