Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed the way modern societies operate, from healthcare delivery and engineering innovation to architectural design, military intelligence, creative writing, finance, communication, and countless other sectors. It is rapidly becoming the foundation of global competitiveness and national development.

However, the true backbone of AI lies in two strategic pillars: data centers and energy. Data centers provide the computational power needed for AI training, storage, and deployment, while stable and affordable energy sustains these massive systems. Without these two elements, AI cannot function at scale. They are the vital lubricants that keep the entire ecosystem running.

At the heart of these technologies are critical minerals. Without key minerals used to manufacture semiconductors, microchips, batteries, smartphones, electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels, and display systems, modern technology simply cannot exist. These minerals, such as copper, cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements (REEs), tantalum, tin, nickel, graphite, gold, and platinum group metals, are indispensable in building everything from semiconductors’chips to the batteries that power data centers and renewable energy systems.

Africa is one of the richest sources of these minerals globally, and Nigeria hosts many of them in commercially viable quantities. As the world races toward AI-driven economies, electric mobility, and renewable energy transitions, these minerals are becoming more valuable than oil.

Today, AI, EVs, and advanced batteries are among the world’s hottest and most sought-after technological commodities. But the global supply chain depends entirely on two things:One, data centers and energy, without which AI cannot operate. Two, critical minerals , without which data centers, energy systems, and AI hardware cannot be built.

This is where Nigeria and Africa hold a strategic advantage. The continent possesses what the world desperately needs for the next industrial revolution.

The challenge and opportunity now lie with African leadership: to recognize, harness, and strategically leverage these critical minerals to drive economic transformation, negotiate better global partnerships, and position Africa as an indispensable player in the AI and clean-energy future.

Zayyad I. Muhammad, Abuja