Copper vs Aluminium in AI Data Centres, Where Each Metal Is Used
Copper vs aluminium in AI data centres is decided part by part inside the building. Copper is gaining in the cold plates that cool the chips. Aluminium is gaining in the busbars and cables of the data hall. In September 2026 a tonne of copper cost as much as 4.4 tonnes of aluminium. Data centres still use under 2 per cent of the world's refined copper.
An AI data centre uses both copper and aluminium, and each metal goes where its properties fit. Copper is gaining in the cold plates that cool the chips and keeps the chip itself. Aluminium is gaining in the busbars and cables of the data hall and keeps the grid connection. This was one of the topics at the SMM Australia Metals and Mining Investment Seminar in Sydney in October 2026, which Samso attended.
Samso follows where each metal is used in a data centre, from the grid connection to the chip. Data centre copper demand is then set against the size of the copper market, which is far larger.
READING THE SERIES Metals to 2030 runs in four parts. Its topics come from the SMM Australia Metals and Mining Investment Seminar, which Samso attended in Sydney on 26 October 2026. Part 1. Iron Ore Price Forecast to 2030 and What a Rising Surplus Means for ASX Stocks. The surplus expected as new mines ramp up, Simandou, Southeast Asia as a steel processing hub, and the ASX iron ore companies. Part 2, this piece. Copper against aluminium in AI data centres. Where each metal is used, how much copper a data centre holds, and the price gap between the two metals. Part 3. Aluminium Price to 2030, the New Smelters and What It Means for ASX Producers. The LME aluminium price path to 2030, the new smelters planned outside China, and Rio Tinto, South32 and Alcoa. Part 4. Copper. Refined copper supply by region, the new copper smelters, and forecasts that the copper balance turns to a deficit. |
A NOTE ON THE VOCABULARY AND THE SOURCES Technical terms are explained in plain English where they first appear, and all of them are collected in a vocabulary box at the back, above the references. Each source carries an identifier, such as [R1], which appears in the text where the source is used and links to the full entry at the back. Figures from the seminar are credited to SMM in the references. Where the arithmetic is Samso's, the piece says so. |
WHAT THIS PIECE COVERS 1.00 THE SPLIT BETWEEN THE TWO METALS Where each metal is gaining or losing ground 2.00 HOW THE TWO METALS COMPARE Copper conducts better, aluminium is lighter and far cheaper From the grid connection to the chip Liquid cooling puts more copper next to the chips Where aluminium is taking share from copper 6.00 HIGHER VOLTAGE, LESS METAL Nvidia's 800 volt design cuts the copper needed to feed a rack 7.00 HOW MUCH COPPER A DATA CENTRE USES Estimates range from about 12 to 27 tonnes a megawatt A tonne of copper bought 4.4 tonnes of aluminium in September 2026 9.00 WHAT IT MEANS FOR ASX INVESTORS Data centres add to demand for both metals, at different points in the building |
1.00 — THE SPLIT BETWEEN THE TWO METALS
Where each metal is gaining or losing ground
On 26 October 2026 I attended the SMM Australia Metals and Mining Investment Seminar in Sydney, run by Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), a Chinese price reporting and research company. This series takes its topics from that event. The analysis and conclusions are Samso's.
One of the topics was copper against aluminium in AI data centres [R1]. An AI data centre is a building full of servers built to train and run artificial intelligence models. These servers draw far more power per cabinet than the servers in an ordinary data centre, and they run much hotter. You can imagine how that changes how much metal goes into the power system and the cooling system.
The published data split the picture into three parts. In cooling, the move from air to liquid cooling adds copper demand, and aluminium loses its leading place. In power distribution, aluminium is replacing copper in the busbars and transformer windings of the data hall. At the chip end, copper is not being challenged, because space and reliability limits there leave no room for a weaker conductor. FIG. 01 sets this out.
With cold plate liquid cooling holding its share, overall copper and aluminium demand in AI data centre cooling is expected to stay broadly stable in the medium term [R1]. So the split is by part of the building. Each metal is gaining in some parts and losing ground in others.
The sections that follow take the metal through the building. They cover the physics of the two metals, where each one goes, how much copper a data centre holds, and what the price gap between the two metals has done in 2026.
2.00 — HOW THE TWO METALS COMPARE
Copper conducts better, aluminium is lighter and far cheaper
Electrical conductivity is how easily a metal carries current. It is measured against a copper standard set in 1913, called the International Annealed Copper Standard, or IACS. Pure annealed copper is 100 per cent IACS by definition. Annealed means the metal has been heated and cooled slowly to soften it.
The Copper Development Association's handbook on busbars gives the figures for the two grades used in electrical work [R2]. Copper grade C101 conducts at 101 per cent IACS. Aluminium grade 1350 conducts at 61 per cent. Copper also carries heat better, at 397 watts per metre per degree against 230 for the aluminium grade. Aluminium is much lighter. A cubic metre of copper weighs about 8,910 kilograms and a cubic metre of aluminium about 2,700 kilograms. The figures for the pure metals in FIG. 01 differ slightly and tell the same thing [R1].
The two metals also differ a great deal in price. Published data put aluminium at about a third to a quarter of the price of copper [R1]. In September 2026 the gap was wider than that. The World Bank's monthly average London Metal Exchange (LME) prices were US$14,474 a tonne for copper and US$3,283 for aluminium [R3]. The LME is the exchange in London where both metals are traded. On Samso's arithmetic, one tonne of copper cost as much as 4.4 tonnes of aluminium.
FIG. 02 puts the properties and the prices together. It compares an aluminium conductor with a copper one of the same length and the same electrical resistance, so both carry the same current with the same losses. Because aluminium conducts about 61 per cent as well, the aluminium bar needs about 1.64 times the cross-section. It still weighs about half as much as the copper bar. At September 2026 prices, the metal in it costs about 11 per cent of the metal in the copper bar. These are our sums on the rounded figures in FIG. 01, and the Copper Development Association gives the same result in round numbers, 1.6 times the area and half the weight [R2].
The sum counts the metal only. A larger bar needs more space, larger fittings and more insulation. The joints are also different. The handbook notes that copper bars are less likely to develop problems in clamped joints, because aluminium slowly deforms under constant high pressure [R2]. The same handbook says copper allows a more compact installation, and that in many systems space is more important than weight. The Copper Development Association promotes the use of copper, so this is an industry view on space. The physical properties it lists are standard values.
Aluminium suits places where weight and cost are important and there is room for a bigger conductor. Copper suits places where space is tight, where a joint must stay reliable for many years, or where heat has to move quickly. Those conditions differ from one part of a data centre to the next, which is why the sections below look at each part separately.
3.00 — WHERE THE METAL GOES
From the grid connection to the chip
Power reaches the chip in three stages [R1]. The first is the campus, from the grid to the site's main transformer. A transformer is a device that changes electricity from one voltage to another. The second is the data hall, from the uninterruptible power supply to the power distribution unit at each rack. An uninterruptible power supply, or UPS, is a bank of batteries and electronics that keeps power flowing if the grid supply drops. A rack is the standard steel cabinet that holds servers, and its power distribution unit, or PDU, is the strip that feeds power to each server in it. The third stage is the chip side, from the busbar in the rack to each graphics processing unit, or GPU, the chip that does most AI work.
Those three stages leave out the plant between the main transformer and the UPS. That is the switchgear, the transformers that step power down to the voltage used in the building, and the backup generators. Switchgear is the set of switches and circuit breakers that controls and protects the electrical supply. It is heavy electrical equipment, and Linesight, a construction cost consultancy, puts cooling and electrical systems together at more than 80 per cent of a data centre's copper [R10].
On the campus, aluminium remains dominant and is growing [R1]. The main component is high-voltage cabling of the kind called aluminium conductor steel reinforced, or ACSR. ACSR has a core of steel strands for strength, wrapped in layers of aluminium strands that carry the current. PLATE 01 shows a cut length of it. Aluminium is the usual metal for overhead lines because it is light and cheap, and on a pole or tower the weight of the line is a large part of the design. In China aluminium conductors make up more than 90 per cent of new high-voltage overhead lines, according to Mysteel [R18].
In the data hall, the published data show both metals rising, with aluminium rising faster [R1]. The components are busbars and transformer windings. A busbar is a solid bar or strip of metal that carries large currents over short distances, used in place of many heavy cables. Busbar trunking, also called busway, is a run of busbars inside a protective metal casing, hung from the ceiling or along a wall, with tap-off points where equipment plugs in. PLATE 02 shows a run of it in a building. A transformer winding is the coil of conductor wound inside a transformer.
At the chip side, copper is dominant and rising strongly, with no role for aluminium [R1]. The components are the busbars inside the rack, connectors, and the copper foil in the printed circuit boards, listed as 100 per cent copper. Space is very tight there, and a failed connection can take an expensive server out of service. Those are the conditions in section 2.00 that favour copper.
FIG. 01 shows a pattern across the three stages. The further the power travels from the grid towards the chip, the more space and reliability count and the less weight counts. Aluminium's share is highest at the grid end and lowest at the chip end.
4.00 — DATA CENTRE COOLING
Liquid cooling puts more copper next to the chips
Every watt a server uses ends up as heat, and the heat has to be removed. In an ordinary data centre this is done with air. Fans blow cool air through the servers, and large air handling units cool that air again. Those units use heat exchangers, which are coils of tube and thin fins that pass heat from the air into water or refrigerant. Air cooling has been a source of aluminium demand [R1].
AI servers produce too much heat in too small a space for air to remove it. Most builders have chosen cold plate liquid cooling instead. A cold plate is a flat block of metal clamped directly onto a chip, with fine channels inside through which a liquid coolant flows. The liquid carries the heat away to a coolant distribution unit and on to the building's cooling plant. Cold plate cooling is now the dominant method for AI data centres, with a stable share of the market [R1].
Copper is the usual metal next to the chip because it moves heat away faster than aluminium does, as section 2.00 shows. In a cold plate system the copper runs right up to the processor, in the plates, the tubing and the manifolds [R7]. A manifold is the set of pipes that splits the coolant between many cold plates. CRU, a metals research company, says liquid cooling brings more copper and aluminium per rack than air cooling. That is per rack. AI racks draw many times the power of older racks, so more metal per rack does not mean more metal for each megawatt of capacity.
In cold plate cooling, copper demand is rising strongly and aluminium is also gaining ground, because of copper's high cost and tight supply [R1]. The published data do not say which parts of the cooling system the aluminium goes into. A June 2026 research note put liquid cooling at 11 per cent of the copper used in AI data centres [R19]. Air cooling is losing share, so aluminium demand from it is falling.
The third method is immersion cooling. The servers are lowered into a tank of liquid that does not conduct electricity, and the heat is drawn off the whole tank. Immersion cooling is expected to spread in AI data centres after the 2030s, and it uses little metal of either kind [R1]. If immersion cooling does spread, it would reduce cooling demand for both metals.
5.00 — POWER IN THE DATA HALL
Where aluminium is taking share from copper
The data hall is where the two metals overlap. Busbar runs there are long and heavy. Aluminium is displacing copper in the hall, for its lower weight and lower cost [R1]. With copper at 4.4 times the price of aluminium, the saving on metal is large.
The research companies see the same pattern. CRU expects aluminium's share of data centre metal demand to rise because of clear cost advantages. It sees aluminium gaining across cabling and other distribution equipment as cost and delivery time weigh more with operators [R7]. It still expects copper to stay the larger of the two metals in data centres over the long term. Linesight finds aluminium gaining in power transmission and distribution cables, and still limited in critical data centre equipment, where copper is preferred for performance, safety and reliability [R10].
Wood Mackenzie, another metals research company, puts the balance in one line. "Physics defines outcomes. Price influences the boundaries" [R8]. It expects aluminium inside data centres to peak at 0.6 million to 0.9 million tonnes a year. About 55 per cent of that is in cooling and about 25 per cent in racks and enclosures. It sees both metals growing together.
China shows how far aluminium can go in a power network. Aluminium alloy cables made up 45 per cent of State Grid's cable purchases in 2025, according to Mysteel [R18]. State Grid is China's main electricity network company. The same report said that in China, medium-voltage cables of 10 kilovolts and above still use copper, and that aluminium transformer windings suit only a narrow range of uses. Mysteel sees aluminium working alongside copper over the coming decade.
Switching is easier to see outside data centres. Carmakers, air conditioner makers and cable makers have moved some products from copper to aluminium, Reuters reported on 30 June 2026 [R17]. In Australia, Energex, part of Energy Queensland, is replacing copper with aluminium across its network as old lines reach the end of their life.
The evidence for the data hall comes from published data and the research companies above. Samso's search of company statements and news reports found no data centre operator that has said in public it moved its busbars, cables or transformer windings to aluminium because of the 2026 copper price. So for now the size of the change inside data centres is an estimate.
SAMSO TAKE The researchers agree that aluminium is gaining in data centre cables and busbars. They differ on how far it goes. CRU points to cost. Wood Mackenzie and Linesight point to the limits of the metal. Both can be true at once, because price decides how hard builders look for a cheaper metal, and physics decides where they can use one. If the copper price stays near its 2026 level, how much of the data hall will builders be willing to redesign around a larger, lighter conductor? |
6.00 — HIGHER VOLTAGE, LESS METAL
Nvidia's 800 volt design cuts the copper needed to feed a rack
A second way to use less copper is to raise the voltage. For the same power, a higher voltage needs a lower current, and a lower current can travel through a thinner conductor.
Nvidia, which designs the GPUs used in many AI data centres, published its plan for this in May 2025 [R4]. AI racks today distribute power at 54 volts of direct current inside the rack. Direct current, or DC, flows one way, as from a battery. Nvidia wrote that feeding a single 1 megawatt rack at 54 volts DC requires up to 200 kilograms of copper busbar. A megawatt is a million watts, and a gigawatt is a thousand megawatts.
Raising the voltage to 800 volts DC lets the same conductor carry much more power. Nvidia wrote that 800 volt busways feeding each row of racks carry 85 per cent more power through the same size of conductor, and need 45 per cent less copper, compared with a 415 volt alternating current supply [R4]. Alternating current, or AC, is the kind supplied by the grid. In October 2025 Nvidia said more than 150 per cent more power passes through the same copper at 800 volts [R5]. That statement does not say what it is compared with, so this piece uses the May figure of 45 per cent. Nvidia presents 800 volts DC as the design for its coming generations of racks, so most of the saving is still ahead.
Nvidia has also corrected one figure in its May 2025 article. The first version said the rack busbars in a 1 gigawatt data centre "could require up to half a million tons of copper", as reproduced by HPCwire [R6]. Nvidia's page now says up to 200,000 kilograms, which is 200 tonnes. The lower figure matches the arithmetic, 200 kilograms for each of 1,000 racks of 1 megawatt.
The 200 tonnes also shows how small the rack busbar is against the whole building. Section 7.00 sets out estimates of about 12 to 27 tonnes of copper for each megawatt of data centre. At those rates a 1 gigawatt site holds about 12,000 to 27,000 tonnes of copper, on Samso's arithmetic. The rack busbars at 54 volts would be under 2 per cent of that. This is a sum on a design nobody builds. Nvidia used it to show why 54 volts does not suit a 1 megawatt rack. Most of a building's copper is in the cables, switchgear, transformers and cooling.
CRU counts higher voltage as one of the ways the industry will use less copper per megawatt, along with aluminium and with optical fibre replacing copper data cables [R7]. It cites the same 45 per cent saving for a move from 415 volts AC to 800 volts DC. Higher voltage saves copper in the wiring that feeds the racks and rows, which is one part of the copper in the whole building.
7.00 — HOW MUCH COPPER A DATA CENTRE USES
Estimates range from about 12 to 27 tonnes a megawatt
Published estimates run from about 12 to 27 tonnes of copper a megawatt. Most of the spread comes from what each one counts, the building alone or the building plus its power connections. FIG. 03 sets them side by side.
At the low end, Linesight puts a typical data centre at about 11.6 tonnes of copper for each megawatt of installed capacity [R10]. The World Economic Forum gives about 12 tonnes a megawatt for Microsoft's Chicago data centre, counting the building alone [R12].
Wood Mackenzie's Julian Kettle gives a middle figure of about 20,000 tonnes of copper for each gigawatt of capacity, or about 20 tonnes a megawatt [R9].
The high end comes from the same Chicago building. BHP cites a study of it that found 2,177 tonnes of copper, which it gives as 27 tonnes for every megawatt of applied power [R11]. BHP is a copper producer, so its view on copper demand is not neutral. The World Economic Forum describes the same site as using about 2,100 tonnes, or 26 tonnes a megawatt including on-site and nearby power connections [R12]. So the gap between 12 and 26 tonnes for one site is mostly the power connections outside the building. It is one building, and neither source says whether it was built for AI racks.
Copper is a small part of what a data centre costs. On Samso's arithmetic, 11.6 to 27 tonnes at the September 2026 copper price is about US$170,000 to US$390,000 of copper per megawatt. At the Reserve Bank of Australia's average exchange rate for September 2026, about 71 US cents to the Australian dollar, that is about A$240,000 to A$550,000 [R21].
Infratil (ASX: IFT) reports that the build cost at CDC Data Centres, the Australian operator it part-owns, averages in the mid-teens of millions of dollars for each megawatt of IT capacity, excluding land [R20]. Against A$15 million, the copper is about 1.6 to 3.7 per cent of the build cost. The two figures are not measured on exactly the same basis, so this is a rough guide. It also counts the value of the metal only. The copper reaches a builder inside cables, transformers and switchgear, and their prices carry fabrication costs on top. A higher copper price adds to the bill, but on these numbers it does not decide whether a data centre gets built.
Data centres are still a small user of copper. BHP estimated in January 2025 that data centres use about half a million tonnes of copper a year, rising to about 3 million tonnes a year by 2050 [R11]. The International Copper Study Group (ICSG), the intergovernmental body that tracks the copper market, expects the world to use about 28.6 million tonnes of refined copper in 2026 [R14]. On Samso's arithmetic, half a million tonnes is under 2 per cent of that. FIG. 04 shows the main forecasts against the size of the world market.
S&P Global, in a study published in January 2026, expects world copper demand to reach 42 million tonnes by 2040, about 50 per cent more than now [R13]. It expects AI and data centre demand and defence demand each to roughly triple by 2040, adding a combined 4 million tonnes of demand. It also expects world copper production to peak in 2030, and a shortfall of about 10 million tonnes by 2040.
CRU's forecast covers both metals together. It puts copper and aluminium demand from data centres at about 850,000 to 900,000 tonnes in 2026, about 25 per cent more than in 2025, rising to about 1.5 million tonnes by 2030 [R7]. CRU does not split the total between the two metals.
These forecasts rest on growth in data centre power use. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects data centres worldwide to use about 945 terawatt hours of electricity in 2030, up from about 415 terawatt hours in 2024 [R15]. A terawatt hour is a billion kilowatt hours. In 2026 the IEA said data centre electricity use rose by 17 per cent in 2025 and is set to double by 2030 [R16].
So data centres are a fast-growing part of copper demand but still a small part of the total. The ICSG names data centres and AI among the supports for copper use, and still expects a refined copper surplus of about 104,000 tonnes in 2026 and about 368,000 tonnes in 2027 [R14]. A surplus means more refined copper is produced than used. Part 4 of this series looks at forecasts that the copper balance turns to a deficit later in the decade.
8.00 — THE PRICE GAP
A tonne of copper bought 4.4 tonnes of aluminium in September 2026
FIG. 05 tracks the two prices and the ratio between them since January 2020, using the World Bank's monthly averages of LME settlement prices [R3]. A settlement price is the official cash price the exchange sets from a fixed trading period each day.
Over that period the ratio averaged about 3.7 on Samso's arithmetic. Its lowest monthly level was 2.9, in March 2022, when aluminium rose sharply. It was above 4 in early 2021, in December 2025 to February 2026, and in each month from July to September 2026. September's 4.4 was the highest month in the series.
The ratio rose in 2026 because copper rose faster. Copper averaged US$13,012 a tonne in January 2026 and US$14,474 in September, up about 11 per cent. Aluminium averaged US$3,142 in January and US$3,283 in September, up about 4.5 per cent [R3].
Reuters reported that the ratio reached a record of 4.3 in January 2026, and that companies consider switching metals at about 3.5 to 4 [R17]. Reuters was writing on 30 June 2026. On the World Bank's monthly averages the ratio has risen further since, to 4.4 in August and September. Mysteel put the ratio on the Chinese market at 4.43 on 25 June 2026 [R18]. That is a reading of Chinese prices, which is a different measure from the LME ratio.
A wider ratio makes aluminium more attractive wherever there is room to use it. FIG. 02 showed that at 4.4 the metal in an aluminium conductor costs about 11 per cent of the copper it replaces. At a ratio of 3, the cheaper end of the published range, it would be about 16 to 17 per cent, on Samso's arithmetic. At either ratio the metal saving is large, so space and reliability usually decide how far the switch goes. The ratio here uses LME prices. A builder buys bar and cable, with regional premiums and fabrication costs added on top, so the gap a buyer sees is not the same as the LME gap.
The ratio can also move the other way. If copper falls back or aluminium rises, part of the reason to switch goes with it. Reuters notes that switching has retooling costs, so companies switch only after careful analysis [R17]. On that reasoning, a design already changed is unlikely to be changed back quickly.
9.00 — WHAT IT MEANS FOR ASX INVESTORS
Data centres add to demand for both metals, at different points in the building
This section is Samso's reading of the evidence above. It is not a recommendation on any company.
AI data centres use both metals, each where it fits. The sources agree that copper keeps the chip side and the cold plates, and that aluminium keeps the grid side. Wood Mackenzie puts cooling at about 55 per cent of the aluminium used inside a data centre [R8]. The data hall is where the two compete. CRU expects data centre demand for both metals to grow, and Wood Mackenzie expects the two to grow together [R7] [R8].
On the estimates in section 7.00, data centres take under 2 per cent of the world's refined copper today. They are growing quickly from a small base. A change in data centre design, such as the move to 800 volts or to aluminium in the data hall, changes the growth rate of that small share. It does not change the copper market on its own.
On the ASX, the copper producers include BHP (ASX: BHP) and Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR). The aluminium producers include South32 (ASX: S32), Alcoa (ASX: AAI) and Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO). Samso's earlier piece on why the copper price is rising covers the ASX copper names, and Part 3 and Part 4 of this series look at the aluminium and copper markets in more detail. The data centre operators, such as NEXTDC (ASX: NXT), are buyers of both metals through their build costs. Samso's piece on ASX data centre stocks looks at what the market pays for them.
For a copper producer, data centres are one source of demand growth among several. For an aluminium producer, they are a smaller but growing source, mostly in cooling, racks and cabling. For an operator, the copper metal in a building is a few per cent of the build cost on the figures in section 7.00.
THE STANDING COUNTERARGUMENT The figure of under 2 per cent counts the copper inside data centres. Wood Mackenzie says much of the metal a data centre needs is outside the building. Once grid reinforcement, transmission lines and on-site power are counted, it puts total base metal use at three to four times the metal inside the data centre itself [R8]. That figure covers base metals in general, not copper alone. A share of today's market also understates the change. BHP expects data centre copper use to rise from about half a million tonnes a year to about 3 million tonnes by 2050 [R11]. S&P Global expects AI and data centre demand and defence demand together to add about 4 million tonnes by 2040 [R13]. It also says most of the feasible substitutions away from copper have already happened, which limits how much more aluminium and thinner conductors can take. The surplus the ICSG expects is small against data centre use. The 2026 surplus of about 104,000 tonnes [R14] is about a fifth of the copper BHP estimates data centres use each year, on Samso's arithmetic. If data centre demand runs ahead of forecast, a surplus of that size leaves little room. |
SAMSO TAKE A data centre uses each metal where its properties fit. Aluminium is moving into the parts of the building where weight and cost count for more than space. The copper price in 2026 has widened the price gap past the third to a quarter range in the published data. That gives builders a stronger reason to use aluminium in the data hall. The physics still keeps copper at the chip and in the cold plates. Data centres will add to demand for both metals. The question for an investor is how much that addition is worth against the rest of the market, which is far larger. Part 3 looks at aluminium supply and price to 2030. Part 4 looks at copper supply, new smelters and forecasts of a deficit. Is the data centre the deciding force in either market, or one force among several? |
THE VOCABULARY, IN PLAIN ENGLISH AI data centre A data centre built to train and run artificial intelligence models. Its servers use much more power per rack than ordinary servers and run hotter. IACS International Annealed Copper Standard. A measure of how well a metal conducts electricity, with soft pure copper set at 100 per cent. Busbar A solid bar or strip of metal that carries large currents over short distances, used in place of many heavy cables. Busbar trunking or busway A run of busbars inside a protective metal casing, hung from a ceiling or wall, with points where equipment plugs in. Transformer and winding A transformer changes electricity from one voltage to another. Its windings are the coils of conductor inside it. ACSR Aluminium conductor steel reinforced. Overhead line cable with a steel core for strength and aluminium strands that carry the current. UPS Uninterruptible power supply. Batteries and electronics that keep power flowing if the grid supply drops. Rack and PDU A rack is the standard cabinet that holds servers. The power distribution unit, or PDU, feeds power to the servers in it. GPU Graphics processing unit, the chip that does most of the work in AI computing. Cold plate liquid cooling A metal block clamped onto a chip, with channels inside through which a coolant flows to carry heat away. Immersion cooling Cooling servers by placing them in a tank of liquid that does not conduct electricity. Manifold The set of pipes that splits coolant between many cold plates. AC and DC Alternating current, as supplied by the grid, and direct current, which flows one way as from a battery. Megawatt and gigawatt A megawatt is a million watts. A gigawatt is a thousand megawatts. Terawatt hour A billion kilowatt hours, a measure of electricity used over time. LME and settlement price The London Metal Exchange, where copper and aluminium are traded. The settlement price is the official cash price it sets from a fixed trading period each day. Refined copper and cathode Copper that has been through a refinery to at least 99.99 per cent purity. Cathode is the flat plate form it comes in. Surplus and deficit A surplus means more refined metal is produced than used in a year. A deficit means less. |
10.00 — REFERENCES AND SOURCES
Where every figure comes from
Each source carries an identifier, [R1] to [R21], which appears in the body text where the source is used. FIG. 01 to FIG. 05 are original Samso illustrations and charts of published data. PLATE 01 and PLATE 02 are photographs reproduced under Creative Commons licences, credited in their captions.
[R1] Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), presentation slides at the SMM Australia Metals and Mining Investment Seminar, Sydney, 26 October 2026, page 44, "A Battle Between Copper and Aluminum in AIDC". Photographed by Samso at the seminar. Not published online.
[R2] Copper Development Association (UK), Publication 22, Copper for Busbars, revised May 2014, Table 1 and Table 2 and section 1. Copy hosted by a third party, as copper.org did not open from Samso's build. payapress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Copper-for-Busbars.pdf
[R3] World Bank, Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), monthly prices, updated 2 October 2026, series Aluminum (LME) and Copper (LME), January 2020 to September 2026. thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/74e8be41ceb20fa0da750cda2f6b9e4e-0050012026/related/CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx
[R4] Nvidia Technical Blog, NVIDIA 800 VDC Architecture Will Power the Next Generation of AI Factories, 20 May 2025. developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-800-v-hvdc-architecture-will-power-the-next-generation-of-ai-factories/
[R5] Nvidia Blog, gigawatt AI factories, Open Compute Project Global Summit and Vera Rubin, 13 October 2025. blogs.nvidia.com/blog/gigawatt-ai-factories-ocp-vera-rubin/
[R6] HPCwire, Nvidia 800 V HVDC Architecture Will Power the Next Generation of AI Factories, 30 May 2025, reproducing the first version of [R4]. www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/nvidia-800-v-hvdc-architecture-will-power-the-next-generation-of-ai-factories/
[R7] CRU Group, CRU expands long-term data centre metallics forecasting, 19 August 2026. www.crugroup.com/en/communities/thought-leadership/2026/cru-expands-long-term-data-centre-metallics-forecasting/
[R8] Wood Mackenzie, press release, Data centre metals demand isn't an asset story. It's a grid story, 16 June 2026. www.woodmac.com/press-releases/wood-mackenzie-data-centre-metals-demand-isnt-an-asset-story.-its-a-grid-story/
[R9] Wood Mackenzie, Julian Kettle, Data centres, copper and the power paradox, 18 June 2026. www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/data-centres-copper-and-the-power-paradox/
[R10] Linesight, Copper volatility and APAC data centres, 28 July 2026. www.linesight.com/insights/copper-volatility-apac-data-centres/
[R11] BHP Insights, Why AI tools and data centres are driving copper demand, 20 January 2025. www.bhp.com/news/bhp-insights/2025/01/why-ai-tools-and-data-centres-are-driving-copper-demand
[R12] World Economic Forum, Securing data centre materials, 10 December 2025. The Forum gives carboncredits.com as its source for the Chicago figures. www.weforum.org/stories/2025/12/securing-data-centre-materials/
[R13] S&P Global, Copper in the Age of AI, The Challenges of Electrification, press release and report page, 8 January 2026. www.spglobal.com/en/research-insights/special-reports/copper-in-the-age-of-ai
[R14] International Copper Study Group, press release, Copper Market Forecast 2026/2027, 14 October 2026. icsg.org/download/2026-10-14-press-release-icsg-copper-market-forecast-2026-2027/?wpdmdl=9365
[R15] International Energy Agency, Energy and AI in East Asia, revised April 2026, restating the Base Case of Energy and AI (April 2025). iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/431d7d22-039e-46d3-9832-090a8b4075fc/EnergyandAIinEastAsia.pdf
[R16] International Energy Agency, news release, Data centre electricity use surged in 2025, 2026. www.iea.org/news/data-centre-electricity-use-surged-in-2025-even-with-tightening-bottlenecks-driving-a-scramble-for-solutions
[R17] Reuters, Eric Onstad, Factbox, Why companies are swapping copper for aluminium, 30 June 2026, as carried by WHTC. whtc.com/2026/06/30/factbox-why-companies-are-swapping-copper-for-aluminium/
[R18] Mysteel, Zhaorui Cui, Aluminum-for-copper substitution as structural shift rather than turning point, 26 June 2026. www.mysteel.net/analysis/5129829-trending-aluminum-for-copper-substitution-as-structural-shift-rather-than-turning-point
[R19] SMM News, AI compute power soars, copper becomes the new oil of the digital age, 25 June 2026. news.metal.com/en/newscontent/103972032-ai-compute-power-soars-who-is-the-hidden-core-necessity-copper-becomes-the-new-oil-of-the-digital-age
[R20] Infratil (ASX: IFT), presentation of results for the year ended 31 March 2026, CDC slides. infratil.com/investors/results/annual-results-for-the-year-ended-31-march-2026/presentation-of-results-march-2026/
[R21] Reserve Bank of Australia, statistical table F11.1, exchange rates, A$1 in US dollars, daily, September 2026. The September average of 0.7126 is Samso's arithmetic on the 22 daily rates. www.rba.gov.au/statistics/tables/csv/f11.1-data.csv
Cover photo. Bundles of cathode copper ready for transport at a copper refinery, photograph by ChrisFountain, July 2001. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons file page
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