Meta goes full nuclear on their future
Welcome to AI Collision 💥,
In today’s collision between AI and our world:
- 20 years of nuclear goodness
- Phase two begins?
- The best stocks for 2025
If that’s enough to get the AI buying up energy, read on…
AI Collision 💥
It was only a matter of time.
After nuclear stocks went parabolic in 2024… then cooled… then drifted sideways for the better part of six months, it was easy to think the AI-nuclear trade had “played out.”
But here we go again.
This week, Meta signed a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy to buy the entire output of the Clinton Clean Energy Center — an 1,100-megawatt nuclear plant in Illinois.
All of it. For twenty years.
That’s not your typical greenwashing PR deal where a tech giant buys some “carbon credits” to slap on an ESG slide deck.
That is a hard, long-term power contract. Real nuclear energy, locked up for two decades. It’s a very long time, but it’s desperately needed by Meta.
Why so desperate? To power their AI dreams of course. Meta didn’t mince words as to the why,
At Meta, we’re building AI technologies that are transforming the global economy and the way people connect. Our data centers enable these innovations, housing the infrastructure that brings these technologies to life – and we prioritize operating our data centers efficiently, matching our electricity with 100% clean and renewable energy and exploring emergent energy technologies. As we look toward our future energy needs in advancing AI, we recognize the immense value of nuclear power in providing reliable, firm electricity, and the role nuclear projects can have in supporting local economies and strengthening America’s energy leadership.
And in case you missed it, that Clinton plant wasn’t exactly thriving. Illinois’ Zero Emission Credit (ZEC) program that was propping it up is set to expire in 2027. Without a buyer like Meta stepping in, this plant was likely to go offline.
Instead? It’s now a prized asset. A 30MW capacity boost is coming too, thanks to the new deal.
But what’s really going on here?
If you’ve been reading my work here at AI Collision, you’ll know I’ve been pounding this drum for well over a year now:
- AI needs nuclear.
- AI companies know it.
- They’ve been pre-buying the future energy grid behind the scenes.
Microsoft. Google. Amazon. Meta. Even Tesla and the xAI group are sniffing around nuclear again. And when they launched into this last year, nuclear stocks went nuts.
The market got a first taste of this story in mid-2024. When Microsoft started cutting deals with Helion for fusion R&D, and when other players began signing options on SMR (Small Modular Reactor) capacity years in advance.
Nuclear stocks like Constellation Energy (CEG), BWX Technologies (BWXT), Nuscale (SMR), Centrus (LEU), Lightbridge (LTBR), and uranium names like Cameco (CCJ) all ripped higher through the second half of 2024 and into early 2025.
But as markets do, they overshot. Early 2025 saw a cooling period. Uranium spot prices came off. SMR timelines slipped. Retail excitement faded.
Now? We’re seeing the second wave begin, and those stocks are already starting to rip higher again.
Meta’s deal could well be the trigger that kicks this whole energy arms race back into higher gear.
And make no mistake, this is an arms race.
Training LLM scale models, running AI inference at scale, serving AI agents 24/7 — these things are energy monsters. You can’t run them on wind and solar alone. You can’t rely on a fossil grid that’s facing its own structural challenges.
The only viable path for scalable, sustainable AI compute is to bolt it directly to nuclear power.
Which is exactly what Meta is now doing.
And I expect this to accelerate.
Here’s what happens next — you can bookmark this if you want:
- The other hyperscalers will have to match or beat Meta’s move.
- More long-term nuclear deals will be announced in the next six months — especially in the US, UK, and EU where energy security is a national priority.
- SMR projects will get fresh attention and capital.
- Nuclear equity valuations, which cooled off in Q1 and Q2 2025, will start trending higher once more.
I’d even go so far as to say Meta just kicked off Phase Two of the AI-Nuclear Trade.
And if you’re looking for a hook into this? Now is exactly the time to be refreshing your watchlist of nuclear plays. The best trades often set up after the first hype cycle cools and the second wave of “real demand” begins.
In short, nuclear stocks again might be the best buys in energy for the second half of 2025.
If Meta is pre-buying nuclear for 20 years… others will too. The grid of 2030 is being carved up today. And there will not be enough supply to go around.
The AI-nuclear arms race is back on.
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Boomers & Busters 💰
AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).
Boom 📈
- Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) up 9%
- Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) up 8%
- Micron (NASDAQ:MU) up 6%
Bust 📉
- iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) down 18%
- BigBear.ai (NYSE:BBAI) down 15%
- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) down 5%
From the hive mind 🧠
- I like to see it. A UK based humanoid robotics start up. This looks like the exact kind of home robot that could get traction. Just needs, funding, development, scale and funding… did I say funding?
- Your feet are an incredibly important part of your overall health and wellbeing. They might also now be the window into whether you’re going to have a heart attack or not, thanks to AI.
- I’d almost agree with the idea of no one wanting AI to read them a story. And then I remembered how popular audiobooks are…
Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️
Weirdest AI image of the day
ChatGPT’s random quote of the day
“One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, ‘My little computer said such a funny thing this morning.’”
— Alan Turing
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave comments and questions below,
Sam Volkering
Editor-in-Chief
AI Collision
Where does RR smr fit in this scenario?
Definitely the leading candidate in the UK, probably globally. If the UK govt ever removes their head from their own … then you’d think the first company they turn to is RR. They already do with many of the research grants and innovation competitions, so it’s not a stretch to think they’d be a preferred technology provider, as I say, if they ever get out of their own way.
V good article Sam. OKLO is a good example of what you are stating. I bought (on your recommendation) around 10 dollars and sold it for five times that. It then dropped sharply but is now almost back to its’ all time high. Maybe it’s time to revisit Yellow Cake.
Thanks Matthew, very glad to hear you had a good win. Timing on the exit was good, but now, maybe it wasn’t! See my comment to JBM on whether the physical uranium holders are the way to go.
Always keep an eye on your articles Sam and have benefitted significantly on a few, not all, of your plays – tech and crypto. AI, nuclear etc. – not hard to believe that you are right on the money with respect to these innovations. Keep it up.
Thanks Jim! It is always exciting to see how these things play out.
Should we look at uranium holders
Great question, I actually think they’re not the ones that are really going to fly in a nuclear bull market again. They are great at tracking the commodity price, but not many of them really blow the doors off. Unless they’re junior miners sitting on a potentially gigantic discovery. But the tech does seem to be the more interesting play.