Why Big Tech Is Buying Nuclear Reactors

Why is Big Tech buying nuclear reactors? Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have signed up for nearly 10 GW. Here's why, and the catch. In a Wyoming coal town, a reactor cooled by liquid sodium is going into the ground. It's the first of its kind ever permitted for commercial use in America. And some of the biggest backers of this new wave of reactors aren't power companies at all. They're tech companies. AI data centres need electricity that never stops: at 3 a.m., on a windless January night, through heatwaves and snowstorms. Nuclear plants ran at 91% of their full capacity in 2025, more than any other kind of power plant. But building big new reactors is slow and expensive (just look at Plant Vogtle). So Big Tech is making four moves at once: buying the output of existing plants, bringing shut-down reactors back, paying for upgrades that squeeze out more power, and betting on small modular reactors. Then there's the catch nobody talks about: many of the new reactor designs need a fuel called HALEU, and today only one company sells it commercially. It's part of Russia's state nuclear company. Plus who pays when tech companies take existing power off the grid, and the honest bottom line: none of these new-design reactors produces a single watt yet. CHAPTERS 0:00 A reactor in a Wyoming coal town 1:00 Big Tech's nuclear bet 1:26 Why nuclear? Why now? 1:53 How a reactor works 2:45 The catch: Plant Vogtle 3:16 Move 1: Buy what exists 3:59 Move 2: Bring the dead back 4:28 Move 3: Squeeze more out 5:00 Move 4: Build small 6:18 The fuel only Russia sells 7:50 Who pays? 8:33 The honest bottom line 9:00 Tech companies become energy companies Load Bearing explains the hidden systems holding up the modern world, and what happens when they bend. Previous video: Why AI Is Running Out of Power. #NuclearPower #AI #Energy