SMR Stocks: Nuclear Power as the Oil of the AI Revolution

SMR Stocks: The Nuclear Monopoly Powering AI

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are compact nuclear reactors that can be built in factories and deployed at sites where traditional nuclear plants are not practical. Alexander Green’s ASI Fund presentation from The Oxford Club identifies a company dominating the SMR space as one of the most compelling investment opportunities in the AI infrastructure buildout. He calls nuclear “the oil of the AI revolution.”

The thesis is straightforward. AI data centers need enormous amounts of electricity. ChatGPT alone uses enough power to run 180,000 American homes every day. A single AI data center can consume as much power as 100,000 homes. The Stargate project is deploying $100 billion to build AI data centers, and Meta is building a Manhattan-sized facility. All of these facilities need baseload power, power that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of weather conditions.

Solar and wind cannot provide baseload power because they are intermittent. Battery technology has not advanced to the point where it can store enough energy to bridge the gaps. Natural gas can provide baseload but generates carbon emissions. Nuclear is the only zero-carbon baseload source that can meet AI-scale power demand.

The Nuclear Monopoly

Green’s bonus report, “The Nuclear Monopoly Powering AI,” identifies a company that dominates Small Modular Reactors and has built 400 mini-reactors for the U.S. Navy. It also runs the only large nuclear manufacturing facility in North America. Based on these clues, the company is most likely BWX Technologies (BWXT) or a similar nuclear infrastructure company.

BWX Technologies is the primary supplier of naval nuclear reactors for the U.S. Navy’s submarine and aircraft carrier fleets. The company has decades of experience building compact, reliable nuclear reactors that operate in the most demanding environments. The transition from naval reactors to commercial SMRs is a natural extension of its existing capabilities.

Green’s “nuclear monopoly” framing is bold but not unreasonable given the company’s dominant position in naval nuclear reactors and its ownership of the only large nuclear manufacturing facility in North America. The barriers to entry in nuclear manufacturing are extraordinary, involving regulatory approvals, security clearances, specialized engineering, and massive capital investment. A company that already has all of these is positioned to dominate the SMR market as it develops.

Why SMRs Matter for AI

Small Modular Reactors solve several problems for AI data center operators:

Scalability. Traditional nuclear plants take years to build and cost billions. SMRs can be manufactured in factories and deployed in modules, allowing data center operators to add capacity incrementally as their power needs grow.

Location flexibility. Traditional nuclear plants need to be built near large bodies of water for cooling. SMRs can be sited closer to data centers, reducing transmission losses and infrastructure costs.

Safety. SMRs use passive safety systems that do not require active cooling or operator intervention in emergencies. They are designed to shut down automatically if something goes wrong.

Cost. Factory manufacturing allows SMRs to benefit from economies of scale that are not possible with traditional one-off nuclear plant construction.

The AI industry’s power demands are growing so fast that the grid cannot keep up. Tech companies are already signing power purchase agreements with nuclear operators. Microsoft has signed a deal to power a data center with the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Amazon has invested in an SMR project. Google has announced plans to use nuclear power for its AI data centers. These are real commitments, not speculative announcements.

The ASI Fund Connection

The nuclear monopoly is one of several investment opportunities Green identifies in the ASI Fund presentation. The ASI Fund itself is a picks-and-shovels vehicle targeting AI infrastructure, including power generation. The nuclear monopoly stock is a specific, focused play within that broader thesis.

The ASI Fund also includes reports on “The AI Superstock” (a company that grew revenue 36,000 percent in three years, partnered with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta) and “The Next Wave of AI” (a company controlling 34 percent of the collaborative robot market with 80,000 systems deployed). For more on the fund, see our ASI Fund article. For the full analysis, see our ASI Fund review.

The Broader Nuclear Thesis

Green is not the only presenter making the nuclear-AI connection. The broader investment community has identified nuclear as a critical component of the AI infrastructure buildout. The Department of Energy has launched initiatives to support SMR development. Multiple states have passed legislation supporting nuclear energy. The nuclear fuel supply chain, from uranium mining to enrichment to fuel fabrication, is seeing increased investment.

Green calls this “the oil of the AI revolution.” That is a strong claim, but the directional thesis is sound. AI requires massive amounts of power, and nuclear is the only technology that can provide zero-carbon baseload power at the scale required. For a different perspective on AI infrastructure, see our Accelerated AI review, which covers Jason Bodner’s photonics thesis at Brownstone Research.

Considerations

The nuclear thesis is compelling, but there are risks. SMR technology is still in the early stages of commercialization. The first commercial SMRs are not expected to be operational until the late 2020s or early 2030s. Regulatory approvals take years, and cost overruns are common in nuclear projects. The company Green identifies has strong naval reactor credentials, but the transition from naval to commercial SMRs is not guaranteed to be smooth.

That said, the demand for AI power is real and growing. The question is not whether nuclear will play a role but how quickly and which companies will benefit. Green’s thesis is well-reasoned, and the 365-day money-back guarantee on the subscription gives you ample time to evaluate the research.

If you want to explore the full thesis, you can access the ASI Fund presentation through The Oxford Club.

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.