The Hormuz technology choke: Even the world’s most dynamic industry can’t escape this war’s fallout

Chipmakers in the semiconductor industry use liquid helium to cool silicon wafers during the plasma etching process. South Korea, home to Samsung and SK Hynix, sources 65% of its helium from Qatar, while Taiwan sources 69%. SK Hynix produces 62% of the world’s high bandwidth memory (HBM) units contained in every Nvidia H100 and B200 GPU. Without HBM units, GPUs cannot be made. Without SK Hynix, HBM units run scarce.