The U.S. just declared a national emergency over copper.

Used in everything from electric vehicles and data centers to power grids and defense systems, copper prices are exploding with massive supply-demand issues.

It’s just part of the reason why copper ran from about $4.25/lb. to more than $5.40 – with more upside likely – since the year began, especially with growing demand for artificial intelligence data centers all over the United States.

For example, data centers require significant amounts of copper for their construction, most notably for their power networks, circuit boards, and cooling systems. According to BHP, “A study of Microsoft’s US$500 million data center facility in Chicago found it used 2,177 tonnes of copper, equivalent to 27 tonnes of copper for every megawatt (MW) of applied power.”

In addition, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), hyperscale data centers have power demand of 100 MW or more, an annual electricity consumption equivalent to that used by around 350,000 to 400,000 electric cars, as also noted by BHP.

Moving forward, the amount of copper used in data centers globally, could grow six-fold by 2050 from about half a million tonnes today. Plus, global electricity consumption from data centers could run from about 2% of global electricity demand to 9% by 2050.

All of which puts even more stress on copper supply and demand issues – especially when you consider that the U.S. still relies heavily on foreign resources for supply.