Silver jumped 7 percent on Monday to its highest price since March, drawing a surge of bullish options activity from traders who see the metal as a play on growing demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to CNBC.
Copper also rose, adding 3.3 percent to reach $6.50 per pound, a new record. Both metals are used for their thermal conductivity and electrical wiring in data centers, the physical backbone of AI computing. But silver appeared to attract more retail interest on Monday, based on trading volume.
Options activity in the iShares Silver ETF, ticker SLV, reflected that interest sharply. More than twice as many calls traded as puts on Monday. More than 90,000 calls were bought compared to just 31,000 puts, with overall positioning leaning bullish by a wide margin.
At least one trader made a large and structured bet on further gains. That trader sold more than 1,000 put contracts at the 70-strike price expiring June 18 for $259,000, then used those proceeds to help fund a purchase of more than 1,900 call contracts at the 80-strike expiring the same date. The total exposure on the trade exceeded one million dollars. The position would pay off if SLV rallies about 11 percent over the next five and a half weeks.
Silver's move Monday comes after a period of underperformance relative to semiconductors and other AI-linked assets. The iShares Silver ETF had surged more than 300 percent from the start of 2025 through its peak in January, but lost ground to the semiconductor rally that dominated markets through much of this year. Precious metals broadly struggled as interest rates fluctuated and commodity traders focused more attention on crude oil volatility.
The renewed interest in silver reflects a broader search among traders for assets that have not yet caught up to the current AI-driven rally in stocks. Semiconductors, AI-related exchange-traded funds, and the so-called Magnificent 7 technology stocks have all logged strong gains in recent weeks. Some traders appear to be looking at silver as the next leg of that trade, given its industrial applications in the same data centers powering AI demand.
Copper's record-setting move adds context to the silver rally. Both metals sit at the intersection of industrial use and speculative interest, and Monday's price action suggests traders are paying closer attention to that combination than they have in several months.
