Oklo and Vertiv, a new reactor-cooled AI frontier?

Welcome to AI Collision 💥,

In today’s collision between AI and our world:

• An unexpected partnership
• Heat, power, cooling, power, heat
• Raccoonery!

If that’s enough to get the heat cooling off, read on…

AI Collision 💥

What do nuclear reactors and industrial cooling fans have in common?

Apparently, the future of AI.

Last week, Oklo (NASDAQ: OKLO) (Sam Altman’s small modular reactor (SMR) startup) and Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) (the unsung hero of AI infrastructure) unveiled a partnership that came right out of left field.

They would be collaborating to, “advance power and cooling solutions for hyperscale and colocation data centers in the United States,”

This tie-up is a very strong indicator that the “AI energy” investment theme is still simmering away and that how AI gets its power may still be one of the biggest investment opportunities of a generation.

AI is no longer just about chips and models. It’s about power, heat, location, and physics. And this deal could be the first domino in series of massive new “AI eneryg” deals

Oklo’s “Aurora” reactors are compact, modular, and scalable, designed to provide consistent, off-grid power where it’s needed most, at the data centre.

Think of them as mini clean-energy factories. They will also provide copious amounts of heat.

Vertiv, meanwhile, is the king of infrastructure cooling. The company makes the high-performance fans, heat exchangers, and power systems that keep hyperscale data centres (especially AI training farms) from melting down. And with AI compute demand skyrocketing, cooling is now as mission-critical as the GPUs themselves.

So, what happens when you put a SMR nuclear plant next to a heat-hungry data centre and design the cooling system from the outset to efficiently use the waste heat? You get a self-powered, self-cooled, highly efficient AI factory.

This partnership promises exactly that modular, co-designed, nuclear-powered data centres with Vertiv-engineered thermal systems, fed directly by Oklo’s onsite reactors.

By pairing energy generation with thermal and power management at the source, the companies eliminate inefficiencies that plague today’s infrastrcuture and existing data centre facilities.

It’s clear the AI arms race is pushing the limits of today’s energy grid.

Nvidia systems don’t sip power, they guzzle it.

The likes of Meta, Microsoft and Amazon are buying up entire multi-year long nuclear energy supplies just to secure the electricity needs for their own data centres.

AI leaders are desperate for scalable, off-grid energy that doesn’t rely on existing overstretched utilities. And they want it clean, to meet ESG pledges, and fast, to hit their timelines to get a return on investment.

Nuclear is the only option that checks all those boxes, especially when those nuclear reactors, in SMR form, come with their own integrated cooling infrastructure.

This deal also reaffirms Vertiv’s status as real picks-and-shovels trade of the AI boom. Everyone talks about Nvidia, but Vertiv is in every server room that matters and now they’re embedding themselves into every power source that matters too.

Initially after the annoucement, investors didn’t really think much of this deal, and Vertiv’s stock price traded as low as $120.

But since then, the stock has been on a tear, hitting a high of $143 in trading yesterday.

Oklo’s was exactly the same.

After the announcement Oklo traded as low as $59, and then hit a high of $77 yesterday.

That’s two stocks up around 20% off the back of an unassuming and innocuous announcement, that took the market by surprise, and once it sunk in, both stock have exploded higher in a week!

This is another reminder that AI isn’t just a software revolution. It’s a reshaping of the physical world, from silicon supply chains to coolant loops to nuclear power plants.

The smarter AI models get, the hotter they run. And when chips get hot, someone’s got to cool them down… or better yet, turn that heat into energy.

This is how AI factories are made and Oklo and Vertiv are both critical to their future.

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A Tiny $19 Stock Could Be Nvidia’s Next Target

James Altucher’s proprietary AI system just detected a “Blue Spike”… the same signal that would have’s preceded 21 of Nvidia’s last 22 buyouts.

This time it’s pointing to a small AI chip company… and the trade window may be closing fast.

Join James live on August 7 at 2PM to get the full story.

Capital at risk.

Boomers & Busters 💰

AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).

Boom 📈

• Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) up 12%
• AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) up 10%
• Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) up 4%

Bust 📉

• Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) down 11%
• IBM (NYSE:IBM) down 7%
• Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) down 6%

From the hive mind 🧠

• To be fair, of all the places that could do with AI because they’ve historically ripped off people blind with fees and inefficiencies, it’s the banks. But then when they actually do it, everyone kicks up a stink.
• Again, people getting in a tizz over nothing, but because it’s AI, it’s wrong. Well, is this really about beauty standards? Because last I checked, both Kate Upton and Denise Richards were real and have been in plenty of fashion magazines over the years. No one complained then. And this really just looks like a combination of them both, so perhaps the modelling industry should just carry on?
• It seems that if you’re in any way able to program, or use AI in a way to do anything, for anyone, then you’ll quite literally have millions of dollars thrown at you. Just be good with preparing a pitch deck… or get AI to do it for you. Or create an AI that makes pitch decks to pitch AI companies making pitch decks…

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Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️

If by chance you want to learn more, and want to know what James Altucher and Zach Scheidt think the best options to trade are right now. Make sure to sign up for their upcoming event on August 7 at 2pm (UK time).

Capital at risk

Weirdest AI image of the day

ChatGPT’s random quote of the day

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave comments and questions below,

Sam Volkering

Editor-in-Chief

AI Collision