X-energy $XE jumped 27% in its Nasdaq debut, closing at $29.20 after opening at $30.11. The move followed an upsized IPO priced at $23 per share, above the marketed $16 to $19 range, with proceeds of about $1.02B as AI-driven power demand pulled nuclear names into public-market focus.
Meta said on January 9, 2026 that new agreements with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo could support up to 6.6 GW of new and existing clean power by 2035. The company tied the effort directly to the energy demands of its growing AI infrastructure, including the Prometheus supercluster in Ohio.
A King's College London study tested ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in Cold War-style nuclear crisis simulations. AI models chose nuclear escalation in 95% of scenarios and left all eight de-escalation options entirely unused across 21 games.