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Copper futures touched a fresh record of $6.95 a pound on September 22. The move revived talk that the industrial metal could start closing the gap with gold as a store of value.
The rally caps a year in which the two metals have moved in opposite directions.
This year's nearly 20% climb puts copper on track for one of its strongest years on record. Over the past year the gain widens to more than 46%. The rally has been buoyed by Michael Burry's copper bet and tightening supply.
Gold has barely moved by comparison, adding just 0.02% over the same stretch.
That gap hides gold's wilder ride. The metal spiked above $5,600 an ounce in late January 2026 on safe-haven demand. It then crashed within days and has spent months clawing back toward flat.
Copper's strength has different roots. Shanghai warehouse stocks of copper cathode fell to 43,900 tonnes, the lowest level since 2023. London Metal Exchange (LME) inventories available to the market fell to 133,725 tonnes.
Earlier in September, a stalled US tariff plan briefly knocked almost 8% off the price. The metal has since erased that pullback and gone on to set fresh records.
CNN reported that tightening supply, tariff uncertainty and demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) are pushing copper toward record levels.
Burry raised a related point last week, noting that new copper deposits take roughly 18 years to reach production. AI data centers, by contrast, add fresh demand within two to three years. That gap was central to his pick of a copper miner over AI stocks.
None of this makes copper a monetary metal like gold, which central banks still hold as a reserve asset. Gold's global stock is worth close to $30 trillion, dwarfing copper's much smaller market.
Still, the 2026 divergence suggests AI-driven industrial demand is reshaping which commodities investors treat as scarce.
Washington now holds the next catalyst. A long-delayed Commerce Department ruling on tariffs for refined copper imports is still pending. Traders expect the decision to move prices sharply once it lands.
For now, copper is winning the growth argument even if gold still wins on size.
