The Atomic Renaissance
For a time people thought that nuclear energy was something that politicians did not want to talk about because it was too risky and too costly.. Now in December 2025 nuclear energy has become the most popular thing on Wall Street and people are really excited, about nuclear energy.
The driver is not about saving the planet from climate change it is about satisfying the need for computer power. As the competition to make the Artificial Intelligence or what people call the "AI Arms Race" shifts from teaching models to actually using them the need, for energy has become too much for the public power grid to handle. The result is that big technology companies are turning to power.
We are seeing something big happen. The biggest companies in the world the ones that're worth, over a trillion dollars are basically turning into utilities that countries rely on. They are paying for new reactors to be built so that they can keep going. These companies, the trillion-dollar companies are doing this to make sure they can survive.
1. The Energy Cliff: This is, about why silicon needs uranium to work properly. Silicon and uranium are two different things but silicon needs uranium for energy. The energy cliff is a problem and silicon needs uranium to solve it.
To figure out why Microsoft and Amazon are buying reactors you need to know about the physics of the Energy Cliff that we will hit in 2025. The Energy Cliff is something that Microsoft and Amazon are trying to prepare for so they are buying these reactors. This is a deal for Microsoft and Amazon because the Energy Cliff is a major problem that will affect everyone. Microsoft and Amazon want to be ready for the Energy Cliff, in mid 2025.
The Density Problem is an issue. Traditional cloud computing is very up and down. You check your email and the server gets really busy then it goes back to sleep.. Artificial Intelligence work is always going on. An Nvidia H200 cluster is always working at speed it does not sleep it runs all the time, twenty four hours a day seven days a week. The Nvidia H200 cluster is always, on it never stops it is always using 100 percent of its power.
The Numbers: According to Gartners data, from 2025 servers that use Artificial Intelligence are now using about 21 percent of the total power used by data centers. This number is expected to go up to 44 percent by the year 2030 for Artificial Intelligence optimized servers.
The Grid Failure is a problem. The public grid just cannot handle the load it is getting. In Northern Virginia, which is also known as Data Center Alley, people who want to connect to the utility have to wait for a long time. The wait for hookups is now 5 to 7 years long. This is an issue for tech giants like the big companies we know. They realized that if they wait for the grid to be ready they will lose the intelligence war. So the tech giants decided to find a way, around the grid. The Grid Failure is what made the tech giants do this.
2. The "Behind-the-Meter" Revolution
The big thing that stands out from the part of 2025 is the move, to "Behind-the-Meter" power. This is when the power plant is actually located on the property as the data center and it does not connect to the main power grid. With Behind-the-Meter power you do not have to pay fees to use the grid you do not have to wait for someone to give you permission to do things and you get to keep all of your Behind-the-Meter power to yourself you do not have to share your Behind-the-Meter power with anyone.
The "Big Three" Nuclear Deals
In the year we have seen a lot of money going into this model over 70 billion dollars. This is the amount of money that people have promised to invest in this model.
The Three Mile Island Restart: This is a deal. Five years ago nobody would have thought this was possible.. Now Microsoft has signed a deal, with Constellation Energy that will last for twenty years. The plan is to restart Unit 1 of the Three Mile Island plant, which is now called the Crane Clean Energy Center. Microsoft is really doing this with Constellation Energy. They are going to make the Crane Clean Energy Center work again. The Three Mile Island plant is a part of this plan. Microsoft and Constellation Energy are working together on the Three Mile Island Restart.
Status in December 2025: The people in charge got a loan of one billion dollars from the Department of Energy. Now workers are fixing the cooling towers. They want to get everything up and running again by 2027. This one deal showed that old nuclear assets that people thought were useless are actually very valuable, like gold mines. The nuclear assets are really valuable now.
Amazon and X-energy are working together. Amazon did not just buy power they bought the technology from X-energy. Amazon is investing a lot of money five hundred million dollars, in X-energy. They want X-energy to make a lot of power five gigawatts, by the year 2039. Amazon and X-energy are really pushing for this to happen with X-energy.
The Tech is using a kind of reactor called High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors. These High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors are safe from meltdowns because of how they're built, not just because of the computer programs that run them. The first project with High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors that The Tech is working on is in Washington State. They are doing this project with a company called Energy Northwest. This project with Energy Northwest is, like a plan that other companies can follow to build their High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors.
Google and Kairos Power are working together. Google made a decision and signed a deal with Kairos Power. This deal is for five hundred megawatts. Google is going to get a group of reactors, from Kairos Power. These reactors are called "bed" reactors. Google and Kairos Power are going to make this project happen. Google chose Kairos Power for the job.
The Timeline: The first commercial reactor is on schedule for 2030. Kairos uses molten salt cooling instead of water, allowing them to operate at lower pressure—meaning safer, cheaper, smaller containment structures.
3. What is the "Neutron Chip": Small Modular Reactors Explained
The "Neutron Chip" is a thing people talk about when they discuss Small Modular Reactors. Small Modular Reactors are the "Neutron Chip" technology. The "Neutron Chip" is used in Small Modular Reactors. Let us find out what the "Neutron Chip" is and how it works in Small Modular Reactors.
The "Neutron Chip" and Small Modular Reactors are related.
Small Modular Reactors use the "Neutron Chip" to do their job.
The "Neutron Chip" is important for Small Modular Reactors to function.
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The "Neutron Chip". Then Small Modular Reactors follow.
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The "Neutron Chip" is the start thing and Small Modular Reactors are the finish thing.
Small Modular Reactors are the finish thing of the "Neutron Chip" start thing.
The "Neutron Chip" is the thing and Small Modular Reactors are the final thing.
Small Modular Reactors are the thing of the "Neutron Chip" initial thing.
The "Neutron Chip" is the part and Small Modular Reactors are the last part.
Small Modular Reactors are the part of the "Neutron Chip" first part.
The "Neutron Chip" is the starting part and Small Modular Reactors are the ending part.
Small Modular Reactors are the ending part of the "Neutron Chip" starting part.
The "Neutron Chip" is the part and Small Modular Reactors are the ending part.
Small Modular Reactors are the ending part of the "Neutron Chip" beginning part.
The "Neutron Chip" is the part and Small Modular Reactors are the final part.
The thing that people are using to fight this war is not those big cooling towers that you see in old episodes of The Simpsons. It is the Small Modular Reactor. The Small Modular Reactor is what everyone is talking about now.
Factory built is what these things are. Traditional plants were, like construction projects.. Small Modular Reactors or SMRs are actually manufactured products. The SMRs are built in a factory. Then they get trucked to the site where they will be used. After that the SMRs just get plugged in. They are ready to go.
The "Oracle" Move: Larry Ellison said in 2024 that Oracle got the okay to build three Small Modular Reactors to power one big Artificial Intelligence cluster that uses one gigawatt of power. This is really one gigawatt of power is enough to power a whole medium-sized city and it is all, for the Oracle Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Oracle is doing something with the Oracle Artificial Intelligence cluster.
4. The Policy Pivot: AI as National Security
The United States government has figured out that it cannot win the intelligence war with a power grid that is very old. The artificial intelligence war is a deal and the United States government knows that it needs a better power grid to win it. The power grid they have now is from the century and that is just not good enough, for the artificial intelligence war.
The ADVANCE Act Implementation
The ADVANCE Act was signed in mid-2024. Now it is fully working. The NRC, which is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made the ADVANCE Act work fully in 2025. The ADVANCE Act is something that the NRC started using in 2025.
The Regulatory Fast-Lane made some changes. It said that the licensing fees had to be lower.. It made the process of sending US nuclear technology to friends of the United States much simpler. This was a deal because it helped the United States send US nuclear tech to its allies more easily. The Regulatory Fast-Lane was, about making it easier to export US nuclear technology to these allies.
The result is that it now takes a lot time to review new reactor designs. Before this process used to take forty months. Now it takes around eighteen months. The government thinks that nuclear power is very important for our country. They believe that in order to have control over intelligence we need to have control over our own power sources. So nuclear capacity is, like an asset that helps us have this control, which is called Cognitive Sovereignty. This means that without having our power we cannot really have Sovereign AI or artificial intelligence that is controlled by us. The government is saying that we need to have Sovereign Power, which's our own power in order to have Sovereign AI.
5. The Geopolitical Choke Point: The Uranium War
Data is really important these days it is like the oil. And you know what is more important Uranium is like the new Silicon. The thing is the supply chain for Uranium is having some problems it is, like a big warning sign that is flashing red right now.
The Russian Stranglehold
Despite the war in Ukraine, Russia (via Rosatom) still controls a massive share of the global enrichment capacity (converting raw uranium into fuel).
The 2025 "Wait and See" situation is happening because The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act is now a law.
The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act has been passed.
However the market is in a period where people are waiting to see what happens next.
This is because some US utilities were given waivers.
These US utilities had no supplier, for uranium so they were allowed to keep buying from Russia.
Now people are waiting to see what will happen with The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act and these waivers.
The market is watching The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act closely.
The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act is causing people to wait and see what will happen with uranium imports.
Enrichment Onshoring is happening fast. Western companies like Urenco and Orano are trying to increase the number of centrifuges they have in the United States and France. The cost of Low-Enriched Uranium, which is also called LEU has gone up a lot.. The thing that people really want and are willing to pay extra for is HALEU, which stands for High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium. This is a kind of fuel that is very dense and is needed for the new Small Modular Reactors or SMRs for short that companies like Amazon and Google are using. The price of HALEU is very high because these companies need it to power their reactors. Enrichment Onshoring is becoming a deal because of the demand, for HALEU.
The Intel Forecast: 2026 Trends
Trend 1: The "Nuclear Premium" in Real Estate
The way we value estate is changing. People do not think that the location of a piece of land is the important thing anymore. Now they think about the connections that land has. Real estate valuation is, about how a piece of land is connected to other things. The value of estate is shifting from location to connection. Real estate valuation is focusing on connection.
I think that places that are already okayed for work like those with an Early Site Permit will be really valuable. These industrial sites will be worth a lot more than land maybe even five times more. I believe that big companies like BlackRock and Vanguard will start funds called Nuclear Real Estate funds that focus on this type of property and they will do this by the first quarter of 2026. Nuclear Real Estate will be a deal and these companies will be, at the front of it which is why Nuclear Real Estate funds will be launched by BlackRock and Vanguard.
Trend 2: The "Sovereign AI Cloud"
Countries will stop trusting the cloud for their most sensitive information. This is because the public cloud is not safe for the sensitive data of nations. Nations will be very careful about where they store their sensitive data. The public cloud is not a place for this kind of data, for many nations.
The idea is that there will be something called Sovereign AI Bunkers. These are like computer centers that the government owns. They will be powered by machines called SMRs. The important thing is that these centers will not be connected to the internet that everyone uses. They will also not be connected to the power grid.
Saudi Arabia and Japan are already looking for places to build these Sovereign AI Bunkers. You can think of them like safe and secure computer centers, kind of, like Fortress Clouds. The goal of these Sovereign AI Bunkers is to keep information safe and sound.
Trend 3: "Compute Futures"
Bitcoin miners were the canary in the coal mine; AI is the dragon.
We think something new is coming to the world of money in 2026. It is called Compute Futures. This is a kind of financial thing that people can buy and sell. Now people trade things like the price of electricity. They look at how much it costs for one unit of electricity.. With Compute Futures people will also trade things, like how powerful computers are.
They will look at how work a computer can do which is called processing power. People will be able to buy and sell contracts on this. For example you can buy something called Nvidia Compute. This means you think Nvidia computers will be able to do a lot of work. On the hand you can sell something called Grid Congestion. This means you think the computers that use electricity from the grid will have problems.
People will be able to make money from this. They will try to guess what will happen with Compute Futures. It is a way for people to make money from computers and electricity. Compute Futures will be a deal because it combines two important things: computers and the electricity they use. People will trade Compute Futures. Try to make money from them.
The "Pick-and-Shovel" Watchlist
For people who want to invest in the Atomic Compute idea the Foreign Intel Desk is watching three things, about Atomic Compute:
The Fuel is really important. It comes from companies like Cameco and Kazatomprom. You can actually build the reactor itself. Without the right materials it is not going to work. I mean you need the uranium, the rock that makes it all happen. Cameco and Kazatomprom are the ones that provide this rock so they are crucial, to the process.
The people who build things are BWX Technologies, which is also known as BWXT. They are like the people who fix pipes. Instead of water they work with nuclear stuff. BWX Technologies have a lot of experience building nuclear reactors, which are called micro-reactors. They are really good, at building these micro-reactors.
The Grid is really important for companies, like Quanta Services, which is also known as PWR. When you have small nuclear reactors that are not connected to the main grid they still need a lot of equipment to send power to the data hall. This equipment includes transmission lines and other things to make it all work. The Grid and Quanta Services or PWR have to make sure they have all of this in place.
The era of "digital" tech is over. The era of "Heavy Tech"—where code meets concrete and uranium—has begun.
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