Copper Falls as Nvidia Leadership Shock Tests AI Spending Bets

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.5% to $13,519 a metric ton by 1000 GMT, after touching $13,456, its weakest level since July 17. The metal was on course for a fifth consecutive weekly loss. Panmure Liberum analyst Tom Price said Thursday, as news emerged from Nvidia, “Every time AI takes a hit, copper demand and prices come under pressure too.” He also cited persistent U.S. inflation and the possibility of Federal Reserve rate hikes.

Nvidia said Jensen Huang resigned Thursday as president, CEO and director, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress became interim CEO while retaining her finance role, and Harvey Jones became the board’s first chair. Nvidia shares closed down 4.3% Thursday and lost about 2% more Friday. Bloomberg reported that results are due Nov. 17, with Kress promising an all-hands meeting the following day. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast said Huang had agreed to testify before Congress by Thanksgiving, adding that “he has some very serious questions to answer.”

The potential effect on copper runs through financing for AI companies. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri said Nvidia has become a key funding source for neoclouds and AI developers, and expects the company to pause its appetite for such deals even if a new CEO maintains the same direction. JPMorgan analysts said they do not expect existing commitments to change, though new deals could take longer or cost more. Goldman said copper positioning could remain subdued if equity markets begin to anticipate an earlier slowdown in AI spending, even as data center construction continues.

Big technology companies have announced substantial spending plans, though much of that spending goes to equipment rather than buildings. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood told investors Oct. 28 that calendar-year capital spending would reach about $170 billion; roughly three-quarters of its latest quarterly spending went to short-lived assets such as chips. Alphabet kept its 2026 forecast at $195 billion to $205 billion. S&P Global expects copper demand to reach 42 million metric tons by 2040, up 50%, with AI and defense each roughly tripling and adding about 4 million tons between them.

Physical-market signals in China have remained firm. The Yangshan copper premium, a measure of Chinese demand for imports, reached a record $285 a ton Friday. Copper inventories in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses fell 18.3% this week to 27,642 tons, their lowest level since Dec. 23, Reuters reported. Separately, published estimates point to 30 to 50 gigawatts of on-site power generation at data centers within five years, mostly from gas turbines, Oilprice.com contributors Leonard Hyman and William Tilles wrote this week.