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Small reactors race to power the AI build-out

Small reactors race to power the AI build-out

Built World

Hyperscalers signed contracts for over 10 gigawatts of new nuclear in a year. The companies that have to deliver it are now lining up on public markets.

Today: Hadron begins Nasdaq trading

Overview

A reactor small enough to fit on a flatbed truck started trading on the Nasdaq on Tuesday. Hadron Energy, which has not yet built one, raised about $31 million in the deal and now has to convince regulators, utilities, and AI hyperscalers that its 10-megawatt Halo design can produce power before the end of the decade.

Hadron is the latest entrant in a category that did not have public investors two years ago. Oklo, NuScale, Nano Nuclear, and now Hadron are competing to supply electricity to data centers that Big Tech wants online by 2030. None of them sells power today.

Why it matters

AI data centers will need more electricity than most U.S. states use. Whether small reactors can deliver it on time decides who builds the next compute boom.

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Key Indicators

10+ GW
Nuclear capacity signed by Big Tech in 12 months
Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta booked over 10 gigawatts of potential new U.S. nuclear capacity in the year ending early 2026.
4x
Projected AI data center power demand by 2034
Power needed to run AI data centers is forecast to quadruple to about 1,600 terawatt-hours within a decade.
$600M
Hadron Energy's pro-forma equity valuation
Equity valuation set in the GigCapital7 SPAC merger that took Hadron public.
10 MWe
Power output per Halo reactor module
Each Halo unit produces 10 megawatts of electricity, enough for a small industrial site or one module of a larger campus.
$13.8B
Projected SMR market size by 2032
Doubles from $6.9 billion in 2025 as more projects move from drawing board to construction.

Voices

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Higher or Lower Two numbers from this story. Guess which is bigger. 5 rounds to set a streak. Log in to play
Timeline Five events from this story — drag them oldest to newest. Log in to play
Connections Sixteen names from the news. Find the four hidden groups of four. Log in to play

People Involved

Sam Gibson
Sam Gibson
Leading newly public reactor developer
 Olivia Hand
Olivia Hand
Leading Halo design and licensing engineering
 Jacob DeWitte
Jacob DeWitte
Running the largest pure-play SMR developer by market cap
 Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella
Anchor buyer for the nuclear-AI build-out

Organizations Involved

Hadron Energy, Inc.
Hadron Energy, Inc.
Nuclear reactor developer
Newly public, pre-revenue

Designer of the Halo light-water micro-modular reactor, a 10-MWe unit meant to ship by truck and run for ten years without refueling.
Oklo Inc.
Oklo Inc.
Nuclear reactor developer
Public, no commercial operation

Develops the Aurora Powerhouse, a 75-MWe fast reactor designed to recycle used fuel.
NuScale Power
NuScale Power
Nuclear reactor developer
Public, NRC-certified design, no operating reactor

Holds the first U.S. NRC design certification for an SMR. Lost its first U.S. customer in 2023 when costs forced cancellation of the Idaho project.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Federal regulator
Gatekeeper for every SMR build

The agency that licenses every commercial reactor built in the United States.

Timeline

November 2023 May 2026

11 events Latest: Today Showing 8 of 11
Tap a bar to jump to that date

  1. Hadron begins Nasdaq trading

    Today Markets

    Hadron Energy lists on Nasdaq as HDRN after closing the GigCapital7 merger. The deal brings about $24.5 million in cash and $31 million in total proceeds.

  2. Hadron locks in domestic uranium conversion

    Supply Chain

    Hadron signs with ConverDyn, the only U.S. uranium hexafluoride conversion operator, securing a piece of the domestic fuel cycle.

  3. Hadron files design criteria with NRC

    Regulatory

    Hadron submits a Principal Design Criteria white paper for the 10-MWe Halo reactor, opening its 10 CFR Part 52 licensing path.

  4. Meta and Oklo announce Ohio campus

    Power Purchase Agreement

    Meta partners with Oklo for sixteen Aurora reactors totaling 1.2 GW in Pike County, Ohio, with prepayments to secure nuclear fuel.

  5. Hadron announces SPAC merger

    Markets

    Hadron Energy unveils a $1.2 billion combination with GigCapital7 Corp, setting up the first publicly traded light-water micro-modular reactor company.

  6. AWS strikes 1.92-GW Susquehanna deal

    Power Purchase Agreement

    Amazon signs a 17-year deal with Talen Energy for 1.92 gigawatts from the Susquehanna nuclear plant and commits $20 billion in Pennsylvania investment.

  7. Amazon invests in X-energy

    Investment

    AWS leads a $700 million round in X-energy with rights to up to twelve Xe-100 high-temperature gas reactors.

  8. Google signs SMR fleet deal with Kairos Power

    Power Purchase Agreement

    Google contracts for 500 MW from Kairos Power's molten-salt reactors targeting deployment by 2030.

  9. Microsoft signs Three Mile Island deal

    Power Purchase Agreement

    Microsoft commits to a 20-year, ~$16 billion deal with Constellation to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1 for AI data centers. The first major nuclear-for-AI contract.

  10. Oklo goes public via SPAC

    Markets

    Sam Altman-backed Oklo begins trading on NYSE, becoming the first pure-play advanced fission company on public markets.

  11. NuScale's first U.S. project collapses

    Industry

    Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems cancels the Idaho Carbon Free Power Project after costs jump past $9 billion. The flagship SMR build dies before construction.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

2009-2024

Vogtle 3 & 4 (2009-2024)

Georgia Power broke ground on two new AP1000 reactors at Plant Vogtle in 2009. They came online in 2023 and 2024, fourteen years and roughly $35 billion later, against an original budget of $14 billion. Contractor Westinghouse went bankrupt mid-project.

Then

The cost overrun chilled new large-reactor projects in the United States for over a decade.

Now

Vogtle became the cautionary case that small modular reactor pitches now have to disprove. Hyperscalers cite it when explaining why they prefer factory-built, smaller units.

Why this matters now

Every SMR pitch, including Hadron's, sells a factory-build model as the answer to Vogtle-style construction overruns. Whether they can actually deliver that is the question public investors are now pricing.

November 2023

NuScale's UAMPS cancellation (2023)

Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems pulled out of NuScale's Carbon Free Power Project in Idaho after estimated costs climbed from $5 billion to over $9 billion. NuScale had the first NRC-certified SMR design in the country.

Then

NuScale's stock fell more than 50% in the months that followed. The first real U.S. SMR build died before pouring concrete.

Now

Showed that NRC certification doesn't equal a delivered project. Demand-side commitment from anchor customers became the new currency.

Why this matters now

Hadron is launching into a market where the prior poster child still has not built a reactor. Investors will read every Halo cost estimate against NuScale's overrun.

September 2024

Three Mile Island Unit 1 restart deal (2024)

Microsoft signed a 20-year power purchase agreement worth roughly $16 billion to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1, an 835-MW reactor shut down in 2019. The plant sits next to Unit 2, the site of the 1979 partial meltdown.

Then

Reactivated U.S. nuclear deal-making and pulled SMR developers into hyperscaler conversations within weeks.

Now

Set the per-megawatt price that Big Tech is willing to pay for clean, firm power. That ceiling is what SMR economics now have to clear.

Why this matters now

Without the TMI deal, there is no Hadron IPO. Microsoft's price set the demand curve that made small reactors fundable.

Sources

(8)
+2
Business Wire Pulse2 Investing.com Hadron Energy Morningstar / Business Wire smrintel.com IndexBox Business Wire