Platinum has been making waves in 2025, showing gains that are turning heads compared to gold. So far this year, platinum prices have jumped by around 37%, outpacing gold’s rise of about 29%. This strong performance is notable because for much of the past decade, platinum was often seen as the cheaper cousin to gold, trading at a significant discount. The ratio between gold and platinum prices had climbed as high as 3.5 earlier this year but has recently dropped to around 2.7, signaling that platinum is catching up and becoming more valuable relative to gold.
One reason for platinum’s surge is its unique position as both a precious metal and an industrial metal with growing demand from clean energy technologies. Unlike gold, which is mostly valued for investment and jewelry purposes, platinum plays a critical role in industries like automotive manufacturing—especially in catalytic converters that reduce vehicle emissions—and green technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells.
Interestingly, the automotive sector’s shift might be helping rather than hurting platinum demand. While electric vehicles (EVs) use less or no catalytic converters (which contain platinum), car makers are now focusing more on hybrid vehicles instead of fully electric ones. Hybrids still rely heavily on catalytic converters but need even more platinum per vehicle due to their stop-start engine technology requiring higher efficiency at lower temperatures.
Jewelry demand also remains strong for platinum despite price increases—a trend particularly visible in markets like China where consumers continue valuing the metal’s rarity and prestige.
On the other hand, some analysts caution that this rally might not last forever. Factors such as weakening Chinese demand for jewelry or steady production levels from South Africa—the world’s largest producer—could slow down or reverse gains if they outweigh rising industrial use.
Gold continues to hold its ground strongly too; it remains the ultimate safe haven during times of geopolitical tension and inflation worries worldwide. Recent conflicts in regions like the Middle East have pushed investors toward gold again because it traditionally holds value when uncertainty rises globally.
Still, with silver also hitting multi-year highs thanks partly to its industrial uses alongside investment appeal, many investors see precious metals overall gaining momentum—but among them all, platinum stands out right now due to its combination of undervaluation history plus fresh industrial tailwinds.
In short: Platinum’s blend of rising industrial utility—especially linked with hybrids—and sustained jewelry interest could keep pushing its price upward through 2025. Whether it will continue outperforming gold depends largely on how global economic factors evolve along with supply-demand balances within key sectors using these metals. But so far this year at least? Platinum looks poised not just to shine but possibly outpace even gold once again.