The Micro Nuke Rush: Why Everyone's Betting on Nano Nuclear

The Nuclear Hype is Real — But Is It Really?

There’s something happening in Silicon Valley that would’ve sounded insane five years ago: tech giants are literally racing to restart nuclear reactors and sign power deals. Microsoft locked down Two Mile Island, Meta’s grabbing clean energy credits from 2027 onwards, and Constellation Energy is printing money faster than you can say “AI boom.” The reason? Data centers and AI models are absolute power vampires.

Into this gold rush walks Nano Nuclear Energy (NNE) — founded just three years ago in 2022, this startup is betting its chips on something called Kronos microreactors. But here’s the thing: the company hasn’t made a dime yet.

The Bull Case: Why Smart Money Might Be Watching

1. They’re Not Just Talking

Nano’s already landed a gig with the U.S. Department of Energy as a key subcontractor under LIS Technologies for the LEU Enrichment Acquisition program. Translation: they’re literally helping build America’s domestic nuclear fuel supply chain. That’s not some vague partnership — that’s serious infrastructure play.

The co-founder of LIS Technologies? Jeff Eerkens, the actual inventor of laser uranium enrichment. When someone like that picks you to work on DOE contracts, that’s a credibility check most startups don’t pass.

2. The Cash Runway is Solid

As of June 2025, Nano was sitting on $210 million in cash. Then in October, they closed a $400 million private placement. Even with annual losses around $34 million, the math says they’ve got runway for years. That’s runway to actually build something, not just survive.

3. The Demand is Structural, Not Hype

This isn’t FOMO trading. Data centers, AI training clusters, and industrial applications genuinely need massive stable power sources. Coal is dying, solar can’t baseline load your GPU clusters, and renewables alone can’t cut it. Nuclear fill that gap — and unlike previous hype cycles, there are actual contracts being signed right now.

The Bear Case: Why This is Still Highly Speculative

1. Zero Revenue, Uncertain Timeline

Nano is pre-revenue. They’re R&D stage. There’s no revenue date on the calendar. Meanwhile, the NRC design certification process? That took NuScale five years. For Nano, there’s no guaranteed timeline at all.

Microreactors are a subset of small modular reactors (SMRs) — an even newer category. This isn’t a software product shipping in Q2. This is hardware that needs regulatory approval and real-world feasibility validation.

2. Valuation is a Guessing Game

How do you value a company with no sales, no earnings, and no clear path to either? You don’t — not really. Traditional P/E and P/S metrics are meaningless. If the market’s pricing in optimistic growth projections and Nano delays two years, the stock gets hammered.

3. Execution Risk is Enormous

Nano’s got funding, partners, and favorable industry winds. But scaling nuclear tech isn’t like scaling a SaaS app. One regulatory setback, one technical issue in the Kronos feasibility study, or one contract cancellation changes everything.

The Verdict

Nano Nuclear isn’t a “buy now” or “avoid forever” situation. It’s a bet on execution. If you can stomach multi-year uncertainty and potential 50%+ drawdowns, it’s a company worth monitoring closely. The nuclear sector tailwinds are real, the partnerships are legit, and the capital is there.

But if you need predictable returns or can’t afford to hold through a 70% crash if the Kronos study disappoints? This is too spicy.

Bottom line: Nano has more going for it than most nuclear startups, but “more than most” still means “highly speculative.” The next 12-18 months of feasibility study results will matter enormously.