JPM-EMEA Metals Mining JPM upgrades global datacenter power forecasts by...-20251104

JPM Technology & Utilities Global Research have published a detailed update on global datacenter power demand (link). Our colleagues now forecast datacenter power demand to grow to 242GW by 2028, 41% greater than their previous 172GW 2028 forecast, implying 27% CAGR 2025-28E. This compares to 97GW installed capacity in 2024. Our colleagues also revise up datacenter power consumption estimates by 6%-40% over 2025-28, translating to ~1,100TWh and comprising 3-4% of global electricity consumption (vs. 1.5% in 2024).

AI = Cu: Datacenter power capacity growth has implications for metals and mining. Most directly, copper demand as a critical enabler of electricity conductivity. In our Mar’24 deep dive Copper & AI: The Coming Wave, we analysed data center growth as a new source of copper demand. We highlighted that every 1MW of installed data center power capacity requires ~20-40/t of copper. Therefore, our colleagues’ 70GW capacity increase could imply 2.1Mt of additional datacenter copper demand across 2025-28 (assuming 30t copper), if assume power capacity is only variable, with no effect from substitution, thrifting or datacenter technology change. JPM Commodities Research currently forecast datacenter copper demand at 580kt in 2028, based on JPM Global team’s previous forecasts.