Good morning GoldBuzzers, and welcome to a record-breaking Thursday!

Well, we did it! The spot Gold price blasted through the $4,000 barrier for the first time in history yesterday. Silver is also nudging up closer to the psychological $50 barrier. When we eventually hit that level, the previous all-time high of January 17, 1980 will finally be broken.

With so many of your emails concentrating on silver at the moment, in today’s Real Talk, I’m going to examine why this particular silver bull market is unlike any other in history.

Let’s dive in.

Gold blasted past $4,050 per ounce on Wednesday before falling back, notching another all-time high as economic chaos and a dovish Fed sent investors scrambling for safety.

The government shutdown hit week two with Congress still deadlocked, threatening mass public sector layoffs and blocking official economic data releases. Private indicators filled the void - and they're ugly. ADP showed back-to-back payroll contractions while ISM surveys flashed red with contractionary job numbers.

The Fed's response? More rate cuts incoming. FOMC minutes revealed policymakers are ready to keep slashing rates due to labor market weakness. But there's a twist - they're simultaneously worried about sticky inflation. That's a stagflation setup, and it's rocket fuel for gold. Investors are dumping dollar assets, and precious metals are catching the flow.

China's making moves too. Beijing just launched custodian services for foreign investors wanting gold exposure, a calculated play to capture fleeing capital and reshape global gold markets. With fundamentals screaming bullish and technicals in breakout mode, this rally has legs.

Chart Watch: Next stop? The psychological $4,100 level is in sight and Silver’s eyeing $50.

After finally breaking $4,000, Gold is rightfully making all the headlines, but behind the scenes, many of you are emailing to say that you’re taking a much closer look at Silver.

While gold has flexed its way to record highs, silver isn’t far behind, having posted an astonishing 66% gain year-to-date in 2025, hitting $48 per ounce and eclipsing even Gold’s 55% YTD gain.

In comparison with the stock market, Silver has more than quadrupled the S&P 500's 14% gain this year.

But if you think that means that Silver is now overvalued compared with the S&P, take a look at this chart which shows the ratio of Silver divided by the S&P for the past quarter century. You can see that this year’s tremendous outperformance of Silver comes after a very lengthy basing period.

Just to get back to the same levels as 2011, at the peak of the last precious metals bull cycle, Silver’s ratio to the S&P would have to increase more than 5 times it’s current levels, and there’s good reason to believe that this bull market (which in my opinion started in Spring 2024) will eventually run much further.

The Industrial Advantage

Silver isn't just a safe-haven asset anymore, but here’s the key that makes this Silver bull market different than any other in history.

And that, my friends, is what really changes things.

AI data centers require 2-3 times more silver than traditional facilities. With global data center power demand forecast to rise 165% by 2030, that's not a small detail. These facilities need silver for advanced circuitry, power distribution, and thermal control.

The electronics industry already consumes about 250 million ounces annually.

Then there's solar. In 2023, photovoltaics consumed 142 million ounces of silver. That's 13.8% of total silver usage worldwide, up from nearly 5% in 2014.

The solar industry's share of global silver has almost tripled in the past decade.

Demand from solar panel manufacturers is projected to increase by almost 170% by 2030, potentially reaching 273 million ounces. One-fifth of total silver demand could come from solar alone.

And silver use per solar panel is now growing by a factor of more than two.

The Supply Problem

Gold mines can scale production. Silver can't.

Nearly 70% of silver comes as a by-product of mining other metals. You can't just dig more when demand spikes. Mining output was about 836 million ounces in 2023, growing at less than 1.5% per year.

Meanwhile, 2025 marks the fifth consecutive year of a market deficit. The shortfall is estimated at 149 million ounces this year alone, with total deficits reaching 678 million ounces since 2021.

Industrial demand now represents 59% of total consumption, up from 50% just a decade ago.

That's a structural bottleneck meeting exponential demand growth.

COMEX silver stocks have fallen 70% since 2020. ETFs keep removing supply from the market.

The electronics and electrical sector alone consumed 445.1 million ounces in 2023, a 20% year-over-year increase. AI applications require specialized semiconductors, high-performance computing infrastructure, and massive data centers. All silver-intensive technologies.

Even minor demand shifts could trigger sharp price spikes in this environment.

What Happens Next

Gold broke out to new highs in August 2020 after years of consolidation. Silver hasn't made that move yet, despite outperforming gold this year.

The gold-to-silver ratio sits near 83:1 today. During strong silver bull markets, ratios closer to 60:1 are historically common.

In 2011, at the peak of the last bull market, the ratio neared 30:1. If history repeats, silver might still be undervalued relative to gold by nearly 3 times.

With Gold now at $4,000, many new buyers are asking themselves whether they’d rather have 1 ounce of gold, or 83 ounces of silver.

The question isn't whether silver will continue rising. It's whether its industrial utility fundamentally changes how we value it against gold.

Market analysts project the AI economy will contribute $15.7 trillion globally by 2030. Every dollar of that growth requires silver.

When AI server farms and solar panels consume more silver than investors can stockpile, the metal stops being just a hedge. It becomes infrastructure.

And that’s why this bull market is different than any other.

A quick roundup of stories you might have missed:

Florida treasure hunters just struck it rich with over 1,000 gold and silver coins worth $1 million from a 1715 Spanish shipwreck proving that sometimes the real treasure is in your backyard (or ocean). ABC News

Archaeologists unearthed hundreds of ancient Celtic gold and silver coins at a "secret" site in the Czech Republic, making metal detector enthusiasts everywhere wonder what's buried in their own backyards. Fox News

Gold smashed through $4,000 for the first time ever as the US government shutdown dragged on, proving that political dysfunction remains one of precious metals' best friends. MarketPulse

Silver's having its moment with a 40-60% surge this year as solar panels and EVs gobble up supply faster than miners can dig it out, creating the kind of supply squeeze that makes investors giddy. FinancialContent

Central banks are back to hoarding gold after a brief summer pause, with Poland leading the charge by stacking another 67 tonnes this year. World Gold Council

Five gold mining companies are racing to expand operations as Goldman Sachs calls gold "one of the most optimal hedges" with margins this fat at $4,000 gold, even the laziest mines are printing money. Yahoo Finance

Gold miners are quietly crushing the AI chip rally this year, because while everyone's obsessing over Nvidia, boring old rock diggers are actually delivering better returns. 24/7 Wall St.

That’s a wrap for this Thursday, GoldBuzzers!

Before you go, please take a moment to rate today’s newsletter and tell us how we did.

Rick Adams
Founder, GoldBuzz
rick@goldbuzz.com