Hey there, bargain hunter. Every now and then a theme starts as narrative and quietly becomes infrastructure. Nuclear energy just made that transition.
Here’s where things stand as of late May 2026: uranium spot is trading near $86 per pound, with TradeTech’s long-term price indicator marked at $93/lb at the end of Q1. Tech giants — Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon — are not talking about nuclear anymore. They are signing contracts. Meta announced a 6.6 gigawatt portfolio of nuclear projects in January. Oklo formalized a three-way agreement with Nvidia and Los Alamos National Laboratory in April to advance nuclear fuel validation and AI-powered reactor research. NANO Nuclear inked a strategic MOU with Supermicro in early May focused on powering next-generation AI data centers.
This isn’t sentiment. This is capital being committed for 20-year terms.
The demand driver is straightforward enough. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission projects U.S. data center electricity demand to climb from 19 gigawatts in 2023 to 35 gigawatts by 2030. Intermittent renewables can’t carry that load reliably. Nuclear — specifically baseload, carbon-free, always-on nuclear — can. What’s interesting is that the policy environment just caught up to the market reality: Trump has issued four executive orders aimed at modernizing regulatory frameworks and targeting a U.S. nuclear capacity expansion from roughly 100 GW today to 400 GW by 2050.
The stocks that matter:
- Constellation Energy (CEG): Operates the largest nuclear fleet in the U.S. — 21 reactors across 12 sites. Has a 20-year deal with Microsoft (Three Mile Island restart), a 20-year deal with Meta for 1.1 GW of Illinois power starting 2027, and completed its acquisition of Calpine in early 2026 to meaningfully expand capacity and free cash flow. Targeting EPS growth of more than 20% annually through 2029.
- Cameco (CCJ): The world’s second-largest uranium producer. EBITDA grew 26% in 2025. Revenue visibility is strong via a deep backlog of long-term contracts. The stock is up more than 120% over the past 12 months — the multiple is elevated, forward P/E above 120 — so entry matters here.
- Oklo (OKLO): The speculative end of the stack. Returned 144% over the past year. Its sodium fast reactor platform is at the center of the Nvidia/LANL collaboration. Real upside, real binary risk.
- NuScale Power (SMR): Advancing what could be the largest SMR deployment in U.S. history through a partnership with ENTRA1 Energy and TVA targeting up to 6 GW of NuScale capacity. Still speculative — commercialization is slow — but the regulatory path under NRC Part 53 is clearing.
For ETF exposure, the Global X Uranium ETF (URA) holds $7.6 billion in assets, anchored by Cameco at a 24% weight, and has returned 120% over the past year. The Range Nuclear Renaissance Index ETF (NUKZ) broadens the bet across reactor builders, utilities, and SMR developers for investors who want width over concentration.
The part people skip: this isn’t a trade on whether nuclear is good energy policy. It’s a trade on whether the 20-year contracts being signed today will generate cash flow for decades. Constellation already has that locked in. Cameco already has the uranium supply contracts to back it up.
The risks are real — project delays, cost overruns, rate sensitivity, and the ever-present uranium cycle. Position size accordingly. But the structural setup is as clean as any energy thesis in this market. The hyperscalers have already voted with their checkbooks.
Full breakdown on individual names worth sizing into — start here.
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