AI-Fueled Copper Boom Sparks Infrastructure Hurdles in India

The demand for copper is rising due to the increasing need for infrastructure to support AI development.

Copper's importance has grown as AI requires large amounts of electricity, which must travel through transformers, cables, and conductors before reaching graphics processing units (GPUs) or other specialized chips.

The price of copper has been hovering around $6.60 per pound, a level that is causing cost pressure for infrastructure build-out.

In India, the country's rapid AI development is coinciding with copper becoming strategically more important, but India's copper supply chain still carries vulnerabilities exposed by the closure of Sterlite smelter in Tuticorin in 2018.