Artificial Intelligence and Raw Materials

Will the AI boom crash against the cliffs of physical reality, or does free-market capitalism still hold undiscovered paths to reduce or bypass scarcity in copper, power grids, transformers, and semiconductors?

Thomas Kolbe | May 18, 2026

The boom in artificial intelligence is fueling the U.S. economy. However, the massive expansion of capacity is accompanied by growing shortages of raw materials and energy bottlenecks. Washington is relying on the healing forces of markets and a hard-edged raw materials strategy.

Let us, for a brief moment, set aside what is happening in the EU in the field of artificial intelligence, data centers, and energy policy. Dealing day after day with European-German stagnation is discouraging. One risks losing touch with the groundbreaking innovations and transformations of our time that are unfolding elsewhere in the world. Across the Atlantic, in the United States, for example, there is a push toward a quantum leap in economic efficiency driven by the benefits of AI. The major U.S. tech giants are estimated to invest around 800 billion dollars this year in building the necessary infrastructure -- data centers, energy grids, and their own energy sources. An economic revolution that is already boosting productivity growth and economic momentum.

In the U.S., industrial production is also picking up noticeably again, with private investment rising by more than 10 percent in the first quarter. However, the AI boom is also creating its own bottlenecks, which could, beyond a certain point, threaten to derail this expansion. According to estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centers worldwide consumed about 415 terawatt-hours of electricity last year. By 2030 -- if current growth continues -- this demand will rise to 945 terawatt-hours, more than doubling, equivalent to Japan’s annual electricity consumption.

Hyperscalers and AI clusters consume enormous amounts........

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