US designates helium a critical material, citing semiconductors and supply risk

Victoria Shinder26 October 2026, 14:581 min read

The US Department of Energy designated helium a critical material under the Energy Act of 2020 on 23 October, with Secretary Chris Wright framing it as a supply-chain and manufacturing measure. The department's reasoning is narrow and specific: helium is essential to semiconductor production, has no viable substitutes in many applications, and faces growing supply risk as global demand outpaces production. The United States holds significant helium-rich natural gas, but limited refining capacity and long permitting timelines constrain how much it can produce.

What it means

The designation itself is a legal label, not money or a mine; what it changes is standing. A critical-material listing routes helium into the federal apparatus built for critical minerals — prioritised permitting, funding pathways, strategic attention — and the stated bottleneck is telling. The constraint is not geology but refining capacity and permitting, which is a policy problem a designation can actually move, unlike a shortage of deposits. Helium is also an unusual entry on a list dominated by metals: it is a byproduct of natural-gas processing, it cannot be synthesised, and once vented it is gone. Treating the gas that cools MRI magnets and purges chip fabs as a strategic resource is overdue, and the semiconductor framing is what finally carried it there.