Electric vehicles (EVs) and artificial intelligence (AI) are emerging as the two most powerful drivers of global copper demand. While both sectors significantly increase copper consumption, they differ greatly in terms of usage scale, application scenarios, and growth dynamics.

Electric Vehicles: The “Multiplying Effect” of Copper per Car

Copper demand from EVs primarily comes from the vehicles themselves and the charging infrastructure that supports them. Compared with traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, EVs require several times more copper.

Key data – Copper usage per vehicle

·         Battery electric vehicles (BEVs): Approximately 80–85 kg of copper per vehicle

·         Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs): Around 60 kg per vehicle

·         Conventional gasoline vehicles: About 20 kg per vehicle

This means a BEV typically uses around four times as much copper as a conventional vehicle.

Breakdown of copper usage in EVs

·         Power batteries: Around 55% of total copper use, mainly in lithium battery copper foil

·         Electric motor drive systems: About 22%, primarily copper windings

·         Charging systems and wiring harnesses: The remaining share

Copper demand becomes even more substantial in larger electric vehicles. For example, electric buses require roughly 224–369 kg of copper per unit, several times more than passenger EVs due to larger battery capacity and higher motor power.

Scale-driven demand growth

The key driver of copper demand in the EV sector is the sheer volume of vehicles produced and sold. As EV penetration continues to rise globally—China alone is targeting more than 40% market penetration by 2025—annual EV sales in the tens of millions could translate into millions of tons of additional copper demand each year.

Technology trends

Emerging technologies such as 800V high-voltage platforms and higher battery energy density may further increase copper consumption per vehicle in the future.

Artificial Intelligence: Explosive Copper Demand per Rack

Unlike EVs, AI-driven copper demand is concentrated in data centers, where extremely high copper density is required in power distribution and cooling systems.

Key data – Copper usage in AI servers

·         AI servers vs. traditional servers:
A single NVIDIA GB200 AI server can use approximately 1.36 tonnes of copper, compared with less than 0.5 tonnes for a traditional server—roughly three times more.

·         AI racks:
Copper consumption per AI rack has increased from about 100 kg in the past to around 300 kg today.

This surge is largely driven by the enormous power requirements of AI chips, which often operate at several kilowatts per system. As a result, thicker and denser copper busbars and liquid-cooling pipelines are required for both power delivery and thermal management.

Copper demand in data centers

In hyperscale AI facilities, the numbers become even more striking:

·         A single large-scale AI data center may consume 2,000–4,000 tonnes of copper, or more.

·         A data center operated by Amazon Web Services reportedly uses over 150 tonnes of copper per building.

·         At a facility operated by Microsoft in Chicago, each megawatt of computing capacity requires about 27 tonnes of copper.

Density-driven demand growth

In the AI sector, copper demand is driven not by the number of individual devices but by increasing computing density. Large AI models require clusters of thousands of GPUs working simultaneously, leading to a geometric rise in copper consumption within individual racks and server rooms.

Importantly, most of the copper used in AI systems is not directly involved in computation. Instead, it supports the infrastructure that enables computing—efficient power delivery and heat dissipation.

Two Different Paths to the Same Outcome

In essence, EVs and AI are expanding copper demand through two very different mechanisms:

·         Electric vehicles consume copper through mass adoption, with tens of millions of vehicles each using significantly more copper than traditional cars.

·         Artificial intelligence drives copper demand through extreme concentration, where individual racks and data centers require massive amounts of copper to support computing power.

Together, these two sectors are forming the strongest growth engines for global copper demand in the coming decades.

Source：  Sensorexpert