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Not an AI stock? Try the stuff behind the AI stock
Michael Burry is basically telling the market, “You all can have the shiny AI names — I’m buying the plumbing.” In a Monday Substack post, the investor said he’s “largely ignoring” the AI hype and disclosed a position in Ero Copper (ERO), a Brazil-focused miner that’s more about bolts, tubing, and busbars than chatbots and GPUs.
That matters because the AI buildout is turning into a very real materials story. Burry pointed to the idea that data centers can start creating copper demand within two to three years, while new mines can take roughly 18 years to get going. Translation: the market may be racing ahead faster than the supply chain can.
Why copper suddenly looks sexy
Copper isn’t glamorous. It doesn’t keynote a conference. It doesn’t get venture-capitalized into oblivion. But it is everywhere in the AI stack:
- high-density server racks use thick copper busbars
- liquid-cooling systems rely on copper tubing and heat exchangers
- giant data centers can require absurd amounts of the metal
J.P. Morgan estimates a single large AI data center can use up to 50,000 metric tons of copper, and data centers overall could consume about 475,000 metric tons in 2026. That’s the kind of number that makes miners sit up straight.
Ero’s own numbers aren’t shabby either
This wasn’t just a vibes trade. The article also highlighted Ero Copper’s second-quarter results, with revenue jumping to $284.3 million from $163.5 million a year earlier. Net income rose to $0.85 per diluted share from $0.68.
So while the headline is about Burry’s thesis, the stock gets a second tailwind from actual operating performance. The shares were up on Monday and still edged higher in premarket trading Tuesday, which is a pretty decent reception for a miner being cast as an indirect AI play.
Big picture
If AI is the party, copper is the extension cord, the wiring, and the thing keeping the lights on. Burry may be ignoring the hype cycle, but he’s clearly not ignoring the infrastructure trade hiding underneath it.