What happened
President Donald Trump announced at the World Economic Forum that the United States will heavily expand nuclear power to support artificial intelligence infrastructure. Trump committed to approving new energy projects within three weeks to meet surging data centre electricity demands. The administration aims to accelerate small modular reactor deployment, building on a 2025 executive order streamlining approvals for military and digital systems. The Energy Information Administration projects data centre power consumption will double or triple by 2028, prompting grid operators to require tech firms to finance their own generation.
Why it matters
Tying AI expansion directly to nuclear capacity shifts infrastructure bottlenecks from silicon to power generation. For data centre architects and procurement teams, the three-week approval target signals a regulatory environment favouring self-hosted energy over grid reliance. This aligns with OpenAI's concurrent push for a national nuclear energy shift to sustain model scaling. As grid operators enforce rules requiring large consumers to fund new supply, hyperscalers must integrate power plant financing into their capital expenditure models. Facilities lacking dedicated generation face severe expansion constraints as national electricity use hits record highs.
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