Fundamentally, gold is money, but it does have other practical uses, contrary to what some ignorant commentators might tell you.
Gold demand in the tech and industrial sectors was generally flat at 222.8 tonnes in 2025. This was down about 1.5 percent from 226.2 tonnes the previous year.
The vast majority of industrial gold demand comes from its use in electronics. Gold has excellent electrical conductivity, and unlike silver, it doesn’t corrode. It is also malleable, making it excellent for tiny, precise connections.
In 2025, 270.4 tonnes of gold were used in the electronics sector. That was virtually unchanged from 2024.
AI is rapidly changing the world of computing, and it is also disrupting the broader electronics sector. According to the World Gold Council, high-speed computing accelerated the use of bonding wire and contact and interconnect materials, supporting gold demand. However, on the other side of the coin, the AI boom has generated “some tension and divergence with other parts of the electronics sector” as manufacturing capacity has been redirected to meet AI-related demand.
World Gold Council analysts say this has crowded out the manufacturing of some electronic components, driving up prices.
“This contributed to volatility in the consumer electronics space, which faced a slow recovery and tariff uncertainties early in 2025, and availability issues and rapidly rising component prices in the latter half of the year. This scenario may also impact demand into 2026.”
For instance, while smartphone shipments increased by 2 percent last year, sales are expected to fall this year due to memory shortages and rising prices.
From a regional perspective, gold demand for electronics was solid in East Asia, supported by a strong AI supply chain and localization strategies. However, fabrication in Western markets declined, creating headwinds for the overall market.
The use of gold in wireless applications grew in Q4, driven by a resurgence in orders for power amplifiers and Wi-Fi chips. Meanwhile, the light-emitting diode (LED) sector charted a modest decline in Q4 gold volumes as traditional mass-market applications, including general lighting and standard displays, remained weak.
There were some emerging areas of gold demand in the electronics sector last year, including aggressive deployment of compound semiconductor technologies across AI, aerospace, electric and hybrid vehicle systems, and sensing technologies in wearables and smartphones. According to the World Gold Council, “This shift, which signals the start of a new technology-driven growth phase for the wireless industry, should provide greater resilience against fluctuations in the traditional consumer electronics market moving forward.”
There was also a surge in gold demand from the Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEOS) communication sector to be incorporated into High Density Interconnect (HDI) boards.
Higher prices are expected to create headwinds for gold in tech moving forward. According to the WGC, “The rising gold price continues to pressure component manufacturers; fieldwork suggests increased R&D into thrifting and substitution of gold across all sectors.”
Demand for gold in other industrial applications and dentistry fell by 7 percent year-on-year in Q4. Demand for plating salts in China dropped sharply due to the sluggish domestic economy and retail store closures that undermined demand for gold-plated products.
Gold used in the dental sector also fell by 6 percent year-on-year in Q4 as alternative materials continued to dominate the market.
The use of gold in tech and industry contributed to a record year in 2025, with total gold demand exceeding 5,000 tonnes for the first time.
Far from "Useless"
Warren Buffett once said, “Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again, and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”
I even once heard a commentator on a major financial network claim gold is a "useless rock."
As you can see by the substantial demand for gold in technology and electronics, this is just silly.
In fact, gold is one of the most useful metals in the world. Due to its utility, coupled with its scarcity, gold is also one of the most valuable metals in the world.
In the first place, gold is strikingly beautiful. It has captured people's eyes for thousands of years. That’s why people all over the world love to wear gold. About 44 percent of gold demand is for jewelry production. About 1,550 tons of gold were used in jewelry fabrication last year.
But gold isn’t just pretty. As already mentioned, the metal’s inherent physical and chemical properties make it useful in many industrial and technological applications.
This is why we see gold increasingly used in the tech sector. In fact, gold would probably be used even more if it weren’t so rare and expensive.
Gold is also important in the medical field. Its inherent stability and unique optical properties make it perfect for use in diagnostic testing. The World Gold Council said that gold is “at the heart of the hundreds of millions of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) that are used globally every year."
“This well-established and critically important technology has changed the face of disease diagnosis in the developing world over the last decade.”
Gold nanoparticles are used in testing for malaria, HIV, hepatitis, and other illnesses.
Gold has even been used in some exotic applications. In 2018, a team of Chinese researchers partially restored the sight of blind mice by replacing their deteriorated photoreceptors – sensory structures inside the eye that respond to light – with nanowires made of gold and titanium.
The point is that gold is far from useless.
But fundamentally, gold is money. And everybody wants to have money -- especially real money.
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
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