{"id":481516,"date":"2026-05-12T21:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/481516\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T21:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:39:11","slug":"this-metal-just-set-a-new-record-boosted-by-ai-data-center-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/481516\/","title":{"rendered":"This metal just set a new record, boosted by AI data center demand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As demand from artificial intelligence data centers drives copper to new records, Citi believes that there&#8217;s still more room for the metal to run. Copper&#8217;s July-dated futures notched a back-to-back record close on Tuesday, settling up 1.09% to 6.531. Then, after it settled, the contract touched an intraday high. Year to date, copper prices have risen 14.9%, while they&#8217;ve added 7.8% alone since the start of the Iran war. Copper traded on the London Metal Exchange added 0.56% to $14,021 per metric ton on Tuesday, also closing at another record. In a Monday note to clients, Citi strategist Charlie Massy-Collier attributed this move higher to demand stemming from artificial intelligence data centers. &#8220;Practically all copper demand growth since 2022 has come from energy transition and AI related sources,&#8221; the strategist wrote. &#8220;Another, more recent, channel for demand growth arises from strategic inventory stockpiling, where Citi specialists have mapped out potential price implications of strategic inventory build scenarios.&#8221; Despite this recent runup, Massy-Collier believes that the metal&#8217;s recent move above the $13,500 threshold is confirmation that an improving macroeconomic backdrop can help drive prices even higher. The strategist&#8217;s bull-case forecast is $15,000 per metric ton, or approximately 7% above the metal&#8217;s Tuesday close. &#8220;We had been apprehensive about buying copper in recent weeks given the strength of resistance seen at $13,500. We are of the view that this resistance was at least in part a function of strong global visible inventory builds in Q1, indicating physical pushback at these prices despite the positive macro backdrop at the time,&#8221; Massy-Collier said. The strategist added: &#8220;As such, our interpretation of the recent break above $13,500 is one of the market confirming the strength of both the structural and cyclical demand setup, giving us conviction to chase the move higher.&#8221; Massy-Collier is implementing this trade through the purchase of an LME copper digital call option at 15,250, which expires on Aug. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As demand from artificial intelligence data centers drives copper to new records, Citi believes that there&#8217;s still more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[210608,291,289,290,207,210607,18,19,204,17,205,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-481516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-hg26n","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-business-news","13":"tag-copper-sep25","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-investment-strategy","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-stock-markets","19":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116563775669190614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}