Investment deals and stock market speculation continue to inflate the AI bubble, fueling the construction of enormous data centers across the country. According to X-energy CEO, Clay Sell, “We are not constrained by chips, data pipes, land, or capital to build AI data centers. We are only constrained by the availability of electric power.”
Some estimate that data centers could consume as much as 12% of all American electricity by 2028, up from 4.4% in 2023, “the equivalent of adding eight New York Cities to the country.” In a mad dash to expand the grid, big tech and high finance are pumping billions into nuclear energy, revamping decommissioned nuclear reactor sites and placing bets on unproven small modular reactors (SMRs).
AI’s race to the bottom
For decades, it’s been more profitable for US capitalists to pour their money into stock-market speculation than to invest in efficient energy production. Now, under pressure from China, the American ruling class is attempting to sprint the last mile with cinderblocks strapped to its feet.
The US has 94 nuclear power reactors currently on line, providing roughly 20% of the country’s total electricity. No new nuclear plants are under construction.
Across the Pacific, China has been building new reactors since the 2000s. With the state coordinating supply chains, construction, and financing, the Chinese have achieved an economy of scale in their nuclear industry.
As of last month, China had 59 reactors in operation, with 38 under construction and 43 more planned. According to Juliann Edwards, an executive with the US-based Nuclear Company, America “will lose the nuclear race in 2030. People think ‘if.’ No, it’s ‘when.’”
After a wave of construction in the 1950s and 1960s, the nuclear power industry stalled in the 1970s. As the world oil crisis brought an end to the postwar boom, deindustrialization suppressed energy demand. Nuclear energy was no longer profitable.
A brief revival in the early 2000s was crushed by the shale gas boom, which flooded the market with cheap energy. Capital-intensive nuclear plants couldn’t compete and reactors were shut down one after another throughout the 2010s.
Nuclear revival?
The last attempt to raise US nuclear energy from the dead was a financial fiasco. The Vogtle project in Georgia completed two new reactors—seven years behind schedule and $17 billion over budget—bankrupting the Westinghouse Electric Company in the process.
After burning their fingers, American capitalists are no longer willing to start from scratch, instead opting to revive decommissioned sites. Constellation Energy secured $16 billion from Microsoft to reopen reactors at the infamous Three Mile Island, site of America’s worst nuclear disaster.
But industry analysts warn bringing back decommissioned plants won’t be enough. Other investors and tech “hyperscalers” are rolling the dice with SMRs, in some cases, with financial support from the federal government. They are less costly and are fabricated in factories before being deployed to a power plant. However, they generate far less energy than traditional reactors. According to the Financial Times, “None of the more than 50 SMRs under development in the US has proved they are commercially viable yet, nor obtained an operating license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”
Trump has thrown his weight behind the resurgence of nuclear energy through executive orders and the “Big Beautiful Bill.” He’s calling for nuclear energy output to quadruple over the next 25 years, while slashing government regulations and increasing tax credits for the industry. This would require building hundreds of new plants. The Department of Energy has already begun dishing out subsidies to new nuclear power projects. The Federal government signed an $80 billion deal in October with a private equity firm and Westinghouse. State and local governments are following suit.
Capitalist straightjacket
But amid the chorus calling for a “nuclear renaissance,” there are more than a few bum notes. With massive upfront costs and extensive construction times, who will be overseeing half-built nuclear sites when the AI bubble bursts and investors scurry? An increasing percentage of AI infrastructure investment is based on debt—both government and corporate. If lenders are spooked by recession and the bets are called in, it will be the working class who pays with austerity and layoffs.
Along with Trump’s promised “new dawn” for American manufacturing, a nuclear rebirth is quixotic. The profit-motive, private property, and nation-state all hamper the harmonious development of the productive forces in the US. The immense potential for nuclear energy, especially with ongoing advances in nuclear fusion, can only be unlocked through socialist revolution and a planned economy.