Every wafer that becomes an AI chip is bathed in gas the whole time — huge volumes of nitrogen and argon to drive out every trace of air and dust, plus a handful of "expensive, extremely pure" specialty gases: neon for the lasers, NF3 to clean out the equipment, and phosphine for doping. These gases are the quietest "utility" in the chip industry — piped in from an air-separation plant out front under contracts that run for decades, supplied by just a few giant gas companies. And in 2022, the world learned the hard way that if one single gas runs out, the whole chip production line stalls.