Helium Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends And Forecast (2025 - 2030)

Global Helium Market Trends and Insights

Explosive Semiconductor Fab Build-Out in East Asia

Foundry expansions in China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea are propelling the helium market as chip plants rely on gaseous helium for wafer cleaning, lithography atmosphere control, and plasma etching. Intel, TSMC, and Samsung are building new U.S. and Asian fabs funded by the CHIPS Act and parallel regional programs, each fab requiring hundreds of millions of standard cubic feet of high-purity helium over its lifecycle. Taiwan’s clustering effect compounds regional demand, as advanced packaging lines consume helium for die bonding and encapsulation. Overall, semiconductor consumption intensity increases with each node shrink, locking in double-digit demand growth for the helium market through 2030.

MRI Fleet Expansion Across Mid-Income Hospitals

Hospitals in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa are adding MRI scanners to meet chronic disease diagnostics despite newer helium-light technologies. A conventional 1.5-ton unit needs 1,500–2,000 liters of liquid helium at installation and up to 10,000 liters across its service life. Helium conservation skids that recapture 92% of boil-off gas are spreading to tertiary hospitals, although upfront costs near USD 100,000 restrict adoption mainly to teaching centers. GE HealthCare’s Freelium and Siemens Healthineers’ DryCool platforms cut helium usage by 99%, yet slow fleet turnover leaves conventional magnets dominant into the next decade. 

Commercial Space-Launch Boom Raising Liquid-He Demand

Private launch cadence is multiplying liquid helium needs for tank pressurization and purge operations. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Starship, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and Rocket Lab’s Neutron each rely on helium to maintain cryogenic propellant integrity, with helium shortages cited for launch delays in 2024. NASA’s Artemis program likewise specifies helium for hydrogen tank purging, further tightening supplies. Launch sites are now installing on-site helium recovery units to recycle pressurant gas and shield schedules from market volatility.

Quantum-Computing Cryostats Moving from Lab to Pilot Lines

Superconducting-qubit platforms use dilution refrigerators that blend helium-3 and helium-4 to reach millikelvin temperatures. IBM, Google, and regional start-ups are scaling pilot production, turning research-scale consumption into industrial demand. Closed-cycle cryostats offer a long-term path to helium-free cooling; however, procurement costs and performance requirements keep helium in the loop today. Ultra-high purity needs and isotope separation add price premiums that suppliers monetize through dedicated production lines.

Finite Reserves and Concentration in a Few Countries

Roughly 70% of known helium reserves sit in the United States, Qatar, Algeria, and Russia, fostering geopolitical leverage and supply manipulation. China imports 95% of its helium needs, underscoring exposure to diplomatic friction and maritime logistics risks. EU sanctions on Russian helium illustrate how quickly policy can reroute trade and spike prices. Co-produced helium may remain trapped underground as natural-gas production tapers under decarbonization agendas. Recycling can cut wastage, but cannot create a new primary supply, reinforcing the imperative for strategic reserves.

Tightened Flare-Gas Rules Limiting Co-Produced Helium

U.S. waste-prevention regulations now impose royalties on avoidable flaring, compelling upstream operators to capture or re-inject gas streams^{[1]Bureau of Land Management, “Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation,” FederalRegister.gov}. While beneficial for methane mitigation, the rules can reduce economic incentive to recover helium where volumes are low relative to capture costs. Nigeria’s experience shows similar policy outcomes, with a 9.26 percentage-point reduction in flaring after tariff hikes, but with limited helium recovery.

Segment Analysis

By Phase: Gaseous Helium Anchors Industrial Consumption

Gaseous helium held 71.30% of the 2024 volume, reflecting large-scale use in pressurization, purging, and leak-testing, and is growing at a 6.34% CAGR as leading-edge nodes tighten contamination tolerances, sustaining a substantial share of the helium market size for process gases. The gaseous segment also benefits from aerospace welding and additive-manufacturing processes that rely on helium’s high thermal conductivity for deep, narrow weld profiles. 

Emerging hydrogen-fuel testing and electric-vehicle battery leak detection add incremental volumes, extending gaseous helium’s dominance well into the forecast horizon. MRI fleet expansion, quantum-system scale-out, and high-energy physics laboratories anchor baseline liquid helium demand. Increasing deployment of on-site liquefiers and 92% efficient recovery skids mitigates boil-off losses, but absolute volumes continue to rise. 

By Application: Cryogenics Captures Volume and Value Upside

Cryogenics retained the largest 2024 share at 33.44% and is on course for a 7.29% CAGR through 2030, underpinned by quantum-computing pilot lines and a stable MRI installed base. Every 1 MW of quantum processing power requires approximately 12,000 liters of helium annually for dilution refrigeration, translating into a multibillion-cubic-foot pull on the helium market by decade-end. Particle accelerators and fusion pilot facilities in North America and Europe reinforce cryogenic momentum. 

Leak detection, pressurizing, purging, and welding collectively exceed 40% of non-cryogenic demand. Rocket programs from government and commercial operators keep pressurization needs rising, while predictive maintenance adoption in automotive and petrochemical plants drives helium leak-testing growth. Controlled-atmosphere packaging for shelf-life extension in electronics and premium foods is another pocket of steady consumption. Across these varied uses, helium’s inertness and low viscosity afford operational safety that competing gases cannot match.

By End-User Industry: Healthcare Holds Leadership as Electronics Accelerate

Healthcare retained a 34.42% share in 2024 and will progress at a 7.25% CAGR through 2030 as emerging economies equip hospitals with advanced MRI systems. Even with helium-light technology adoption, the sheer volume of new scanners sustains absolute demand. Hospital groups in India, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia are installing helium recovery plants to mitigate cost and supply risk, ensuring long-term dependence on helium supply chains. 

Electronics and semiconductors are expected to overtake aerospace as the fastest-growing end-user, driven by logic and memory fabs coming online in East Asia and North America. Fab operators prioritize multi-year helium contracts and on-site micro-liquefaction to stabilize pricing. Nuclear power continues to trial helium-cooled high-temperature reactors, and early fusion prototypes deepen helium-3 demand. Aerospace, welding, and scientific research round out the consumption mix, each leveraging helium’s thermal and inertness advantages for mission-critical operations.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

Geography Analysis

North America commanded 39.10% of 2024 volume, supported by the world’s largest proven reserves and mature midstream infrastructure. The Federal Helium Reserve privatization in 2024 shifted the procurement landscape, compelling end-users to negotiate directly with private producers at market rates, but Honeywell’s Dry Piney and smaller Rockies projects are filling the gap^{[2]U.S. Geological Survey, “Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024,” usgs.gov}. Semiconductor fab construction in Arizona, Ohio, and Texas further supports regional consumption growth. 

Asia-Pacific is projected to post the highest 7.39% CAGR through 2030 as China, Japan, India, and South Korea ramp up semiconductors, satellite manufacturing, and medical imaging. China’s 95% import dependence creates a strategic imperative for contract diversification and micro-liquefier deployment at industrial parks. Japan’s incentive packages for next-generation memory plants accelerate helium spending, while India’s nascent fab ecosystem and fast-growing healthcare sector widen demand. Regional investment in unconventional helium fields, notably in Australia and Tanzania, aims to hedge supply exposure. 

Though smaller in volume, Europe faces structural supply restructuring after sanctions eliminated Russian helium flows. End-users now source from Qatar and the U.S. Gulf Coast, absorbing freight premiums and installation of on-site recovery to cushion volatility.