Increased demand for copper to build data centres has delivered a huge boost to first-half profits at Rio Tinto. The growth of AI has seen seen miners increasingly focus on production of the red metal. Rival Glencore, which walked away from merger talks with Rio Tinto earlier this year, today said it had increased copper production by 15 per cent in the six months to the end of March. He said that the miner had delivered a 'step-change in performance' in the first half of the year, helped by higher commodity prices, increased copper output and productivity gains. Rio Tinto said the average realised copper price rose 35 per cent to $5.91, with production rising one per cent to 442,000 tonnes.