Nuclear bets both ways
Big money is showing mixed opinions on nuclear power.
Despite tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon embracing nuclear power to support their energy-intensive AI data centres, reports say Australian investors are betting against uranium stocks.
Major uranium miners such as Boss Energy, Paladin Energy, and Deep Yellow have become some of the most shorted stocks on the ASX, with significant increases in short interest since June.
This is despite Amazon's US$500 million (AU$757 million) investment in small modular reactors and Bill Gates' TerraPower raising over US$3 billion for “next-generation nuclear power”.
Short sellers believe uranium stocks are overvalued.
Short selling involves borrowing shares, selling them, and repurchasing them at a lower price if the stock falls.
“Short sellers only target things they think are overvalued…they think uranium stocks are overvalued and have the potential to fall,” Gemma Dale, nabtrade’s Director of Self-Managed Super Funds says.
Interest in nuclear energy aligns with a growing AI sector, which demands high energy use. “Over the last 12 months, [there] has been a kickoff in appetite for AI,” Dale said, noting that the US state of Vermont's data centres now consume a quarter of the state’s energy.
“How on earth do we generate that amount of energy without completely crippling everything? Nuclear becomes a very obvious solution,” she said.
Some investors say current uranium trading is driven more by hype than by tangible earnings, and describe it as “just trading on sentiment”.
Nuclear power offers consistent, emissions-free energy - a crucial factor as big tech aims for 2030 emissions targets.
Yet, investors remain unconvinced of a uranium boom, even though Australia holds a third of global uranium reserves.