Nuclear Power and the AI Infrastructure Race

Why Microreactors Are Back — and Why NANO Nuclear Is First in Focus

Artificial intelligence is no longer constrained by algorithms or silicon alone. It is increasingly constrained by power—and more specifically, by the kind of power that can operate continuously, predictably, and at scale.

As AI systems grow in complexity and ambition, they are placing unprecedented demands on physical infrastructure. Training and operating frontier models requires electricity that behaves less like a commodity and more like a fixed input to production. In this environment, power is no longer merely an operating cost; it is becoming a strategic variable that shapes where AI can be built, who can build it, and how durable those systems can be over time.

This shift is quietly pulling nuclear energy back into the center of the AI infrastructure conversation—not as an ideological choice, but as a structural one.

From Energy Transition to Infrastructure Reality

For decades, energy debates have been framed around generation mix and emissions targets. AI changes the frame. What matters now is not just how electricity is produced, but whether it can be delivered with certainty, density, and temporal alignment to compute demand.

Modern grids were designed for diversified, distributed consumption. AI data centers invert that logic. They concentrate demand, operate at sustained peak utilization, and penalize intermittency. The result is a growing gap between digital ambition and physical capability. Interconnection queues lengthen, transmission upgrades lag, and even well-capitalized developers find themselves waiting on systems that were never designed for this kind of load profile.

In this context, nuclear power begins to look less like an energy source and more like a form of infrastructure insurance. Its value lies not only in cleanliness or scale, but in its ability to anchor long-lived assets with long-lived power. For AI operators planning systems with decade-long horizons, this alignment of asset life and power life becomes increasingly relevant.

The Quiet Return of Small Nuclear

Large-scale nuclear projects have struggled under their own weight. Small modular reactors and microreactors represent a different thesis: that nuclear can be broken down into repeatable, financeable units that align with modern infrastructure development cycles.

This is not simply an engineering evolution. It is a capital markets evolution. Smaller reactors allow for staged deployment, modular financing, and integration into industrial campuses rather than reliance on centralized grid expansion. In effect, they reopen the question of whether power generation can once again be colocated with consumption—something that had largely disappeared in the era of centralized grids.

For AI, this matters. Colocation changes not only cost structures, but risk profiles. It shifts exposure away from grid congestion and regulatory uncertainty and toward asset-level execution. It also introduces new questions about fuel supply, licensing, and operational integration—questions that sit at the intersection of energy, national policy, and capital strategy.

A Series on the Builders of Nuclear-Powered AI Infrastructure

As nuclear re-enters the infrastructure conversation, it is tempting to treat all advanced nuclear companies as interchangeable participants in a rising tide. They are not.

Some are reactor designers. Others are fuel strategists. A few are infrastructure developers attempting to integrate power, land, and compute into unified campuses. The distinctions matter, particularly in an AI-driven environment where timelines are compressed and capital discipline is unforgiving.

This article inaugurates a series from Eliakim Capital focused on the companies attempting to build the nuclear foundations of the AI era. Each profile will examine not just technology, but how a company positions itself within the broader system of power, fuel, regulation, and capital.

We begin with NANO Nuclear Energy, a company whose strategy highlights an often-overlooked truth: in advanced nuclear, the reactor is only part of the system.

NANO Nuclear Energy and the Case for Vertical Thinking

NANO Nuclear Energy became publicly listed in 2024, marking the first time U.S. public markets gained direct exposure to a microreactor-focused nuclear company. The listing itself is instructive. It reflects a belief that advanced nuclear is transitioning from speculative research to infrastructure development—and that public capital will increasingly be asked to fund that transition.

From its inception, NANO Nuclear has articulated a vertically integrated vision. Rather than focusing narrowly on a single reactor design, the company has structured itself around multiple business lines spanning reactor development, fuel fabrication, fuel transportation, space applications, and consulting.

This approach acknowledges a central constraint in advanced nuclear: reactor innovation has outpaced fuel-cycle readiness. High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium is essential to many next-generation designs, yet its production and transport remain limited. Without addressing that bottleneck, even the most elegant reactor designs risk becoming stranded assets.

Microreactors as Infrastructure Primitives

NANO Nuclear’s reactor portfolio reflects a view of microreactors as foundational infrastructure components rather than one-off solutions. Its KRONOS MMR Energy System, a stationary high-temperature gas-cooled reactor currently in NRC pre-application, is designed for long-duration, industrial-scale power delivery. In an AI context, systems like KRONOS are most relevant as potential anchors for dedicated compute campuses operating outside traditional grid constraints.

The company’s ZEUS and LOKI systems explore other dimensions of the microreactor spectrum, including portability and compact deployment. While these designs are often discussed in defense or remote applications, they also hint at a future in which power becomes more modular, transportable, and adaptable to shifting demand.

What emerges is not a single product thesis, but a platform thesis: that microreactors can function as interchangeable power primitives across multiple domains, from data centers to defense to space.

Fuel, Logistics, and the Hidden Economics of Power

Perhaps the most strategically interesting aspect of NANO Nuclear’s model lies in its focus on fuel logistics. Through Advanced Fuel Transportation and HALEU Energy Fuel, the company is positioning itself within the most constrained segment of the advanced nuclear value chain.

Fuel is where nuclear intersects with national policy, security, and supply-chain resilience. For AI infrastructure, this introduces a subtle but important nexus: the power that trains and operates AI systems may increasingly depend on fuel pathways shaped by geopolitics and industrial policy.

By investing early in HALEU fabrication and transport, NANO Nuclear is implicitly betting that future nuclear value will accrue not just to those who generate power, but to those who control the inputs that make generation possible.

Public Markets and the Time Horizon Mismatch

NANO Nuclear’s public listing also raises a broader question about time horizons. Nuclear infrastructure operates on decades-long cycles. Public markets operate on quarters. Bridging that gap requires a different kind of narrative discipline—one that frames progress in terms of regulatory milestones, system integration, and optionality rather than near-term deployment.

For AI infrastructure investors, this mismatch is increasingly familiar. The most valuable assets are often those that take the longest to build. Nuclear simply makes that tension explicit.

Where Eliakim Capital Fits

Eliakim Capital’s work sits precisely at these intersections—where compute demand meets power reality, and where long-cycle infrastructure must be translated into credible capital strategies.

As AI reshapes the economics of data centers and energy, Eliakim Capital supports developers and operators in structuring power solutions that align asset life, capital life, and operational certainty. This includes nuclear-adjacent strategies, hybrid power stacks, site selection, and capital markets positioning for companies navigating the transition from concept to infrastructure.

In an environment where power is becoming destiny, disciplined integration matters as much as innovation.

Looking Forward

The AI infrastructure race is entering a new phase. Compute is abundant. Capital is available. Power, increasingly, is not.

Nuclear energy’s return is not about nostalgia or ideology. It is about durability in a system that now values continuity as much as capacity. Microreactors, SMRs, and vertically integrated fuel strategies represent one possible answer to that challenge.

This series will continue to examine the companies attempting to make that answer real. NANO Nuclear Energy is an early example of how nuclear, capital markets, and AI infrastructure are beginning to converge.

The outcome is not yet determined—but the direction is clear.

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