S&P 500 nuclear power giants Constellation Energy (CEG) and Vistra (VST) stock plummeted Monday as China’s private DeepSeek startup shook the global markets. DeepSeek has just released a powerful artificial intelligence program that it claims costs just five billion six hundred million dollars to build. This marks a possible paradigm shift from the current massive levels of investment by technology industry giants in energy and AI infrastructure.
     Nuclear stocks fell Monday during market action, marking a reverse of fortunes compared to last week. The sector had advanced after President Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that Sam Altman’s OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle (ORCL) are planning a joint venture called Stargate. This collaboration is intended to build data centers and other AI infrastructure in the U.S., with investments of up to five hundred billion dollars.
     Data centers are needed to “train” AI learning models. They are expected to increase demand for electricity through the coming decade. Big Tech companies have looked to nuclear power, as well as natural gas, to answer the demand surge. However, the concern about China’s DeepSeek is that the massive investment is not necessarily needed for a capable AI model.

     S&P 500 companies CEG and VST sank twenty two percent and twenty eight percent respectively on Monday. These nuclear giants, who were two of the top three S&P 500 performers in January going into Monday’s trade, had jumped more than nine percent last week. CEG and VST began Monday trade extended above traditional buy points, according to MarketSurge chart analysis.
     Along with CEG and VST, Talen Energy (TLN) sank twenty-two percent. Talen Energy signed a six hundred and fifty million dollars deal last March with Amazon.com (AMZN) for a nuclear-powered data center campus.
     Meanwhile, small modular reactor (SMR) focused companies signaled significant declines after huge gains last week. The nuclear industry segment so far has offered no operational advanced nuclear projects. However, several companies are moving ahead with SMR technology.
     Oklo (OKLO) is the nuclear power startup backed by Sam Altman from OpenAI. It slid twenty-six percent on Monday. OKLO stock soared sixty percent last week, surging past a traditional twenty-eight buy point, the high from October 30th, from a nine-week cup base. The stock began Monday up nearly ninety percent in January. However, the OKLO stock is very volatile and has swung above and below that twenty-eight entry in broad moves.

     Fellow SMR-focused stock Nano Nuclear Energy (NNE) dropped twenty six percent on Monday after an eighty percent advance last week. NuScale Power (SMR) dipped twenty eight percent on Monday. That stock booked a twenty-seven percent gain last week.
     GE Vernova (GEV) has been experiencing demand for its natural gas turbines for data centers. It declined around twenty-two percent on Monday.
     Meanwhile, Entergy (ETR), one of the largest U.S. utilities, dipped four and a half percent on Monday. Last December, Entergy was chosen by Meta Platforms (META) to help power its planned ten-billion-dollar AI data center in northeast Louisiana.
     AI data center-adjacent stocks also dropped on Monday. Powell Industries (POWL) fell sixteen percent while Modine Manufacturing (MOD) declined twenty six percent. Comfort Systems USA (FIX) sank twenty-five percent and Vertiv Holdings (VRT) fell around thirty percent.
     Constellation Energy stock has a ninety-four Composite Rating out of a best-possible ninety-nine. The S&P 500 stock also has a ninety-seven Relative Strength Rating and a fifty-four EPS Rating.

DeepSeek

     TerraPower is the nuclear energy company founded by former Microsoft CEO and co-founder Bill Gates. It just announced that it has a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a major U.S. data center developer to deploy advanced nuclear reactors to power existing and future facilities.
     On January 21st, TerraPower said it will collaborate with Sabey Data Centers (SDC) on “a strategic collaboration agreement to leverage advanced nuclear Natrium plants into SDC’s current and future data center operations.” Last year, TerraPower broke ground on the first U.S. advanced nuclear project, located near PacifiCorp’s Naughton Power Plant in Wyoming. The Naughton plant will stop burning coal in 2026. It will stop its use of natural gas within the next decade. In a press release, TerraPower said the venture will explore building new Natrium plants in the Rocky Mountain region, and Texas, “to support growing power needs for SDC-owned data centers.”
     Bill Gates told the audience at last year’s groundbreaking in Wyoming that they were “standing on what will soon be the bedrock of America’s energy future … this is a big step toward safe, abundant, zero-carbon energy, and it’s important for the future of this country that projects like this succeed.”
     Chris Levesque is TerraPower president and CEO. He said, “At its heart, TerraPower is an innovation-driven company, and we are thrilled to collaborate with Sabey to address the surging energy demands of data centers with clean, reliable and adaptable solutions like the Natrium technology. The energy sector is transforming at an unprecedented pace after decades of business as usual, and meaningful progress will require strategic collaboration across industries. Together, we can ensure advanced nuclear technology plays a vital role in securing a clean, resilient energy grid.”
     The two companies said that they “will explore multiple project execution structures to meet the exponential demand in data center energy needs with TerraPower’s innovative advanced nuclear + storage Natrium technology.”
    The Natrium system features a three hundred forty-five-megawatt reactor and can be optimized for specific markets. Its innovative thermal storage has the potential to boost the system’s output to five hundred megawatts of power for more than five and a half hours when needed.
     Several technology companies are looking at nuclear power as a viable option to provide electricity for their energy-intensive date centers operations. Microsoft signed a deal last September to help restart a retired reactor at Three Mile Island. Google and Amazon have also announced plans to aid the development of advanced reactors to power their data centers.
     Tim Mirick is the president of SDC. He said, “Sabey Data Centers is dedicated to pioneering sustainable energy solutions to support our customers’ growth. Our strategic collaboration with TerraPower represents a substantial move toward integrating clean, innovative power technologies into the heart of our operations.”
     Jeffrey Kanne is the vice chairman of SDC and president and CEO of National Real Estate Advisors. He said, “This strategic relationship exemplifies the forward-thinking collaboration necessary to meet the evolving energy demands of our digital future.”
     Nuclear industry experts have said the rise of artificial intelligence and data centers is projected to increase U.S. electricity demand by three hundred and twenty-three terawatts by 2030.

TerraPower