World faces copper shortage as AI data centres drive power demand: Economic Survey

The Economic Survey warns of a global copper shortage driven by rising AI data centre power demands and supply chain challenges.

The world will soon face a copper shortage due to surging power demand from artificial intelligence data centres, the Economic Survey warned on Thursday (January 29, 2026), highlighting how critical minerals have become strategic choke-points in the global energy transition.

"The global energy transition is no longer solely determined by technology; it is increasingly constrained by who controls critical minerals," the Survey said.

Metals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earth elements, have become strategic bottlenecks, shaping the low-carbon economy, influencing energy security, industrial competitiveness and geopolitical power, the Survey said, noting that trade restrictions on critical mineral exports by source countries.

Copper price has become increasingly volatile due to mine outages in Indonesia, Congo and Chile, raising concerns about supply deficits in the medium to long term, given growing demand from the power sector and data centres worldwide, and trade protectionist measures, the Survey said.

The survey illustrated the scale of investment required, citing that a 1 gigawatt wind turbine requires 2,866 tonne of copper, which would take 1,194 truckloads to transport.

To produce that much copper from ore with a 0.6% yield, miners must process approximately 167-200 tonnes of ore per tonne of copper produced, the survey said.