The gas crucial to powering MRI machines and cooling AI chips is now alarmingly scarce. This sudden shortage presents a potential opportunity for five AIM-listed companies, placing them in an advantageous position amid the current crisis.

At the heart of this issue is the ongoing Iran crisis, primarily a humanitarian disaster. The devastating impact of drone and missile attacks led to the shutdown of Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City in early March 2026. Following these events, the subsequent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has resulted in significant loss of life, displacement, and economic turmoil that the world is still grappling with.

However, such crises often have unexpected ripple effects. A notable consequence is the shortage of a gas that many might overlook but is crucial to essential services and technologies we rely on daily.

This gas is helium.

Helium is not just the party balloon gas but crucial in the industrial and medical sectors

Why helium matters

While helium is often associated with party balloons, its importance extends far beyond that. In industrial and medical contexts, helium is indispensable.

The healthcare sector is the largest consumer of helium by revenue. It is vital for operating every MRI scanner in hospitals worldwide, making it an essential component of modern medical diagnostics.

The gas cools the superconducting magnets inside the machines to minus 268.9 degrees Celsius, just above absolute zero. Nothing else can do that job at viable cost. There is no workaround, no substitute material currently available. When helium runs short, scanners go dark.

Beyond medicine, helium is essential to semiconductor manufacturing, where it cools silicon wafers during the extreme ultraviolet lithography processes that produce the most advanced chips. 

It cools the dilution refrigerators inside quantum computers. It pressurises the cryogenic fuel tanks on SpaceX rockets. NASA alone uses approximately 75 million cubic feet annually.

Unlike oil or rare earth metals, helium cannot be recycled in full. Once it escapes into the atmosphere it rises until it reaches the upper layers of the air and is lost to space.

The supply shock

The Ras Laffan facility in Qatar was the world’s single largest helium production hub. Its closure, combined with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, removed approximately 30 per cent of global helium supply at a stroke, according to Professor Eric May of the University of Western Australia’s Future Energy Exports CRC.

Spot prices for Grade A helium stood at around $390 per thousand cubic feet in 2024 (the last available official data), with estimates putting the price at $350-$600 a year later.

Industry analysts have cited projections of up to $2,000 per thousand cubic feet in the current market. 

The pressure on buyers to secure supply from geopolitically stable, non-Gulf locations has never been more acute.

The opportunity

Problems often look like something else from another angle. For a cluster of AIM-listed small-caps developing helium assets in North America and Africa, the crisis has compressed a decade of market education into a matter of weeks. 

Large industrial buyers, semiconductor companies and medical gas distributors are actively seeking supply from sources that are not geographically hostage to the Strait of Hormuz.

Here are five British-listed companies positioned, to varying degrees, to benefit. And we’ve thrown another in, a left-field pick if you will, that is benefiting from America’s upsurge in shale oil and gas production as a result of the Hormuz embargo.

NASA alone uses approximately 75 million cubic feet of helium every year 

Helix Exploration (AIM: HEX)

Helix made history in February 2026 by becoming the first helium producer in the state of Montana. Its Rudyard project in northern Montana is now producing from three wells, processed through a PSA plant the company acquired and commissioned at speed. 

Net revenue over the 12.5-year field life is estimated at $115 million to $220 million. 

Founded by Bo Sears, who brings 25 years of helium systems experience in North America, Helix was the best-performing AIM IPO of 2024. It raised £2.2 million in March 2026 to support working capital while offtake negotiations, which are described as active, progress. 

The Rudyard project produces on US soil for domestic customers, with no dependence on Gulf shipping routes.

HeliumOne (AIM: HE1)

HeliumOne operates on two fronts. In Colorado, it holds a 50 per cent working interest in the Galactica-Pegasus project, where first helium gas was produced in December 2025 and refined helium is now being loaded for sale. 

Revenue is expected to build through the first half of 2026 as production ramps at its Pinon Canyon processing plant. 

In Tanzania, it holds the southern Rukwa discovery, a project in a geological province that contains what the company describes as one of the largest known helium accumulations in the world. A landmark Tanzanian mining licence was secured in March 2026. HeliumOne raised £5 million in a heavily oversubscribed retail offer the same month.

Quantum Helium (AIM: QHE)

Quantum holds two assets in Colorado: the Sagebrush project, where it has increased its working interest to 90 per cent, and Coyote Wash, which received formal US Bureau of Indian Affairs approval earlier this year. 

Combined independently assessed prospective resources across both projects exceed 1 billion cubic feet of helium. An extended production test at the Sagebrush-1 well commenced on 8 April 2026, with chief executive Howard McLaughlin on site. 

Historic drill stem testing at the well returned helium concentrations of around 2.76 per cent from the Leadville Formation. The company also generates oil revenues, which contributed over $600,000 in 2025, providing some cash support during the development phase.

Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility was the world’s single largest helium production hub before its closure 

Rift Helium (AIM: RIFT)

The newest entrant to AIM, Rift Helium floated in mid-April 2026, raising £8 million. Its focus is Tanzania’s Rukwa Basin, where it holds 283 square kilometres of licence acreage adjacent to confirmed helium discoveries. 

Management is targeting 3D seismic work in summer 2026 and a first well in the first half of 2027. 

Tanzania’s east coast location provides access to Asia, which accounts for around 60 per cent of global helium imports, via the port of Dar es Salaam.

Pulsar Helium (AIM: PLSR)

Pulsar is the largest of the group by market capitalisation, currently valued at around £185 million. 

Its flagship Topaz project in Minnesota is in active appraisal, with seven Jetstream wells drilled since October 2025 to delineate the extent and productivity of the reservoir.

It raised £7.4 million in February 2026 to advance the portfolio. Pulsar’s Minnesota assets are outside Gulf shipping lanes and inside the US domestic market, where demand is structural and growing.

Iofina (AIM: IOF). The joker in the pack

Iofina does not produce helium. It produces iodine, a critical material in pharmaceuticals, semiconductor manufacturing and disinfectants, extracted from the brine water produced as a byproduct of shale oil drilling in Oklahoma. 

With the US shale industry operating at full tilt, Iofina’s feedstock is abundant and growing.

The company reported record first-quarter 2026 output of 178.9 metric tonnes of crystalline iodine, a 44 per cent increase on the same period last year, and upgraded its first-half guidance to around 385 metric tonnes. 

Iodine spot prices remain above $70 per kilogram.

Iofina is not an early-stage story. It is an operating business with cash generation, expanding into a growing market.

The risks

All of the helium companies listed above, and Iofina to a lesser extent, share characteristics that private investors should weigh carefully. Most are pre-revenue or early-stage producers. 

Moving from exploration to consistent production is technically demanding and frequently takes longer than planned. Several will require further equity fundraises as development capital is deployed, and additional share issuances will dilute existing holders.

Commodity prices are inherently volatile. The helium supply picture that looks so tight today could ease if Ras Laffan capacity returns sooner than expected, if new large-scale byproduct production comes online from LNG plants in Canada or South Africa, or if industrial users accelerate recycling programmes. Outside forces, from regulatory delays to drilling setbacks to currency movements, are beyond management control.

These are not investments for the risk averse. They are speculative positions on a structural trend, at an early stage in that trend’s development, for investors prepared to accept the possibility of significant loss alongside the possibility of significant gain.

For all the market’s small- and mid-cap breaking news, go to www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk

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