The New Gold Rush of the AI Era [Video Edition]

This article has been disseminated on behalf of ESGold Corp., and may include a paid advertisement.

NetworkNewsWire Editorial Coverage: Artificial intelligence (“AI”) runs on gold and silver, the same metals found in every chip, data center, and iPhone, yet global reserves and refining capacity are tightening faster than demand models can adjust. Silver is the irreplaceable conductor woven through photovoltaic cells and high-speed interconnects, while gold remains the corrosion-proof standard in connectors, bonding wire and high-reliability electronics. In 2024, technology demand for gold climbed to roughly 326 tonnes, up 7% year over year, which equates to about 10.5 million ounces consumed by industrial and electronic uses according to the World Gold Council. As that demand base widens with AI hardware scaling globally, ESGold Corp. (CSE: ESAU) (OTCQB: ESAUF) (Profile), enters the picture with a plan tailored to serve this deepening pull on gold and silver through a fully funded, fully permitted project designed for near-term cash flow and longer-term growth. The company joins an impressive group of both producer and user companies, including Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), that are playing key roles in the global chain that transforms mined metals into indispensable materials for modern technology and electrification.

Disclosure: This does not represent material news, partnerships, or investment advice.

• ESGold positions its flagship Montauban Gold-Silver Project to deliver near-term supply without multiyear permitting or financing overhangs.
• ESGold’s model inverts the traditional model by targeting early revenue from tailings reprocessing to self-fund exploration while cleaning up the environment.
• By concentrating on already mined, historical material, ESGold has stripped away layers of typical exploration risk, including uncertain discovery, extended timelines and capital drag, while preserving geological upside across the district.
• ESGold reports that advanced 3D geological modeling of the Montauban district is nearing completion, integrating geophysical and historical datasets to illuminate deeper targets and potential new discovery.
• Few preproduction companies can credibly claim to be fully permitted, fully funded and advancing on schedule; that scarcity is part of the ESGold argument.

AI Buildout Makes Metals the Bottleneck

As the data economy accelerates, the limiting factor is no longer software innovation but the physical supply of metals that make intelligence tangible. Goldman Sachs Research projects that global power demand from data centers will rise by as much as 165% by 2030 versus 2023, reflecting a rapid build-out of high-density, AI-optimized facilities.

That scale-up cascades into servers, switches and accelerators packed with gold-plated contacts and silver-rich solders, all components whose reliability depends on those metals’ unique properties. This is not a marginal change; it’s an infrastructure wave that elevates materials from background cost lines to front-page risks. In simple terms, when supply gets squeezed, manufacturing demand cannot pause, so tech companies will pay up and scramble to lock in materials.

The pressure is visible beyond forecasts. U.S. utilities have begun reworking growth plans around AI-driven load, while analysts warn that consumption from data centers will more than double globally by 2030. Even in the spot market, tightness has flared: In October 2025, Reuters reported a silver liquidity squeeze in London severe enough to justify air-freighting bars, with lease rates spiking as prices hit records before modestly easing. For manufacturers, these signals translate into procurement urgency, not optionality. When interconnects must be gold plated and solders mus