Key facts
- Three-month copper on the LME was down 0.5% at $13,519 a metric ton as of 1000 GMT on Friday.
- Copper touched $13,456, its weakest since July 17, and was heading for a fifth straight weekly loss.
- Nvidia said Huang resigned Thursday as president, CEO and director, effective immediately.
- Nvidia shares closed 4.3% lower Thursday and fell about 2% more on Friday.
- UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri expects a pause in Nvidia's appetite for AI deals even if a new CEO holds course.
- The Yangshan copper premium hit a record $285 a ton on Friday, and Shanghai Futures Exchange stocks fell 18.3% this week.
Copper fell to its lowest in almost four months on Friday, with three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange down 0.5% at $13,519 a metric ton as of 1000 GMT after touching $13,456, its weakest since July 17. The metal was heading for a fifth straight weekly loss, and traders blamed Nvidia's loss of Jensen Huang for the latest leg down, according to the report.
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. Nvidia 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.
Panmure Liberum analyst Tom Price said: "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. 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 Sachs called the copper correction a matter of positioning in AI-linked stocks, not a sign that fundamentals have loosened, and said copper positioning could stay subdued if equity markets start pricing an earlier slowdown in AI spending. 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. 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.