Silver is on a tear. Even after a 30% plunge last Friday, the white metal’s per-ounce price finished January up about 17%, and Citigroup analysts now predict that it could storm to $150 per ounce within months. The rally comes on top of silver’s 103% gain in 2025. For context, in the nine years prior to 2025, silver prices only rose by 117%.
This crazed rise is being fueled by heavy industrial demand for the metal in electric vehicles, solar panels, artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, and defense equipment. Of all the 118 elements on the periodic table, silver is No. 1 when it comes to conducting electricity. This has made it “much more valuable” to A.I. infrastructure investments, according to the chief executive of Grenadilla Advisory, Anna Rathbun.
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Meanwhile, tighter silver export controls in China are cramping supply, even as China’s President Xi Jinping pledges to grow the country’s clean energy capacity by sixfold. That’s important to silver prices because each solar panel contains about 0.64 ounces of silver, and China installed over 560 million solar panels last year alone.
The iShares Silver Trust(NYSEMKT: SLV) is a passively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to reflect the performance of silver, after paying expenses and liabilities. It holds physical silver bullion in secure vaults, with each share representing a fractional interest in that silver. This allows investors to track the price of silver without owning the metal directly. Being passively managed, the expenses are higher than some of the big-name ETFs out there, but they are still relatively reasonable. The ETF has an expense ratio of just 0.50%, significantly lower than the category average of 0.82%.
From its April 2006 inception through December, the iShares Silver Trust achieved an average annual return of 8.89%. That’s a slight underperformance from the 9.44% average annual performance of its benchmark, but this is largely explained by the 0.50% expense ratio. For 2026 so far, the ETF has returned 19%.
While not quite matching silver’s performance over time, the ETF offers convenience and simplicity for investors who don’t wish to buy silver bullion (and incur storage fees and hassles of finding reputable dealers). It’s also a less volatile way to play silver prices compared to investing in silver miners.
For investors who can stomach greater volatility, First Majestic Silver(NYSE: AG) is the closest thing to a silver “pure play” among precious metals miners. With 57% of its revenue coming from silver mining as of Q3 2025, it’s the purest silver producer among its peers.
As you can see from the chart above, shares are up 25% year-to-date, though returns can swing fast in either direction. Last quarter, the company achieved record silver production of 4.2 million ounces, while annual production came in at 15.4 million ounces, an 84% rise from 2024’s levels.
Unlike precious metals, this mining stock pays a dividend. The company’s policy is to pay out 2% of quarterly revenue back to shareholders as dividends, and shares now yield 0.08%. While a small yield, it’s likely a welcome bonus to the massive capital appreciation that shares have delivered in recent years.
Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Wheaton Precious Metals(NYSE: WPM) is a $68 billion firm that provides financing for various mining projects around the world, in return for the right to buy some of their future output at heavy discounts to spot price.
The business model gives the company a stellar profit margin of 54.7%, and it’s naturally capitalizing on the precious metals rally, with quarterly earnings up 123% year over year.
As you can see in the chart above, shares are up 109% over the last 12 months. This rally is no accident, as Wheaton Precious Metals has a well-documented track record of outperforming silver and gold over 1-year, 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year stretches. That outperformance can happen when you have contracts left and right entitling you to buy hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold and silver at discounts of up to 80% of spot price.
Each of these investments offers different advantages for silver investors, from simplicity in the iShares Silver Trust’s case to First Majestic’s nearly pure-play status and the structural advantages offered by Wheaton Precious Metals’ business model. Investors seeking to play silver’s rise should strongly consider them as the trends above continue to power silver higher.
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Citigroup is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. William Dahl has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
