The hidden hand

The German gas company that controls US helium

Messer Group just acquired the 423-mile pipeline that supplies American semiconductors, fiber optics, and hospitals.

The number

460$ million paid

The US government spent a century building the Bush Dome Reservoir and Cliffside pipeline — the backbone of helium supply to chip fabs and MRI machines — then auctioned it to a private German family business. A foreign company now owns the critical infrastructure underpinning an entire sector of American industrial and medical equipment.

Source: BLM Completes Sale of Federal Helium System · Bureau of Land Management · Jun 27, 2024

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The German gas company that controls US helium

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