Anglo American CEO: Tech Giants in Talks to Take Stakes to Secure Metal Supply
nashnova research
Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad revealed that several tech companies are in discussions to acquire stakes in mining firms, aiming to lock in long-term supplies of copper, aluminium and other critical metals — a sign the tech industry's resource race is escalating from buying commodities to buying equity.
Why do tech companies want equity in miners?
Speaking at the FT Mining Summit, Wanblad confirmed the talks are "genuinely taking place."
The tech companies' logic is direct: secure long-term offtake agreements, or take a stake to guarantee future supply.
This means → Contracts alone no longer feel safe enough. What tech firms want is control over the mine end, not just a buyer-seller relationship.
Wanblad attributed the trend to metal scarcity: "A lot of people are looking for ways to lock in supply."
What are these metals used for?
Copper, aluminium, steel and various rare-earth metals go into both hardware manufacturing and the data centres that power AI workloads.
In plain terms = from server racks to cabling to cooling systems, a data centre is a massive metal-hungry structure.
As the global scramble for resources intensifies, tech firms are paying closer attention to supply-chain traceability — tracking raw materials from mine to factory — and resilience.
What did BHP and Amazon say?
BHP CFO Vandita Pant confirmed the company is "definitely in conversations with hyperscalers" — the operators of giant data centres such as Amazon and Microsoft.
BHP is working with Amazon to help it source low-carbon copper, but Pant stressed that equity investment is "a different level of discussion."
This means → Miners are willing to sell metal and partner on decarbonisation, but letting tech firms onto the share register is a step they haven't taken yet.
Amazon has already signed a deal this year with Rio Tinto's Nuton joint venture to procure copper for its US data centres.
Is uranium on the radar too?
Cameco VP of investor relations Cory Kos disclosed that Amazon, Microsoft and others are considering buying physical uranium to fuel next-generation nuclear reactors powering data centres.
Kos said "there are a few term sheets floating around, nobody has completed a purchase," but "household-name companies" are moving forward.
This reflects a widening of Big Tech's resource anxiety — from metals that build things to fuel that generates electricity.
From buying commodities to buying equity — what does it mean?
The willingness of tech giants to move from offtake agreements toward direct shareholdings signals an escalation in their supply-chain control ambitions.
Put simply = before, it was "I'll sign a long-term contract and guarantee I buy your output." Now the pitch is "I'll become your shareholder, so supply flows to me first."
Wanblad was clear, however: no equity deal has been struck yet — everything remains at the discussion stage.
Whether this trend produces actual equity transactions will be a key test of how deeply mining and tech converge.
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