Artificial intelligence may be revolutionizing the economy, but in 2025, it's being outshined by something far older—gold.
As Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) continues to ride the AI wave, up 104% year to date, it's being outpaced by an unlikely rival: a gold miner.
Newmont Corp. (NYSE:NEM), the world's largest gold producer and the only gold miner in the S&P 500 Index, is up 105% year to date.
The stock is the second-best performer in the index and now stands as a symbol of gold's comeback. The yellow metal is up over 38% year-to-date, on track for its best performing year since 1978.
Chart: Newmont Corp. Is Outperforming AI-Darling Palantir In 2025
Value Over Hype?
At the heart of this story is not just performance, but valuation.
Newmont trades at a next-12-month price-to-earnings ratio of just 15x, while Palantir's forward P/E sits at a sky-high 212x. For investors looking at growth without nosebleed multiples, the value case for gold—and Newmont—is suddenly compelling.
Investors are increasingly buying into the bullish case for gold miners.
The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) brought in $531 million in net inflows in August alone—its highest since November 2023. And last week, gold-linked ETFs saw $3.9 billion in inflows, the largest since April.
“Gold miners are on fire,” said The Kobeissi Letter in a Sept. 7 post, pointing out that GDX has rallied 95% in 2025, nearly tripling the performance of the gold spot price itself.
Jeff Jacobson, analyst at 22V Research, said their long-running commodity trade had “another good week” as gold, silver and copper miners hit new 52-week highs.
"None of these trades show any signs of slowing down their upside momentum," Jacobson said, citing softer U.S. data and the Friday jobs report as key catalysts for the dollar's decline.
The U.S. dollar index (DXY) is now sitting right on its 15-year uptrend support and looks poised to break lower—a move that would further lift gold and other commodities.
According to Tavi Costa, partner and portfolio manager at Crescat Capital, the gold miners ETF has now hit record levels in assets under management. But Costa believes this could still be early innings.
"Even though precious metals mining stocks have performed well over the past year, their performance relative to gold suggests we could still be early in the move," he said, noting that the gold miners-to-gold ratio remains nearly 60% below its 2011 highs.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see those levels re-tested—and probably go well beyond them as this cycle plays out," Costa said. "This is just my perspective, but for mining investors, I believe this setup is extremely compelling."
Bottom Line
Artificial intelligence may be shaping the future—but in 2025, gold is owning the present.
As political risks mount and confidence in institutions wavers, investors are making a powerful statement: value, hard assets, and real-world scarcity still matter. And if this gold cycle is just getting started, miners like Newmont may have a lot more room to run.
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