As the global race in artificial intelligence (AI) intensifies, a tidal wave of investment in computing power infrastructure is sweeping across the world. Overseas tech behemoths are significantly ramping up their investments in data centers. Meanwhile, China's ambitious 'Compute East, Store West' initiative is gaining momentum, driving a sharp uptick in demand for AI servers, optical modules, and advanced packaging technologies. This trend has sparked a reevaluation of a range of niche metal varieties. Since the start of this year, prices of metals dubbed 'computing power metals'—including copper, tin, indium, germanium, and gallium—have collectively soared. While demand growth is certainly a factor, the market's attention is primarily fixed on the long-term bottlenecks plaguing the supply side. Gu Fengda, Chief Analyst at Guosen Futures, emphasized that the core logic propelling the current rally in 'computing power metals' is not merely the AI concept itself, but rather the resource scarcity premium resulting from tightening supply on the production front.
