Some people are worried about the AI bubble, while others fear missing out on the big AI narrative investment opportunities. But I have always emphasized that the most suitable investment opportunity for retail investors is non-ferrous metals.

In the California Gold Rush of 1849, the last to profit were not the gold miners, but the hardware store owners selling shovels, the merchants selling tents, and the service providers running taverns.
In the 2026 AI gold rush, the safest investments are not the large model companies, but:
✅ Power stocks (AI consumes electricity; whoever provides power collects taxes)
✅ Copper, aluminum, and non-ferrous metals (data center infrastructure, demand surging by 170%)
✅ Data center REITs (AI companies are tenants)
Looking at the US-China AI competition, on the surface, you see ByteDance, Alibaba, Google, and OpenAI competing at the application level. In reality, let’s examine the strategic layout of major powers:
🇨🇳 China’s strategic layout:
• Silver export controls (effective from 2026.1.1, accounting for 23.4% of global trade)
• Comprehensive control of rare earths, gallium, germanium, and antimony (accounting for 60-90% of global supply)
What is the role of silver?
Photovoltaics + core materials for AI data centers
🇺🇸 US response measures:
• Copper inventory of 1 million tons (= the annual output of the world’s largest copper mine, a multi-decade high)
• Copper listed as a “critical mineral”
What is the role of copper?
The blood of AI computing infrastructure (electricity transmission)
The underlying logic of great power competition:
Physical bottleneck of AI computing power = energy + critical mineral supply capacity. Whoever controls the upstream controls the AI future.
This is also what Elon Musk mentioned: why he is optimistic about China’s AI industry—because China’s infrastructure is simply too powerful.