Summary: Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad confirmed on October 15, 2026 that the mining group is in active talks with tech companies that want to secure AI-era metal supply through long-term offtake agreements or equity stakes. No deal has closed yet, but the confirmation signals a shift: AI infrastructure builders are moving beyond power and chips to raw materials. For anyone planning data center capacity, the input supply chain is now a board-level variable.
What was actually said
Speaking at the Financial Times Metals and Mining Summit, Wanblad said discussions with tech companies “are indeed ongoing,” and framed the buyers’ logic as a choice: can they lock in a long-term offtake — a pre-committed purchase of a mine’s output over years — or should they take equity to guarantee a share of future supply. Per the supplied TechOrange report citing Miningmx, no company has yet taken such a stake, though Wanblad said there is “strong interest” from firms that may try.
He also offered a caveat worth taking seriously: once companies understand what mining actually looks like — capital intensive, deeply cyclical — they tend to find it very different from the businesses they know. Equity in a copper mine is not equity in a software company.
Why metals entered the AI bottleneck list
Data centers and the hardware inside them consume large amounts of copper, aluminum, steel, and rare earth metals. As the global competition for resources intensifies, mining executives say tech companies increasingly want visibility into where those metals come from.
This is the same pattern playing out in power. I’ve covered related moves before, like the ratepayer pledge requiring AI data centers to bring their own power — the common thread is that AI builders are being pushed to own more of their input chain rather than assume markets will supply it.
Moves that already happened
Several concrete transactions frame the Anglo American talks:
- Apple signed a $500 million deal with MP Materials in July 2025 for rare earth magnets, reducing reliance on China’s dominant supply position.
- Amazon agreed this year to buy copper for its US data centers from Rio Tinto’s Nuton business, sourced from Gunnison Copper’s Johnson Camp mine in Arizona, using bioleaching — microbes that extract copper from ore.
- Cameco’s investor relations VP Cory Kos told the FT in September that Amazon and Microsoft are seeking physical uranium for next-generation nuclear reactors, with term sheets issued but no purchases closed yet.
- BHP CFO Vandita Pant, at the same FT summit, confirmed the company is in contact with hyperscalers and is working with Amazon on lower-carbon copper, though she called equity investment “a different matter.”
What builders should take from this
The offtake-versus-equity question is essentially a make-or-buy decision for supply security. Offtake agreements are lighter-weight and closer to a normal procurement contract. Equity is heavier — it ties a buyer to a cyclical, capital-hungry industry and invites exactly the management distraction Wanblad warned about.
There’s also regulatory risk baked into mining consolidation itself: Anglo American’s $50 billion merger with Teck Resources still awaits Chinese approval, and the sale of its Brazilian nickel business to MMG needs EU clearance. If the EU blocks it, Wanblad said the company would likely shut the Brazilian nickel operations rather than keep them.
The practical takeaway: if your roadmap depends on physical AI infrastructure at scale, metals procurement timelines now belong in your risk model alongside GPU allocation and grid connections. Nobody has bought a miner’s equity yet — but the option is on the table, and that alone tells you how tight the supply picture looks from the inside.