# Bài viết Liên quan Price Boom

After Storage, Are Copper and Fiber Optic Cables Facing an AI "Great Famine"?

Following the storage sector, copper and fiber optics are emerging as potentially the next major markets to experience explosive growth due to AI. Demand for copper, described by Goldman Sachs as "the oil of the AI era," is surging. Prices are near record highs, with LME copper up 41% over the past 12 months. This is driven by AI's immense and unique requirements: copper is the essential material for the massive electrical distribution (e.g., a 1GW AI data center requires ~27,000 tons) and advanced liquid cooling systems needed for high-power AI clusters like NVIDIA's GB200. Meanwhile, new large-scale copper mine discoveries have been scarce for a decade, tightening supply. Concurrently, a "fiber famine" is unfolding. AI's need for ultra-high-speed, long-distance interconnects between thousands of GPUs is pushing data transmission beyond the physical limits of copper cables. Demand for fiber optics is experiencing a step-change, with a single AI data center requiring up to 36 times more fiber than a traditional CPU rack. This has caused prices for standard G.652D fiber in China to nearly double in just three months. Supply is critically constrained due to the long (18-24 month) lead times required to expand production of the core preform material. In summary, AI's infrastructure demands are cascading down from semiconductors to foundational materials. Copper faces a structural supply-demand imbalance, while fiber optics is entering a period of severe shortage, positioning both as critical and potentially strained components of the AI build-out.

marsbit05/14 09:25