# Physical Assets Revival Financial assets became imaginary just as real assets became real. Markets no longer mirror the world—they project belief. [[Gold Investment Thesis|Gold]] gleams not because it changed, but because faith in fiat did. [[Bitcoin]], born of distrust, now functions as monetary mirror image of sovereign debt: finite, transparent, immune to decree. Meanwhile, things that actually keep civilization running—energy, water, minerals, manufacturing—are getting harder to produce. ## The Great Inversion When everything becomes financialized, scarcity retreats from paper to physical world. You can print liquidity, not lithium (yet—stay tuned). The so-called intangible economy turns out to be anchored in very tangible foundations. ### AI's Physical Foundation AI boom, often cast as ethereal, is profoundly physical: - Data centers draw gigawatts - Copper wiring measured in thousands of tons - Cooling water in teraliters Future, for all its talk of intelligence, still runs on steel. In age of infinite code and finite copper, alpha in future may be returning to things we can touch, measure, and build upon. ## What's Getting Scarce Hard assets with structural supply constraints: - **Energy**: Natural gas, uranium, geothermal - **Metals**: Copper, lithium, rare earths, aluminum - **Water**: Fresh water for cooling, agriculture, industry - **Manufacturing capacity**: Chips, batteries, motors - **Infrastructure**: Ships, ports, rails, cables Related: [[Gold Investment Thesis]], [[Uranium Investment Thesis]], [[Aluminium 101]], [[Battery Materials]], [[Data Center MoC]], [[Alpha in Atoms - Reflection on the Physical Inversion]] ## Capital Flight to Physical As volatility rises, capital seeks physical refuge. Gold up 45% YTD in 2025, trading near $4,500/oz, outperforming major indices. In age of digital abundance, scarcity still shines (literally). Pattern: When trust in institutions erodes, investors flee to things that exist independent of promises, policies, or pronouncements. Related: [[Anti fragility]], [[Commodities]], [[Doctor Copper]] --- Tags: #deeptech #systems