Spot uranium briefly topped US$100 a pound in early 2026, the first time in two years, before sliding back into the high-$80s. That is still far above where it sat for most of the previous decade.
A sector commentary issued on June 22 on behalf of Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp. ties the swing to artificial intelligence. The commentary is promotional material from a company with a stake in the theme, and its claims are the company’s own.
Power for data centers
The argument runs like this. Training and running large AI models takes steady, round-the-clock electricity, and the data centers being built for it are straining grids in several regions. The commentary says projections for U.S. data center demand have been raised from roughly 176 terawatt-hours to as much as 580 terawatt-hours by 2028. Wind and solar cannot guarantee uninterrupted supply on their own, it says, which leaves nuclear as the carbon-free baseload option.
It adds that major technology companies have started signing agreements for nuclear capacity directly, and that regulators have moved to speed up permitting for new reactors and fuel facilities.
A fuel chain gone thin
Nuclear was a sector in retreat for a generation. After high-profile accidents and cost overruns, new construction stalled, several countries pledged to phase out reactors, and uranium mines, conversion plants and enrichment capacity saw little investment.
The commentary says analysts widely expect demand to outrun supply later this decade as reactors are extended, restarted and built. It also points to a security problem: much of the world’s conversion and enrichment capacity sits outside Western control, which has made domestic uranium production a policy priority.
Two kinds of technology are in play. One is traditional large reactors. The other is small modular reactors and microreactors, which are meant to power individual facilities such as data centers directly.
The companies named
The text names Cameco, Uranium Energy Corp, NuScale Power and Oklo as examples of the range, from established producers to early-stage reactor developers. Cameco is described as one of the world’s largest publicly traded uranium companies, with a major stake in Westinghouse. Uranium Energy Corp is advancing in-situ recovery projects in states including Wyoming and Texas. NuScale and Oklo are both reactor developers.
Eagle Nuclear itself began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker NUCL in February 2026, after a business combination with a special-purpose acquisition company. It says it holds rights to the largest conventional measured and indicated uranium resource in the United States, at its Aurora project, which it puts at 32.75 million pounds indicated and 4.98 million pounds inferred.
The commentary itself warns that uranium is a cyclical commodity with a history of boom-and-bust swings. It says SMR and advanced-reactor projects depend on regulatory approvals that could take years, and that early-stage developers face risks in permitting, financing and the long road from deposit to production.
