Copper has a new bull case—and it's coming from billionaire macro investors, not mining CEOs.
Stanley Druckenmiller had once called copper "in the tightest position I have ever studied." Chamath Palihapitiya says electrification makes shortages inevitable and copper should go “parabolic.” Mining legend Robert Friedland goes further: he says investors still don't grasp the scale of the problem.
"You just can't own enough copper," Friedland said. "We're consuming 30 million tonnes a year… to maintain 3% GDP growth, with no electrification, we have to mine the same amount of copper in the next 18 years as we mined in the last 10,000 years, combined."
The Structural Bull Case
Copper demand is being pulled forward by EVs, AI data centers, grid upgrades, and renewables. A single EV uses roughly four times more copper than a combustion car. Data centers and electrified grids add another structural layer.
Investors are expressing the thesis through miners like Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX), Southern Copper Crop (NYSE:SCCO), Teck Resources Ltd (NYSE:TECK), and ETFs like Global X Copper Miners ETF (NYSE:COPX).
Mining Vs. Math
Supply, meanwhile, moves at geological speed. New mines take 10–20 years to permit and build. Grades are falling. Capex has lagged for a decade.
Friedland's point is brutal: the world hasn't even started electrifying at scale—and the base case already requires a millennium-scale mining effort compressed into two decades.
Why It Matters
This isn't a cyclical trade. It's a structural repricing thesis.
When Druckenmiller, Chamath, and Friedland are all citing the same math, copper stops being a commodity story and starts looking structural.
Photo: Shutterstock
