Nvidia Without Huang: What a Pause in AI Deals Means for Metals

Copper slid to its lowest in almost four months on Friday and was heading for a fifth straight weekly loss, with traders blaming Nvidia’s (Nasdaq: NVDA) loss of Jensen Huang for the latest leg down. The exit is a convenient culprit, but the slide started before it. Copper has dropped every week since mid-October, and Goldman Sachs called the correction a matter of positioning in AI-linked stocks, not a sign that fundamentals have loosened.Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.5% at $13,519 a metric ton as of 1000 GMT, after touching $13,456, its weakest since July 17. As the Nvidia news broke on Thursday, Panmure Liberum analyst Tom Price put it bluntly: “Every time AI takes a hit, copper demand and prices come under pressure too.” He also pointed to stubborn US inflation and the prospect of Federal Reserve rate hikes.Nvidia said Huang resigned Thursday as president, CEO and director, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress is interim CEO while keeping her finance job, and Harvey Jones becomes the board’s first chair. Shares closed 4.3% lower Thursday and fell about 2% more on Friday. Bloomberg reported that results are due Nov. 17, with Kress promising an all-hands meeting the next day.Huang has also agreed to testify before Congress by Thanksgiving, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast said, adding that “he has some very serious questions to answer.”The route from a boardroom crisis to the copper market runs through financing. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri said Nvidia has become a key source of funds for neoclouds and AI developers, and expects a pause in its appetite for those deals even if a new CEO holds the same course. JPMorgan analysts said they do not assume existing commitments change, but new deals could take longer or cost more.Goldman said copper positioning could stay subdued if equity markets start pricing an earlier slowdown in AI spending, even while data center construction continues. The gap matters because much of the money is not going into buildings. Mining.com’s Frédéric Tomesco and Colin McClelland flagged the builders’ budgets on Thursday. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood told investors Oct. 28 that calendar-year capital spending would reach about $170 billion, and about three-quarters of its latest quarterly spending went to short-lived assets such as chips. Alphabet held its 2026 forecast at $195 billion to $205 billion.S&P Global sees copper demand reaching 42 million metric tons by 2040, up 50%, with AI and defense each roughly tripling and adding about 4 million tons between them. Developers are also building their own power. Oilprice.com contributors Leonard Hyman and William Tilles wrote this week that published estimates point to 30 to 50 gigawatts of on-site generation at data centers within five years, mostly gas turbines.Physical buyers in China are not behaving like a market braced for weaker demand. The Yangshan copper premium, a gauge of China’s appetite for imports, hit a record $285 a ton on Friday, and copper stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses fell 18.3% this week to 27,642 tons, the lowest since Dec. 23, Reuters reported.By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.comFusion's Next Race Is Over Superconducting Tape, Not PlasmaGlobal Power Grid Expansion Surges 50% to Record HighThe $130 Billion Oil Boom Fueled by the Iran War