Global technology-sector gold demand stayed flat at 323 tonnes in 2025 despite surging AI chip sales, as miniaturisation and design changes to reduce or remove gold offset new AI-related uses, the World Gold Council reports. Gold traded around US$4,270/oz on Friday, roughly 14% higher year-on-year, keeping cost pressure on manufacturers that are redesigning connectors and contacts. Co-packaged optics (CPO) for hyperscale AI data centres, backed by Nvidia and other chipmakers, could become a meaningful new source of demand because lasers and high‑frequency electrodes in CPO packages still rely on gold’s durability and conductivity.

Carbon capture in cement production is being pushed as a near‑term route to cut emissions from a material responsible for up to 8% of global CO₂ output, with technologies such as post‑combustion capture on kiln exhausts and oxy‑fuel firing now moving from pilots to early commercial schemes. Current projects focus on retrofitting existing clinker lines, integrating amine‑based capture units and planning CO₂ transport to geological storage or utilisation plants. For designers and contractors, this raises immediate questions on specifying low‑embodied‑carbon concretes, verifying EPD data, and managing supply risk as capture retrofits disrupt plant operations.

IperionX has validated continuous operation of its GenX hydrogen magnesiothermic reduction (HAMR) titanium furnace at its Virginia R&D facility, achieving a sixfold increase in throughput and a 75% cut in energy intensity versus its previous batch process. The commercial-scale system processed over 500 kg of recycled titanium powder in four continuous runs over 41 hours at roughly 12 kg/h, with all samples meeting oxygen specifications and showing substantially lower magnesium, hydrogen and power consumption at steady state. A second US Army SBIR contract allows project-specific defence orders up to a collective US$99 million, supporting scale-up of domestic titanium powder-to-part capacity in a market that currently has no US titanium sponge production despite aerospace demand above 31,000 t/y.