On July 31, I wrote that silver, far off the all-time high it set in January of this year, was a great bargain. The white metal soared in 2025 from about $30 an ounce at the beginning of the year to a record $115 an ounce 13 months later.
The rapid price increase was largely due to the massive investment by cloud computing firms in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Silver is a critical input to those facilities due to its high conductivity, corrosion resistance, and stability.
And while demand for silver was scaling higher, supply has remained constrained, as silver mining output growth has been sluggish for years.
Silver became overbought in 2025
Of course, as often happens, investor enthusiasm for silver was overdone. Also, skepticism about the potential returns of AI data centers crept into the market in recent months, sending the prices of critical commodities like silver and copper lower, as well as the stocks of companies that provide other essential inputs for data centers, such as memory chipmakers and construction equipment manufacturers.
Image source: Getty Images.
But the sell-off also became overdone, with silver falling to around $56, half its January peak.
In August, silver began to rebound from a recent low of around $56 an ounce to more than $64 an ounce this week. That’s a gain of 8% in little more than a week.
I believe silver will continue to head higher in the coming months because the AI data center build-out will only grow. McKinsey estimates that global spending on data centers could reach a stunning $7 trillion by 2030. And despite recent reservations among investors and resulting price movement in related stocks, major data center hyperscalers, including Meta Platforms, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft, appear to be forging ahead with their spending plans.
Investors are now coming around to this reality, sending the stocks of silver producers like First Majestic Silver (AG +0.58%), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM +0.77%), and Pan American Silver (PAAS -0.02%) sharply higher in August.
Today’s Change
(0.77%) $1.02
Current Price
$134.41
Key Data Points
Market Cap
Day’s Range
$132.86 – $135.15
52wk Range
$90.94 – $165.76
Volume
1.4M
Avg Vol
2M
Gross Margin
75.21%
Dividend Yield
0.54%
I like all of those stocks and Wheaton Precious Metals in particular. The Vancouver-based metals producer reported second-quarter results last week, and they were stellar. Earnings nearly doubled from the same period a year ago, and revenue jumped 85%. Some of that is due to gold prices, as the company gets about half of its revenue from gold. That metal has also climbed higher in August.
A good way to invest directly in physical silver is through the iShares Silver Trust (SLV -1.45%). It owns silver bars stored in bank vaults in London and New York. The exchange-traded fund (ETF) is up 7% over the past month.