Gold used in electronics held flat at 323 tonnes in 2025 even as AI chip demand surged, the World Gold Council says. Manufacturers cutting gold from less critical components offset the new demand from advanced chips and data-centre gear.
At a glance
- Technology-sector gold demand held at 323 tonnes in 2025, almost unchanged from 326 tonnes in 2024, despite the AI chip boom, the World Gold Council reported.
- Electronics account for roughly 80% of gold's industrial use, spanning advanced chips, connectors, sensors and communications equipment prized for conductivity.
- Manufacturers are shrinking gold content in cheaper devices even as AI chips and data-centre equipment use more, a tug-of-war the Council calls evenly matched.
Background
Technology is a small slice of total gold demand next to jewellery and investment, but it is a genuine, price-sensitive market of its own. Electronics makers use gold for its electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance and ability to form ultra-thin wires and coatings inside chips, connectors and sensors. High gold prices have long pushed manufacturers to use less of it wherever reliability allows, a cost-cutting process the industry calls thrifting.
What happened
Gold demand from the technology sector held at 323 tonnes in 2025, essentially unchanged from 326 tonnes in 2024, the World Gold Council said this week. That is despite a boom in artificial intelligence chip production and record spending on data-centre hardware over the same period.
Electronics account for roughly 80% of gold's industrial applications, the Council said, covering advanced chips, connectors, sensors and communications equipment. Gold is used in these parts because it conducts electricity reliably, resists corrosion and can be drawn into extremely thin wires and coatings that cheaper metals cannot match.
Why it happened
Two forces are pulling gold demand in technology in opposite directions, and the Council describes them as evenly matched right now. Record gold prices have pushed manufacturers to keep shrinking the amount of gold in components wherever reliability allows. This cost-cutting process, known as thrifting, has run for years across consumer electronics.
At the same time, rising AI chip and data-centre equipment production is adding new demand, since the most advanced and safety-critical chips still need gold's conductivity and durability. The two trends have offset each other almost exactly, leaving overall technology tonnage flat even as the underlying chip market expands rapidly.
What it means
The Council pointed to co-packaged optics as a possible new source of gold demand. The technology uses light rather than electrical wiring to move data inside chips, and NVIDIA and other AI hardware makers are investing in it for high-performance computing.
For now, the Council expects gold to stay essential in the most advanced chips and safety-critical equipment, even as simpler devices keep cutting gold content further. That leaves technology as a steady but not fast-growing slice of total gold demand, unlike the jewellery and central-bank buying driving most of this year's price moves.
Our read
Outlook: neutral. Technology is a small, essentially flat share of total gold demand, so this data point neither adds to nor detracts from the price outlook, which remains driven by central-bank buying and investment flows.
What to watch
- Whether co-packaged optics gains real adoption in AI hardware, which could open a new source of gold demand in chips.
- The World Gold Council's next Gold Demand Trends report, for signs technology demand is moving off its recent flat trend.
- Further thrifting in consumer electronics, where manufacturers have the most room left to cut gold content as prices stay high.
For information only, not investment advice.
Gold price in India
metalscost.com India reference price as of 2026-10-03.
Detailed analysis
Timeline
- 2025-12-31: Full-year 2025 technology-sector gold demand comes in at 323 tonnes, against 326 tonnes in 2024.
- 2026-09-24: The World Gold Council publishes its findings on gold demand in AI-era electronics.
Technical view
Price is trading below both its 20-period and 50-period moving averages, a bearish alignment.
Computed from metalscost.com's own stored price history.
