AI’s Hidden Mineral Crisis: The Next Bottleneck Isn’t Chips-It’s the Industrial Supply Chain

Macdonald Amoah, Mines Faculty Maxwell Brown, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Senior Research Fellow Jahara Matisek, and Adam Simon write about how artificial intelligence data centers will reshape demand for critical minerals (and rare earth elements)—but not primarily through AI chips. Instead, power infrastructure, electrical equipment, and processing capacity become the dominant constraints.   July 26, 2026.