Chamath Palihapitiya’s 2026 Prediction: Why Copper Trumps Stocks and Gold
The smart money is pivoting from digital to physical. While crypto bros chase the next memecoin and Wall Street obsesses over quarterly earnings, one investor is betting the farm on an ancient metal with a very modern problem.
The AI Infrastructure Crunch
Every data center, every EV charging station, every wind turbine needs one thing: copper wiring. The green energy transition and AI boom aren't just software stories—they're massive, physical build-outs. Demand projections look like a crypto chart in a bull market, but supply is stuck in a bear cycle. New mines take over a decade to permit and build. The math is brutally simple.
Geopolitical Tangles
Most of the world's easy copper has already been dug up. The remaining deposits sit in politically tricky jurisdictions or deep underground. Supply chains are brittle. Any disruption—a labor strike in Chile, export restrictions in Peru—sends shockwaves through global markets. It's a physical asset with digital-age volatility.
The Inflation Hedge That Actually Works
Forget gold's sleepy price action. Copper is an industrial metal with real, screaming demand. When central banks print money, it doesn't flow into gold bars—it funds factories, grid upgrades, and server farms. That capital expenditure directly consumes copper. It's an inflation hedge that gets used up, not just stored in a vault. (Take that, goldbugs.)
The Final Trade
Chamath's call cuts through the noise of financial pundits debating Fed policy and P/E ratios. This isn't a speculative bet on a narrative; it's a wager on physics and infrastructure. The world needs more copper than it can produce. Sometimes the best investment isn't the shiniest new thing—it's the boring, essential one everyone forgot about until the price triples. Just ask any banker who missed the last commodity supercycle while rearranging their Excel models.
Why Copper May Emerge as the Best Trade for 2026
A new video uploaded by the Boring Business on X consisted of notable expert Chamath Palihapitiya stating the next breakout asset he thinks will take over the world. In the video, Palihapitiya was quick to note how the world has been underestimating copper, and the fact that it’s “the” most essential element for all major manufacturers could help the asset go parabolic in the NEAR future.
Palihapitiya shared how copper is the most useful amenable asset available, and its shortage could really spike the global metal dynamics for years to come.
Chamath's best trade idea for 2026 is not a stock. It is copper.
"We are still completely underestimating how short we are in terms of the global demand and supply dynamics of a handful of critical elements that we need.
The asset that is set up to go absolutely parabolic is… pic.twitter.com/jXvD5GKokB
Current Status Update on Copper
Per a recent post by Barchart, copper prices are on the verge of spiking soon, with copper shortages surging by 10 million tonnes by 2040.
The world will experience a Copper shortage of 10 million tonnes by 2040 and pose a systemic risk to the global economy warns S&P Global
pic.twitter.com/Q5f2xtYG5u
The metal’s prices have risen 40% recently, reaching an all-time high of $6 at press time.
BREAKING: Copper prices surge to a new record high, now up +40% in 6 months
Every asset seems to be moving in a straight line higher.
This is not a coincidence. pic.twitter.com/QtI5y9J6vr
