Tengyuan Cobalt chair Luo Jie said at a forum that AI industry competition goes
beyond compute power to include competition for critical minerals and high-end
materials, citing cobalt, nickel, lithium and copper as foundational to AI
deployment. She urged energy metals firms to increase R&D in high‑purity metals,
green low‑carbon smelting and recycling technologies to strengthen a
domestically controllable materials supply base for China’s AI industry.
