AI boom boosts global gold demand amid slump in jewellery sale, ETFs

Wed May 01 2024

The demand for high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) chips and infrastructure drove the gold demand growth globally, amid a price rally that plunged the yellow metal’s appeal in jewellery and investments.

The demand from the electronics industry grew 13%, driven by AI-related applications, while overall gold demand declined 5% (excluding over the counter trade) in the January to March 2024, according to the world gold council (WGC) report released on Tuesday.

The Jewellery sales witnessed 2% drop and investments declining 28%. India is an outlier with demand for gold in the January to March period increasing 8%. Jewellery demand in India increased by 4% and Investment demand increased by 19% in comparison, according to WGC.

Sachin Jain, regional CEO, India, WGC told TOI that the demand from the technology sector, especially the electronics sector is growing significantly in the past few years, primarily driven by AI-related microchip production

He expects further growth in this area.  Approximately half of demand comes from microchips, and rest coming from smartphones, lights and others in the electronics, he added.  “Earnings of major memory manufacturers such as Samsung are likely to be fuelled by this ‘AI-driven memory upturn cycle’ as chip prices rebound over the coming two years,” world gold council said. We also published the following articles recently

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Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/