Copper may not glitter like gold, but its impending shortage is catching everyone’s eye. Mining giant BHP warns that the exponential growth of artificial intelligence could significantly worsen the already tight copper supply. By 2050, global demand for the metal is expected to jump 72% to 52.5M tonnes annually — up from 30.4M tonnes in 2021, fueled primarily by AI-powered data centers and computing infrastructure.

• Last year, global copper inventory hit its lowest since 2008 — with Bank of America predicting prices could rise 27%, reaching $5.44 per pound by 2026.
• BHP CFO Vandita Pant notes, “Today, data centers are less than 1% of copper demand, but that is expected to be 6-7% by 2050” (FT).

Digging deeper: Copper is crucial for everything from electric vehicles to wind turbines, and its scarcity could disrupt global climate change efforts. With new mines taking up to 23 years to become operational, the industry faces immense pressure to meet growing demand. Bloomberg highlights that the shift to renewable energy in power and transportation systems will require much more of the metal than producers can currently supply. The big question: Can we mine our way out of this copper crunch, or will AI’s insatiable hunger short-circuit our green energy dreams?