The United States is not discovering copper, but accumulating it.
Quietly, American warehouses have become a modern metal fortress, with 590,000 short tons of copper stored in COMEX-approved warehouses, the highest level in more than 30 years.
This is not a mining miracle. It is a chess move of the trade war.
Copper inventories have soared almost 300% in just 12 months, now exceeding the combined stocks of the LME and Shanghai exchanges, according to data from CME and Goldman Sachs.
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The reason is simple: Traders are preempting potential 15% to 25% U.S. tariffs on refined copper by shipping the metal across the border today to avoid taxes tomorrow. The result is local excess in the United States, even as the rest of the world tightens.
This pile seems big, but it is a mirage in a structurally tight market.
Goldman warns that once tariff uncertainty dissipates (likely in mid-2026), much of this metal could flow out again, generating a short-term price drop.
In other words, the strength could quickly turn into a fire sale.
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Chamath Palihapitiya calls copper the top trade of 2026, arguing that AI alone could demand 50,000 tonnes per data center, while mining supply takes more than 20 years to scale.
For him, current inventory is “pennies” compared to a projected 130% increase in data center energy demand by 2030.
Tariffs, he says, could turn copper into a national security asset, and prices would be “absolutely parabolic.”
Traders following this theme are increasingly using copper and copper mine ETFs, such as the US Copper Index Fund (NYSE: CPER), the iPath Series B Bloomberg Copper Subindex ETN (JJC) and the Global X Copper Miners ETF (NYSE:COPX) — as a liquid way to express the bet without owning physical metal.
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Short term: The United States has a glut created by fear of tariffs.
Long term: The world is facing a famine driven by artificial intelligence and electrification.
If you trade copper, the strength is a warning.
If invested like Chamath, it is just an obstacle on the path to structural scarcity.