China’s long role as an invisible stabilizer in the silver market is starting to break down. For years, whenever the West ran short of metal, flows from China quietly eased the strain. However, that era may be at risk of ending, and with it, the world may be moving into a prolonged phase of silver scarcity. The source of this pressure is the changing nature of demand. Silver has always been a workhorse of the electrical and electronics industries. In the past few years, AI data centers, high-end semiconductors, and solar power have all relied heavily on silver’s unparalleled electrical and thermal conductivity.