China has announced a temporary export ban on helium, effective immediately, as the resumption of military conflict in the Middle East threatens to trigger new shortages of the gas critical for chip manufacturing, Reuters reports.

Earlier this year, the US-Israeli war on Iran led to helium shortages, disrupting companies globally, including in China, where the AI industry increasingly relies on domestic chips for training and running AI models. Helium is essential for heat management in semiconductor production.

“The helium export ban is a clear effort to protect domestic supply after the Iran conflict reignited,” said Cory Combs, head of supply chain and critical minerals research at policy research firm Trivium China.