In today’s issue:
- Build baby build… OK wannabe Trump
- Nuclear stocks still popping off
- Michelin’s 10-fold productivity boost
“Build baby build.”
🤢
These are the words of Prime Minister Keir Starmer when talking about the government’s plan to make it much easier to build mini nuclear reactors across the UK.
Fundamentally, it should be easier to build nuclear energy in the UK. So from that perspective, anything that achieves that is good. However, leave the wannabe-Trump slogans at home please prime minister.
As the government and nuclear industry knows, the time to go from approval to actual power generation from a nuclear plant takes decades.
It’s not all dissimilar to a mining site, where the process from discovery to product can take equally as long.
But that’s also why modern governments have always been so shockingly disorganised with long-term policy like nuclear energy. They know that anything they put in place is most likely to be ruined by either the opposition or some spud that gets into power within their own party while they’re in some cushy diplomatic role (or on the board of a tech company) in a decade’s time.
So when the flavour of the day is nuclear energy – and it very much is, which I’ll show you in a moment – then yes, you can expect the government who is desperately flagging in the polls to spin up a new policy to get money, jobs and votes flowing.
For the current government, that’s a new nuclear strategy.
Or at the very least the ability for reactors (SMRs) to get built faster and easier in the UK.
It also probably helps that one of the world’s leaders in SMR technology happens to be Rolls-Royce (RR) – so it wouldn’t be a stretch to think it’s been pushing on the PM at some point too.
The key argument for these nuclear reactors is conveniently boiled down to something the size of a drinks can.
Source: BBC
However, the question remains, who wants to live with a small modular reactor in their backyard?
Or at worst, who wants to live next door to one?
Because whether we like it or not, someone will have to. Or maybe SMRs occupy existing infrastructure that’s no longer being put to use… like coal plants.
The thing is, the worry for most people is if it’s easier to get nuclear reactors built, where will they exist?
No one is going to want even the safest reactor in their backyard. Unless they don’t have a choice…
You see, the government never wins from this. They try to get more built, and then the opposition or some other party pushes back. Fears of meltdowns, Fukushima, Chernobyl, coming to a village near you.
It’s the hardest PR job in the world, making people see the benefits of nuclear. That’s why the government has it all wrong. They should be leaning on “Big Tech”, the AI companies, to get it done.
Personally, I think who breaks the news makes a huge difference to where and how nuclear reactors get built.
And it’s Big Tech that’s driving the nuclear story anyway. The idea that to power their AI data centres, they will need SMR technology, rebooting of old nuclear plants and an abundance of nuclear energy has not gone away.
If anything, the realisation of AI and nuclear going hand in hand is ramping up. It’s why you look at the three leading “new nuclear” stocks’ performance over the last year and the numbers are astounding.
There’s Oklo (OLKO) up 348% in the last year, NuScale (SMR) up 715% in the last year and Nano Nuclear Energy (NNE) up 832% in the last year.
These are all SMR related, each looking to develop their own unique style of SMR. And it’s sending them skywards.
Are they overvalued? Maybe. Is the “nuclear AI” story overhyped? Could be. But also, will these AI data centres suddenly start operating on coal or oil energy? No. They’ll use some wind and some solar, but neither on their own or combined are powerful or reliable enough.
The short answer is that for AI data centres to work, they need nuclear. So there’s very likely more room to run for these nuclear AI stocks. And it means the government better get their act in gear. Because if they can’t get these new nuclear technologies built, then Big Tech is going to take their AI data centres elsewhere.
Boomers & Busters 💰
AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week.) [Figures correct at time of writing.]
Boom 📈
- BigBear.ai (NYSE:BBAI) up 109%
- Gorilla Technology (NASDAQ:GRRR) up 36%
- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) up 8%
Bust 📉
- Amesite (NASDAQ:AMST) down 11%
- Oddity Tech (NASDAQ:ODD) down 10%
- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) down 10%
From the hive mind 🧠
- This is why science is cool. Show this to your kids, grandkids or anyone. This is what we can do with modern tech and with AI. Unlocking the secrets of thousands of years ago.
- Microsoft has a list of around 300 case studies of companies implementing AI. This one I found interesting, because how does a tyre company find a 10-fold increase in productivity? Here’s how.
- The EU will get left behind if they continue to regulate and not innovate. You are now starting to see European leaders scramble as this realisation hits them squarely in the face.
Weirdest AI image of the day
ChatGPT’s random quote of the day
“Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.”
– Alan Kay, 1984
Thanks for reading, see you next time.
Sam Volkering
Contributing Editor, Fortune & Freedom
Money, gold, and time
Bill Bonner, writing from Baltimore, Maryland
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
– Genesis, 3:19
The doctrine in philosophy is known as ‘eternal return.’ Everything goes back whence it comes. For us, it is our new Law of Conservation of Value. It is why – despite the evidence of our own eyes – we put the growth in value of the entire US stock market for the last 100 years… at zero.
Dear reader, we are plowing the almost-virgin earth… at least it is virgin enough. Besides, a well brought up young man knows better than to ask.
But let us begin by looking at the news:
The dots don’t connect. Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk… are they really on the same team? A real WTF moment came on Tuesday. The Hill:
Musk on Ron Paul as Fed chair: ‘Great idea’
Elon Musk in a post on his social platform X appeared to back conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s suggestion that former Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) replace Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve.
In a reply to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on X, Musk wrote “that would be amazing” when Lee said he would like to see Paul as chair. Lee replied: “Ron Paul for Fed Chair!”
Makes no sense. Trump is a big spender… big borrower… big speculator… and one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Fed’s policies over the last 30 years. He’s a ‘low interest’ guy. His real estate empire was built on low interest rates. Ron Paul – a ‘hard money’ guy – is the last person he would want at the head of the Fed.
What’s going on? Who’s in charge?
Is Mr. Trump just distracting the world with outrageous proposals while Elon Musk and his musketeers take a chainsaw to the federal government? The Scotsman:
How Donald Trump is making it clear the world faces four years of ‘constant chaos’
After just three weeks in office, Donald Trump has spent much of the time almost casually throwing the world into turmoil
“This is the next four years. Shifting goalposts and constant chaos, putting our economy at risk,” wrote centre-right Canadian politician Doug Ford, after Donald Trump mentioned he would impose 25 per cent tariffs on “any steel coming into the United States” while travelling to watch the American football Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, the people of Gaza learned, via a Fox News interview, that they “wouldn’t” have a right to return to their homes under Trump’s plan to “buy and own” the territory, remove its entire population and rehouse them “a little bit away from where they are”. It’s not quite clear who will be living in Trump’s “Riviera of the Middle East”, but it won’t be them.
Or is Musk the real Bozo… leading his youth brigades like the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution in China, causing bedlam everywhere they go… while that wily old Trumpster consolidates his own power? The Daily Beast:
Edward Coristine, 19, [known as ‘Big Balls’ on the internet] is now works as a “senior adviser” in the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, The Washington Post reported. Musk and others in MAGA have defended the youth of the DOGE team, claiming the whiz kids’ ages should not disqualify them from doing good work.
MuskWatch.com adds detail:
Meanwhile, in all the disorienting swirl of dust… somewhere betwixt Heaven and Hell… gold shines more brightly than ever. It closed yesterday at $2,914 an ounce.
Which brings us back to values. Gold is inert… as brain-dead as a Congressman. How could it be ‘worth’ more? Or, is it just goin’ ‘roun’ de track… in an eternal return?
In 1925, the average house sold for $6,000. Today, it’s $510,000. Whoa… that’s an 85-times increase. But in 1925, you could buy an average house for 300 ounces of gold. Today, it will take only 175 ounces. In gold terms, the price of a house has fallen 41%.
Stocks, meanwhile, began the year at 120 on the Dow. Today, they’re over 44,000. That’s a 366-times increase… in dollars. But in gold, the stock market was worth six ounces of gold in 1925. Now, it’s worth 16.
Let’s look at vehicles. Ford launched its Model TT truck in 1925 at $505. Today, the workhorse Ford F-150 is priced around $42,000 – an 83-times increase. But in gold terms, the price fell from 25 ounces to just 14.
Sticking with gold, prices for ‘things’ have generally gone down. But not prices for stocks, which are up about two and a half times.
On the evidence, you were better off in gold than dollars… and best served in stocks.
But wait… a more serious kvetch:
‘You can’t compare a car from 1925 to one from 2025,’ comes the objection from George Gilder and the ‘time prices’ set.
‘Of course, cars are more expensive,’ they say. ‘You get a lot more for your money today than you did back then.’
Hmmm…
Tomorrow, we’ll look at why that objection is faulty… and how to ‘connect the dots’ on so many conflicting numbers. Some numbers are more real than others.
Stay tuned…
Regards,
Bill Bonner
Contributing Editor, Fortune & Freedom
For more from Bill Bonner, visit www.bonnerprivateresearch.com
