Business · Macro & Policy

Nvidia Without Huang Pause Fears Drag Copper to 4-Month Low

Copper fell to its weakest level since July 17 as traders blamed Nvidia's loss of CEO Jensen Huang. Analysts say a pause in AI financing deals could follow, though Goldman Sachs calls the slide a positioning correction, not a break in fundamentals.

By Alistair Sterling

November 15, 20262 min read

Nvidia Without Huang Pause Fears Drag Copper to 4-Month Low

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange touched $13,456 a metric ton on Friday, its weakest since July 17, as traders blamed Nvidia's loss of CEO Jensen Huang and feared an Nvidia without Huang pause in AI deals.

The metal was down 0.5% at $13,519 as of 1000 GMT. It was heading for a fifth straight weekly loss.

What Nvidia announced

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. Harvey Jones becomes the board's first chair.

Nvidia shares closed 4.3% lower Thursday and fell about 2% more on Friday. Results are due November 17, with Kress promising an all-hands meeting the next day.

Huang has also agreed to testify before Congress by Thanksgiving, according to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast. "He has some very serious questions to answer," Mast said.

Why copper reacts

Panmure Liberum analyst Tom Price said as the news broke: "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.

The link runs through financing. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri said Nvidia has become a key source of funds for neoclouds, newer firms that rent out AI computing power, and for AI developers. He 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. New deals, they said, could take longer or cost more.

A slide that predates the exit

The departure is a convenient culprit, but the slide started before it. Copper has dropped every week since mid-October.

Goldman Sachs called the correction a matter of positioning in AI-linked stocks, not a sign that fundamentals have loosened. It said copper positioning could stay subdued if equity markets start pricing an earlier slowdown in AI spending, even while data center construction continues.

Spending remains heavy. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood told investors on October 28 that calendar-year capital spending would reach about $170 billion. 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%. It expects AI and defense each to roughly triple, adding about 4 million tons between them.

Developers are also building their own power. Commentators Leonard Hyman and William Tilles wrote this week that published estimates point to 30 to 50 gigawatts of on-site generation at data centers within five years, mostly gas turbines.

China buyers not retreating

Physical buyers in China are not behaving like a market braced for weaker demand. The Yangshan copper premium, a gauge of China's appetite for imports, hit a record $285 a ton on Friday.

Copper stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses fell 18.3% this week to 27,642 tons, the lowest since December 23.