Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs)
24/7 carbon-free baseload — hyperscalers' preferred long-term AI power source
Nuclear has become the marquee power source for AI, prized for its firm, carbon-free, 24/7 baseload output that matches always-on datacenter loads. In 2024-2025 hyperscalers signed a wave of deals: restarting retired reactors, buying output from existing plants, and pre-ordering small modular reactors (SMRs). SMRs (Oklo, NuScale, Kairos, X-energy, TerraPower) promise factory-built, sub-300MW units, but none are yet commercially operating in the US — first grid deployments are targeted for the late 2020s to early 2030s, making near-term nuclear supply a genuine chokepoint.
US SMRs operating today
0 (first units targeted ~2029-2032)
SMR unit size
typically <300 MWe, factory-built
Fuel constraint
HALEU enrichment supply (mostly Russia today)
Appeal for AI
firm 24/7 carbon-free baseload
How it fits the stack
Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) with what it depends on (above) and what it feeds (below). The figure renders as a crawlable diagram and upgrades to an interactive 3D graph as it scrolls into view.
Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) in the AI stack. Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) with its immediate upstream dependencies (top) and downstream dependents (bottom) in the AI value chain. Hover a node in 3D, or read the full relationships below.
Graph data (text) — 16 entities, 15 relationships
- Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) —manufactures→ GE Vernova
- Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) —depends on→ HALEU Enrichment Fuel
- Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) —manufactures→ Kairos Power
- Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) —manufactures→ TerraPower
- Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) —supplies→ Vistra Corp
- Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) —manufactures→ X-energy
- AI electricity demand / grid strain —depends on→ Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs)
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) —depends on→ Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs)
- Constellation Energy —uses→ Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs)
- Google Cloud (GCP) —depends on→ Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs)
- Meta (AI Infrastructure) —depends on→ Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs)
- Microsoft Azure —depends on→ Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs)
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) —depends on→ Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs)
- Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) —designs→ NuScale Power
- Nuclear Power (incl. SMRs) —designs→ Oklo
Depends on ↑ · 6
Feeds ↓ · 7