Data centers have insatiable appetite for energy and mined materials…From training the latest artificial intelligence models to streaming the next blockbuster movie, data centers are growing so fast they already consume more electricity than some nations – and their appetite for critical minerals is just as staggering…The mineral demands begin with the data center itself…However, it is the energy demands of these digital fortresses – and the technologies used to feed them – that multiply their mineral footprint many times over…Data center installations have exploded in recent years, and this expansion continues at a parabolic rate. The computing capacity of these digital processing and storage hubs has tripled over the past decade and is expected to expand by another threefold over the next five years…The multi-trillion-dollar opportunities on the not-too-distant AI horizon, however, come with significant challenges – from sourcing the minerals needed to build data centers to generating enough electricity to power them…Data center metals…Bismuth – Low-temperature solder for connecting sensitive electronics; China's export restrictions have left Apple, Amazon, Google, and Nvidia with limited options for supply…Power-hungry AI…According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), a single hyperscale data center consumes as much electricity each year as 350,000 to 400,000 electric vehicles. The agency forecasts that global data centers will consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity per year by 2030, which is more than is currently being consumed by the entire nation of Japan…The need for more electricity equates to rising demand for critical minerals. How this energy is generated will determine how much and which minerals are needed…Renewable Energy…Grid-scale energy storage is driving demand for vanadium, lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and manganese for batteries to balance intermittent supply…Nuclear… Cobalt- and nickel-based specialty alloys for reactor components…As one works their way down the USGS mineral reliance list, the U.S. depends on foreign nations for 89% of its bismuth, 85% of its platinum, 80% of its rare earths, 76% of its cobalt, 73% of its tin, 73% of its zinc, 64% of its silver, and more than half of its germanium and lithium…"Our lack of mineral security is our nation's Achilles' heel – a vulnerability that leaves us at the mercy of politically unstable and often adversarial nations for the basic building blocks of modern society," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)…China, which is the world's top supplier of 30 of the 50 minerals critical to the U.S., has restricted or banned the exports of more than a dozen minerals essential to building and powering data centers. This list includes seven rare earth elements, gallium, germanium, graphite, bismuth, indium, and tellurium.