2 Nuclear Stocks Worth Buying After the SpaceX IPO

SpaceX's IPO prospectus says more than 90% of its estimated $28.5 trillion addressable market is tied to AI, making AI infrastructure and energy access central to its long-term growth story. The article highlights nuclear SMRs, especially NuScale Power and Oklo, as potential power solutions for data centers, but notes both remain uncommercialized and carry execution risk. Overall, the piece is constructive on the AI and nuclear power opportunity set, but the investment case remains highly speculative.

Analysis

The market is underestimating how quickly AI capex will force a repricing of power-access, not just power-cost. The first-order winners are the companies that can monetize a “behind-the-meter” or dedicated-power solution with shorter permitting and deployment cycles; the second-order winners are the equipment vendors, grid interconnectors, and nuclear fuel/logistics suppliers that get paid even if only a fraction of SMR projects reach FID. In that setup, SMR-like names can outperform on narrative momentum long before they prove commercial economics, but the dispersion versus fundamentals will be extreme.

The key bottleneck is time, not technology. If data-center load growth stays elevated, every incremental month of delay in baseload buildout extends the life of gas peakers, grid congestion rents, and power-price volatility, which is bullish for incumbent power infrastructure but also raises the probability of policy support for nuclear pilots. That means the equity opportunity is likely to be a multi-year option on regulatory progress, not a near-term earnings story; any sign of cost overruns or customer deferrals can halve multiple support quickly because these names are still trading on addressable-market narratives rather than cash flow.

The consensus is too linear on SMRs: it assumes that “AI needs clean power” automatically translates into “SMRs win.” The more likely interim outcome is a hybrid stack of gas, renewables, storage, and a small number of flagship nuclear deals, which could leave pure-play SMR valuations vulnerable if order flow remains aspirational. The overlooked upside is that even failed SMR commercialization can still benefit adjacent winners if it accelerates spending on grid equipment, transmission, and power-optimization software while keeping nuclear optionality alive for hyperscalers.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Buy SMR on weakness only after financings or project milestones, not into momentum; treat it as a 12-24 month optionality trade with asymmetric upside but high dilution and execution risk.
• Prefer a basket approach: long SMR / short utility-scale renewables ETF or gas-exposed power infrastructure laggards over 3-6 months, capturing the rerating of scarce baseload optionality while hedging broad power-market beta.
• Use GOOGL as the higher-quality AI-to-power expression: accumulate on 10-15% pullbacks over the next 1-2 quarters, since hyperscaler balance sheets can absorb power capex faster than single-product SMR developers.
• Avoid chasing OKLO after speculative spikes; if owning, pair it against a more diversified industrial or utility name to isolate narrative risk and reduce drawdown from project slippage.
• Watch for a policy catalyst in the next 6-12 months: if federal or state support expands for advanced nuclear, add to SMR/OKLO on confirmation; if not, expect the trade to re-rate back to “story stock” multiples.