U.S. Names Helium Critical Material To Develop AI And Data Centers

The U.S. government’s new designation of helium gas as critical for artificial intelligence and data centers may spur drilling projects in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

“Helium is essential to producing the semiconductors and advanced technologies that power our economy. By designating helium as a critical material, we are taking another step toward securing our supply chains, creating American jobs, and ensuring the United States leads the world in energy and technological innovation,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced Oct. 23.

Reasons for the critical-material designation were outlined the same day in a four-page Federal Register notice. It stated that growing AI infrastructure in the United States will depend on the ability of the nation to produce semiconductors.

“Helium’s unique properties make it indispensable to semiconductor production, with no viable substitutes in many critical applications. The United States has significant domestic deposits of helium-rich natural gas to support growing industrial demand,” the Department of Energy noted.

What Is Helium?

Helium is one of seven types of “Noble Gases” named as such because they don’t have normally have chemical reactions with any other gas or substances. (Other types of these inert gases include helium, krypton, neon and radon.)

“Noble gases are the least reactive elements in the periodic table, and they condense out of the air at very low temperatures. They are therefore extremely difficult to trap at temperatures above freezing,” according to DOE.

Helium (which is non-toxic and lighter than air) has no odor or color.

A byproduct of extracting natural gas, helium has multiple high-tech uses including in use in quantum computing, air-to-air missile guidance systems, medical MRI machines, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation pumps for heart surgery, fiber-optic cables, blimps, deep sea diving and leak testing natural gas infrastructure.