Name: What The New World Order Means For The Commodities Trade
Uploaded: 2026-02-06T06:32:03.000Z
Duration: 4 min 27 s
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It's clear that commodities have become the center of international politics and a race is underway to obtain the materials and energy sources critical to the AI buildout.

The reality is where all those kind of geopolitical flashpoints are at.

Adverbs of degree

There are very important global resources that batter in the AI transformation.

You need in 2026 to pay attention to geopolitics, geography and geology.

I cover markets here at cnbc and I'm watching as the AI boom sends the price of commodities at the heart of AI infrastructure buildout.

Demand for copper, aluminum, lithium, cobalt and silicon are all projected to triple by 2030.

And precious metals like gold, silver, platinum and palladium hit record levels in 2025.

Of course, there are other factors at play when things get turbulent.

Precious metals are considered a safe haven for investors.

But these metals are key to the AI buildout.

We do think that, you know, geopolitical flashpoints are going to be more prominent in 2026 and going forward, we've entered kind of another period in history when superpowers are more likely to make bold moves to secure and defend natural resources and, and

strategic economic routes outside of their own borders.

People are quickly realizing that in order for countries to succeed and call it win the AI global race, they're going to need the resources to do it.

They have to look around the world and say, where are those finite resources that are the core inputs into all of this build, whether it's chips or data centers, artificial intelligence, and

then make sure that they've got longer term ways to access those elements.

There's a number of reasons investors can keep an eye on in the U.S.

president Trump has denied that his interest in Greenland has anything to do with the untapped deposits of critical minerals and rare earth elements there.

But both Greenland and Venezuela are known to have deposits of critical minerals used in advanced AI chips.

Russia too has eyes on the mineral rich Arctic.

And Ukraine has the largest lithium reserves in Europe and some of the biggest titanium reserves in the world.

Two key elements for establishing AI dominance.

And China controls 70% of the global lithium processing capacity thanks to the significant presence they've built in the so called lithium triangle, which is made up of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.

Is an amazing race, right, that the west needs to absolutely win, right?

No matter how much we we hardened our critical defense, our industrial infrastructure, our technology infrastructure, the simple fact is that the countries with superior intelligence will have the potential to dominate.

2026 looks like a strong year for markets overall.

But the race to control the natural resources critical to the AI boom could mean the volatility we've seen so far in stocks will be a feature going forward.

You're going to have to pay attention to geopolitics in 2026 relative to your investment portfolio.

You're going to start hearing about commodities that many people have never heard of before.

Lesser known industrial metals like gallium or germanium, which are key inputs into semiconductors, AI chips, fiber optic systems, military grade and night vision elements.

All of those are imperative for, for the growth of AI and what's happening in that space.

So we think the demand will start to outstrip maybe supply.

I would try to own the actual commodities themselves.

And we know commodities have a low correlation to other assets within a normal diversified portfolio, like stocks, like bonds, like alternative assets.

And so they add a lot of risk, return, benefit.

We seem to think that you either use an active manager, like an active 40 act mutual fund or just an ETF.

There's always something happening around the globe and it's not a reason to not invest.