Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Copper and Data centres and cloud

A data centre uses roughly 27 tonnes of copper per megawatt in its power, cooling and server systems, and more again in the grid that feeds it, so AI build-out has become a visible new source of copper demand, though still small next to grids, buildings and vehicles.

Copper (commodity) and Data centres and cloud (industry): 3 relationships.

How they are linked

1. Industry input

Physical flow · Strong · Copper to data centres and cloud

Copper carries power from substation to chip, through transformers, busbars, cables, cooling systems and server boards; the site lists five enterprise types in data centres that depend on it, rating it 5 of 5 for utilities and power developers and for AI chip makers.

  • 5 of 5 criticality for utilities and AI chip makers
  • about 27 t copper per MW of applied power, Microsoft Chicago facility
  • 2,177 t copper in that one facility

The 27 tonnes per megawatt figure comes from a single Microsoft site, so it is an indication, not an industry standard; designs with denser racks or more on-site generation will differ. On that ratio, each gigawatt of new capacity needs about 27,000 tonnes of copper inside the fence, before the lines and substations that connect it.

Enterprise types that depend on it:

  • Utilities and clean-power developers: lines and substations (criticality 5 of 5)
  • AI accelerator and server-chip makers: interconnect (criticality 5 of 5)
  • Electrical and cooling equipment makers: windings and busbars (criticality 4 of 5)
  • Server, storage and network equipment makers: boards and cables (criticality 3 of 5)
  • Data-centre construction contractors: cabling (criticality 2 of 5)

Sources: Material Insights; BHP

2. AI build-out

Transition · Rising · Data-centre growth drives new copper demand

Data-centre electricity use is set to more than double this decade, and every extra megawatt needs copper both inside the hall and in new generation and grid links.

  • about 0.5 Mt copper used by data centres a year, BHP estimate 2025
  • about 3 Mt copper a year by 2050, BHP projection
  • 415 to 945 TWh data-centre electricity use, 2024 to 2030, IEA

BHP expects data-centre copper use to grow about sixfold by 2050, as data centres rise from about 2% to about 9% of world electricity demand. The IEA puts use at 415 TWh in 2024, about 1.5% of world electricity, and 945 TWh by 2030. Projections this long are sensitive to chip efficiency and to how much AI demand materialises.

Sources: BHP; Scientific American

3. Copper versus optics

Substitution · Medium · Optical links compete with copper for server interconnects

Inside a rack, copper links use less power than optical transceivers over short distances, but at higher speeds and longer reach optics take over, so interconnect design decides how much copper each AI system uses.

  • 5,184 copper cables linking 72 GPUs in one Nvidia NVL72 rack
  • about 20 kW power saved per rack by copper instead of optics, Nvidia

Nvidia's NVL72 rack links 72 Blackwell GPUs over 5,184 copper cables, which saves on the order of 20 kW against optical transceivers and retimers. The design rule is copper where possible and optics where necessary, so as link speeds rise and clusters grow, more links may move to optics and copper's role in server interconnect may shrink even as power-side copper grows.

Sources: The Next Platform

For investors

Key learnings

  1. AI data centres add a visible but still modest copper demand, about 0.5 Mt a year in BHP's 2025 estimate, against world refinery output of about 29 Mt in 2025.
  2. Most of the copper sits on the power side, in transformers, busbars, cooling and grid links, so data-centre growth also lifts demand for copper-heavy electrical equipment.
  3. Interconnect copper is exposed to a shift to optics, so the durable copper exposure is in power delivery, not in server cabling.

What to track

  • Hyperscaler capital spending: Higher spending signals more copper in data halls and grid connections (Quarterly · company results)
  • Data-centre capacity under construction: A forward measure of copper demand in power and cooling systems (Quarterly · CBRE, JLL)
  • LME copper price and cash to three-month spread: Tightness raises costs for cable and transformer suppliers to data centres (Daily · LME)

For policymakers

Key learnings

  1. Data-centre policy is also grid and copper policy: every gigawatt needs tens of thousands of tonnes of copper before the grid connection is counted.
  2. India's data-centre capacity, about 1,530 MW in September 2025 with 53% in Mumbai and 20% in Chennai, adds concentrated copper demand for cables and transformers while national copper demand rose 9.3% in FY25.
  3. Efficiency gains in chips and cooling reduce both electricity and copper per unit of computing, so efficiency standards also ease material demand.

What to track

  • India data-centre operational capacity (MW): Rising capacity signals copper and transformer demand in host states (Half-yearly · CBRE, MeitY)
  • Data-centre electricity demand: Shows how fast new grid and copper investment is needed (Annual · IEA, CEA)

India

India had about 1,530 MW of data-centre capacity in September 2025, 53% of it in Mumbai and 20% in Chennai; at about 27 tonnes per megawatt, each further gigawatt implies roughly 27,000 tonnes of copper inside the facilities, adding to demand for cables and transformers.

Sources

  1. Data centres and cloud: materials, Material Insights (2026)
  2. Why AI tools and data centres are driving copper demand, BHP (2025)
  3. Data centers will use twice as much energy by 2030, driven by AI (IEA Energy and AI), Scientific American (2025)
  4. Copper wires have already failed clustered AI systems, The Next Platform (2024)
  5. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Copper, USGS (2026)
  6. India's copper demand rises 9.3 per cent in FY25; ICA calls for strategic reserves planning, The Tribune (International Copper Association India data) (2025)
  7. Mumbai leads India's data centre capacity with 53% share YTD: report (CBRE data), The Tribune (CBRE data) (2025)