• THE GRID
A Uranium Plant Just Became America's Biggest AI Bet
I keep a list of data center mega-deals. Last week, I had to start a new page.
The DOE just handed a former uranium plant in Kentucky to Brookfield and NextEra. Their plan: a $100 billion AI campus. On one site.
The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant enriched uranium for decades. Then it shut down. The land sat idle in western Kentucky. The cooling ponds went still.
Now it's about to become the largest single-site AI power project in the country.
"This is the seed of our plan to invest $100 billion in AI infrastructure."
Forget SpaceX. Elon's next BIG bet is a radical "light-speed" device that's turning AI into "Accelerated AI" – and making it 100 times faster and 100 times more energy efficient.
The mainstream hasn't caught on yet. But "Accelerated AI" stocks are breaking out as we speak: 133%, 217%, or even 320% or more… and it's just getting started.
NextEra will build 2 GW of gas-fired plants on the grounds. Plus up to 2.6 GW of battery storage. Together, 4.6 GW of power for a single campus.
The data center will draw 1.8 GW at full build. Target date: 2031.
Put that in scale. 4.6 GW could run about 3.5 million homes. All for one AI campus.
Campus Load
1.8 GW
| Gas Generation
2.0 GW
|
Battery Storage
2.6 GW
| Total Investment
$100B
|
Why this spot? Paducah sits on the Ohio River. Plenty of water for cooling. The old plant left behind substations, switchyards, and high-voltage ties. Gas pipelines run close by.
It was built for power. Just a different kind.
The DOE started offering federal land for data centers last year. It tagged four sites — old weapons plants, former nuclear facilities. Paducah won the second bid. More are coming.
U.S. data center demand has nearly doubled in three years. It reached 42 GW this year, up from 23 GW in 2023. Goldman Sachs expects 66 GW by 2027. Nearly a tripling in four years.
This one campus — drawing 1.8 GW — would cover about 4% of all U.S. data center power today. One project. One old plant in McCracken County.
And no anchor tenant has been named. Not one. Brookfield is building the power before a customer signs. Whatever surplus the campus doesn't use flows to the regional grid.
That tells you how the smart money reads this market. They don't need a signed lease. They believe the watts will sell.
Three years ago, nobody in finance cared about a shuttered uranium plant in western Kentucky. Today it's the center of a $100 billion bet on the future of AI.
When the biggest investors on the planet build power plants before tenants show up, the energy map has shifted. And so has the money map.
Everywhere I look I see headlines about Iran…
SpaceX…
Elon becoming the first trillionaire in history…
And the ongoing chatter about whether or not we're in an AI bubble…
But I have yet to see anyone whisper a word about why President Trump just "redacted" 750 White House files behind closed doors…
Or why right after, he wrote a check amounting to $300 million of his own money into a company sitting directly in the path of what comes next.
Mind you — these files were designed to "protect America" from "serious harm"… and Trump "REDACTED" them from existence.
The trillion-dollar question is…
Why?
I did some digging and it turns out Trump is hiding a BIG secret.
But probably not what you'd expect.
• VOLTAGE
The Company That Wants to Own Every Watt
Eaton used to make circuit breakers. Good ones. But just circuit breakers.
Not anymore.
On July 31, CEO Paulo Ruiz shared Q2 numbers that turned heads. Revenue hit a record $8.5 billion — up 21% from a year ago. Adjusted EPS came in at $3.15. A Q2 record.
Revenue
$8.5B ↑21%
| Data Center Rev.
↑65%
|
Elec. Backlog
↑43% YoY
| Adj. EPS
$3.15
|
Data center revenue surged 65% organically. The electrical backlog grew 43% in a year. Orders keep outpacing what the factories can ship.
Eaton is spending more than $1 billion to expand. Two dozen projects — including expansions — are ramping across the Americas. The goal: turn that backlog into revenue before a rival catches up.
Last year, Eaton agreed to buy Boyd Thermal for $9.5 billion — a deal that closed this year. Boyd makes liquid cooling for AI server racks. That unit brought in $432 million last quarter — on pace for $1.7 billion this year.
The bigger play is 800-volt DC power. Most data centers still run on alternating current. Each conversion step wastes energy. Eaton's new design skips those steps. Direct current flows from the grid to the chip with far less loss.
Eaton calls the full strategy "grid to chip." Transformers, switchgear, cooling, power electronics — one supplier, one system.
The company raised full-year guidance to $13.40–$13.60 adjusted EPS. Margins hit 23.1%. And when data center orders grow 65% while the backlog still climbs, demand isn't slowing. It's speeding up.
Eaton went from circuit breakers to grid-to-chip in 18 months. This is no longer a parts supplier. It's an energy platform.
• WIRED IN
Signals From the Wire
OpenAI locked in 3.2 GW from Georgia Power for its Project Camellia campus. The 25-year deal phases in from 2028 to 2032. OpenAI says it will cover all costs, so local bills won't rise. One campus — more power than some small nations use.
NextEra Energy posted Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.15, beating estimates by 5.5%. Revenue hit $7.5 billion. The company held its full-year outlook at $3.92 to $4.02 per share — steady hands while the Dominion merger moves through review..
South Carolina's PSC set a Jan. 29, 2027 deadline for the NextEra–Dominion merger ruling. The $67 billion deal now has a clock. Regulators have less than six months to decide on the largest utility merger ever filed.
The EIA projects 24.3 GW of new battery storage will come online in the U.S. this year. That smashes last year's 15 GW record. By early 2027, total installed capacity should top 67 GW.
Every signal points the same way: more power, faster, at any price.
