South Korea’s ruling party lawmaker Kim Young-bae said on Thursday,South Korea's chip industry is worried that if the Iran crisis continues for a long time, it will disrupt the supply of key materials from the Middle East, thus pushing up chip prices.Kim Yong-bae made the relevant statement after meeting with executives from companies such as Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip manufacturer, as well as business and trade groups.
"Industry executives have raised the possibility that semiconductor production may be disrupted if certain key raw materials cannot be obtained from the Middle East." Kim Yongbae said at a briefing for reporters.
He said,The chip industry is concerned that the Iran crisis could disrupt supplies of some key chip-making materials, such as helium from the Middle East.
Helium is critical for thermal management in semiconductor production processes, and there is currently no viable alternative.
The Persian Gulf country Qatar accounts for about 30% of the world's helium production capacity and is one of the world's largest helium exporters. 100% of Qatar’s helium must be shipped via the Strait of Hormuz, and there is no alternative shipping channel.
Data center construction may be hindered
At the same time, Jin Yongpei also said that the chip industry pointed out thatThe crisis could also hamper tech giants' plans to build AI data centers in the Middle East, curbing strong chip demand.
"We say the semiconductor industry is in a super cycle, but the data center (construction) plan is very likely to be disrupted, which may cause problems with chip demand." Kim Yongbae said.
Benefiting from global technology companies competing to build AI data centers, memory chip prices have soared in the past few months, and major Korean memory manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix continue to benefit.
Iran has launched a large number of drones and missiles towards Gulf countries in retaliation for joint US-Israeli attacks.
Amazon said on Monday that some of its data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were damaged by drone strikes during conflicts in the Middle East, raising questions about the tech giant's pace of expansion in the region.
