A seasoned hedge fund manager with experience at Soros' Quantum Fund asserts that the genuine ten-year investment opportunity lies not in AI chips, but in the foundational materials powering the global electrification transition: copper, aluminum, cables, and uranium.

Renaud Saleur, Founder and CEO of Geneva-based Anaconda Invest, which manages $110 million, stated that structural growth in global electricity demand will deliver sustained double-digit returns over the next decade. He forecasts that global electricity consumption will increase by approximately 18,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) from the current level of about 20,000 TWh by 2035-2040. This massive surge in demand is expected to drive large-scale investment in copper, aluminum, cabling, and nuclear energy.

Saleur's Vulcain Global Volta Electron for AI Fund, launched in February 2025, has already gained nearly 50%. The fund allocates 40% of its assets to commodities and 60% to equities. He clarified that AI data centers will account for only about 1,000 TWh of this new electricity demand, and are not the primary driver. The main investment theme, he emphasized, is in the physical assets underpinning the entire electrification infrastructure.

**Electrification Demand Drives Copper Cable Investment**

Saleur's core thesis is built on a structural disparity in global energy consumption.

He pointed out that India's per capita annual energy consumption is equivalent to just 1.7 to 2 barrels of oil, compared to 24 barrels per person in the United States. As India's population is expected to double by 2040, its energy demand is projected to rise significantly in tandem.

To meet the new power transmission requirements, Saleur estimates the world will need an additional 100 million kilometers of cable, equivalent to twice the global annual consumption of copper. Based on this, he is heavily invested in base metals like copper and aluminum, as well as mining companies involved in cable production and leading European cable manufacturers, including France's Nexans, Italy's Prysmian, and Denmark's NKT.

**Uranium Price Could Reach $200 by End-2027**

Nuclear energy is another major focus for Anaconda.

Saleur holds positions in uranium as a commodity itself and in related mining companies, but cautions investors to be patient. He cited the historical precedent of the 1973 oil crisis—when uranium was just $4 per pound, rising to $77 by 1997—to illustrate the long-cycle logic behind uranium price appreciation.

Saleur anticipates the uranium price will rise from the current level of about $85 per pound to $200 by the end of 2027, citing an annual global supply deficit of approximately 30,000 tonnes.

He also noted that even before the current geopolitical tensions, there were already plans to increase the global number of nuclear reactors by 50% by 2040, and he believes the actual increase will far exceed this expectation.

"Uranium will be a beneficiary regardless of Trump's policy direction," he said. "However, both uranium mining and reactor construction require cycles of over ten years, making a rapid supply response difficult in the short term."

**Oil Services Sector Favored Over Crude Itself**

In the oil and gas sector, Saleur believes market expectations for oil prices are overly pessimistic. He revealed that Anaconda purchased Brent crude futures for December 2026 and December 2027 at the start of the year. On a continuous contract basis, Brent crude has risen 73% year-to-date.

He argues that insufficient exploration by major oil companies and continuously declining reserves will lead to tighter crude supplies. However, he favors the oil services sector over crude oil itself. His Vulcain Long-Short Oil and Gas Fund, launched in January 2022, has gained nearly 110%, with 80% of its positions concentrated in oil services companies, including Borr Drilling and Transocean. He stated that post-war reconstruction in the Middle East and the need to maintain or increase production capacity will provide ongoing business growth for oil services firms.

Regarding the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, Saleur expects that even if conflict ceases, it would take at least six to seven months for shipping traffic to normalize.

His scenario analysis for oil prices is as follows: if the conflict ended today, Brent would trade between $80 and $90 by year-end; if the conflict persists, prices would remain in the $90 to $100 range long-term.

**AI Investment Focuses on 'Bricks and Mortar' Over Chips**

While Saleur does not deny the long-term impact of AI, his investment strategy in the sector differs markedly from the mainstream.

He prefers to avoid highly-valued chip stocks, instead positioning in physical companies that provide cooling and infrastructure services for data centers.

He specifically mentioned Sweden's Munters (deriving about 30% of revenue from data centers), Italy's Carel, the US's Carrier, and Japan's Daikin Industries, believing these companies will directly benefit from the data center expansion wave while offering relatively reasonable valuations.