Energy Dominance

Managing Editor’s Note: Tesla’s Robotaxi launch is set for Austin, Texas, this June…

And once the Robotaxi fleet takes off there, we’ll start seeing cities across the country leaping to bring the technology to their own streets.

Jeff’s had his eye on a handful of companies supporting the rollout that he wants to make sure are on your radar ahead of the launch.

That’s why, for a short time, he’s re-airing this urgent briefing with all the details… right before Tesla goes live with the tech, and before it’s too late to get ahead of the crowd.

You can go here to learn more.

No matter how we look at it, we need more.

So much more, it’s difficult to predict how much.

I’m referring to energy. Electricity, to be more specific.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance thinks that U.S. data center power demand will more than double by 2035 – to 78 gigawatts compared to 2024’s 35 gigawatts.

Last week, consulting firm ICF forecasted that overall U.S. electricity demand would increase by 25% by 2030, compared to 2023 levels. It further embarrassed itself, forecasting a mere 78% growth by 2050 – again compared to 2023 electricity demand.

Historical and Projected Electricity Demand in U.S. | Source: ICF

Just think about that.

Do we really believe that energy demand in the U.S. will only grow 78% in the next 25 years? And do we believe that electricity demand from data centers will only double between 2024 and 2035?

That’s a period within which we will see the birth of both artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI).

When we see numbers like these, it’s easy to know that they are directionally accurate. After all, the demand is growing – that’s correct.

But they’re underestimating how quickly AGI will be developed, not just by one company, but by multiple companies and countries.

And with AGI, the race to achieve ASI will become that much more ferocious.

Demand for electricity to achieve and leverage this incredible technology will be so much greater.

And it goes without saying that once AGI has been commercialized, everyone – and I mean everyone on the planet – will want access to it.

The real constraint – the ultimate bottleneck – is having enough stable, consistent electricity to run these massive data centers.

Whatever It Takes

In most places, the power grid just isn’t prepared to support the demand.

The fastest way to get additional electricity is to ship in power generators and natural gas to provide additional electricity.

That’s precisely what Musk and his team at xAI are doing in South Memphis at its Colossus data center, which is now running more than 300,000 GPUs – the largest data center of its kind in the world.

Thermal Image of Colossus | Source: Credit Steve Jones, Flight by Southwings for SELC

The thermal image of Colossus above shows all of the additional generators running to keep Colossus humming and developing its artificial general intelligence. xAI has more than 30 power generators, despite being licensed for only 15.

It has become somewhat of a hot topic in Memphis, but xAI is allowed to run the additional generators for up to 364 days without an additional license under current regulations. I’m sure xAI is working feverishly to get more electricity from the local utility, as well as to extend the scope of its license.

Forward progress is demanding that companies and countries do whatever they can to meet the electricity demands. Never before have we seen a single technological advancement that will give more economic advantage to a country than AGI. And never before has not having access to such powerful technology put a country at a severe economic disadvantage.

Natural gas and coal may provide short-term solutions, but we all know that our future data centers need electricity on a scale measured by hundreds of megawatts and even gigawatts, and without carbon emissions. The scale is large enough for an entire city, and yet the needs are for just a single massive data center.

So the real issue is: How do we build the power generation as quickly as possible?

More specifically, how do we build the nuclear power generation capability as quickly as possible?

Nuclear power…

Surprisingly en vogue now – even with the Democrats – out of sheer necessity.

A National Security Priority

Everyone now realizes that we can’t have air conditioning, Netflix, electric vehicles, half-caf lattes, TikTok, Instagram, and daily deliveries to our homes by Amazon for our convenience without a whole lotta power. And no, solar and wind won’t cut it.

So nuclear energy, which is emission-free, is finally the winner.

And the answer, as we saw on Friday, is to clear the deck and speed things up. Regulations need to be simplified, and nuclear energy development needs to become a matter of national priority, as much as it is a matter of national security.

To that end, we learned a lot on Friday when President Trump signed not one but four executive orders in support of this mission.

• Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security – This order directs both the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to deploy advanced nuclear reactors on federal and military sites within 30 months. The purpose will be to power artificial intelligence infrastructure and national security facilities.
• Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission – This is a much-needed complete overhaul of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The goal is to achieve quick approvals for new nuclear reactors. There is an 18-month deadline for new reactor licenses and a 12-month deadline for existing reactors. The order also made a clear distinction of requiring science-based radiation limits, a clear nod to what have been some arbitrary rules – lacking evidence, set in the past – designed to slow down nuclear progress.
• Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing At The Department of Energy – This order is designed to streamline and expedite environmental reviews, effective June 30, 2025, for Department of Energy sites.
• Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base – The overarching goal of the order is to rebuild the domestic nuclear supply chain and workforce. It opens the door and welcomes future agreements between the U.S. government and the U.S. private nuclear sector to achieve its energy production goals.

I’ve never seen such a sweeping change with regard to the nuclear industry in my lifetime.

The breadth of the orders is an indication of how much the economic policy team thought about the entire nuclear industry, not just one facet.

So it came as no surprise who was standing behind President Trump when he signed those four orders:

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
• Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
• Joseph Dominguez of Constellation Energy (a nuclear power utility)
• Jacob DeWitte of Oklo (an advanced nuclear reactor company)
• Scott Nolan of General Matter (a uranium enrichment company)

The Major Players

I recommended Constellation Energy (CEG) in an AI Emergency Meeting event that I held on August 14 with Porter Stansberry. It was a no-brainer recommendation, given the direction of the artificial intelligence industry and the clear need for emission-free energy.

Constellation Energy is up already 65% since then, and it was a free recommendation that I made for those who joined the event. Constellation even paid out some small dividends along the way, as well.

Vistra (VST), a contemporary of Constellation Energy, was another company we liked and wrote about in mid-September last year – it is now up 90% since that time.

Oklo, one of the promising, fourth-generation nuclear reactor companies – the kind that is envisioned as an “advanced nuclear reactor technology,” as referenced in the first executive order above – has had a stunning run in the last year, now up 386%.

Making the run even more incredible is the fact that the company has generated zero revenues to date. Even if we look out to 2028, perhaps it will have $20 million in revenue. Meanwhile, it’s burning through cash and will need to raise capital within the next couple of years. Pure hype right now.

The same is true for NuScale (SMR), another public fourth-generation nuclear reactor company that has a similar story – up 269% over the last year.

NuScale has other lines of business, so it has been generating revenue. But the company is unprofitable and burning through cash. It is trading at 162 times its forecasted 2025 revenue and 67 times its 2026 forecasted revenue. Too rich for my blood.

Meanwhile, there’s General Matter – a largely unknown, private company established in the last 12 months. It was a surprise to see the CEO of General Matter at the event. The company has no substance (yet), as it is just getting started. But it does have an investment from In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA. Its business will be enriching uranium here in the U.S.

Now it all makes sense.

Both the stock market and the AI markets are hungry for the energy story. Short term, it may be filling in the gaps with natural gas and coal…

But with these latest executive orders, the mid-term is now empowered to pursue advanced nuclear reactors, powered by enriched uranium – mined and processed in the U.S.

Not to mention, nuclear fusion reactors are best suited for data center infrastructure.

Jeff