To The Moon

South Korea's nuclear regulatory body has approved the commencement of operations for a new nuclear reactor that has been under construction for nearly a decade, even as the government led by Lee Jae-myung continues to reassess the long-term role of atomic energy in the nation's economy. The global construction and expansion of AI data centers, spearheaded by tech titans like Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta, is proceeding at a feverish pace, increasingly highlighting the critical importance of a stable power supply. This dynamic underpins the soaring popularity of the investment theme that "the ultimate destination of AI is electricity." Among the currently surging power demands, the need for nuclear energy is rising most explosively, with its clean, stable, and highly efficient attributes making nuclear power systems the most favored energy source for major technology corporations. As US tech giants collectively plan to build super-sized AI data centers in South Korea, projects comparable in scale to an "Stargate" initiative, the importance of nuclear power systems is becoming ever more apparent. Reports indicate that South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission announced in a Tuesday statement that it has given the regulatory green light for the Saeul Unit 3 reactor—marking the country's first such new regulatory approval in approximately two years. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. plans to commence commercial operations next year following a six-month trial run. This development comes as the administration of President Lee Jae-myung advocates for a redoubled focus on renewable energy, reversing the more pro-nuclear stance of his predecessor. However, the current government's support for nuclear projects already under construction has not seen significant reductions amidst its push for solar, wind, and other renewables. According to a national contribution report submitted to the United Nations last Friday, the share of renewable energy in South Korea's power generation mix is projected to increase from a mere 9% last year to at least 30% by 2035. Lee Jae-myung stated in September that building additional nuclear power plants is impractical, as constructing a new facility from scratch typically requires over 15 years. Nonetheless, his administration continues to support the use of nuclear reactors that are already operational or under construction. Information from informed sources suggests that the formal commissioning of the Saeul Unit 3 reactor will significantly help South Korea reduce its heavy reliance on overseas coal and natural gas imports. The paramount importance of nuclear power systems for AI data centers lies in their ability to simultaneously meet four critical constraints: high-efficiency power supply, 24/7 reliability, low-carbon compliance, and long-term price stability. These four attributes represent the scarcest capabilities globally when massive AI training and inference workloads push traditional power grids to their limits. Within this global trend, the recent approval by South Korean regulators for the startup of the large-capacity Saeul Unit 3, initiating a six-month trial run and paving the way for commercial operation in 2026, strongly underscores the value of nuclear power in the AI electricity surge for providing "stable baseload power, predictable pricing, and carbon emission reductions." As global AI computing demand exhibits long-term, rigid, and large-scale characteristics, nuclear energy is evolving from a traditional energy option into a critical infrastructure asset supporting the aggressive expansion of the AI computing supply chain. The ultimate need for AI is electricity! And within the power sector, nuclear demand is the hottest. The essence of the global AI race is a competition over AI computing infrastructure, and the core foundation driving AI computing clusters is a stable and massive power supply system. Consequently, the electricity demand from AI data centers is soaring at an unprecedented and frenetic pace, with AI effectively transforming into an "electricity glutton." Behind the exponentially expanding, high-energy-consumption AI data centers, driven by voracious demand for AI chips and other computing infrastructure, lies the indispensable core foundation of power supply. This reality is the origin of the market perspective that "the ultimate destination of AI is electricity." Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs recently revised its forecast for the enormous electricity consumption driven by global data centers by 2030 upward to a dramatic 175% increase from 2023 levels (up from a prior forecast of +165%). This expansion is equivalent to adding the power load of a nation ranking among the world's top ten electricity consumers. From the perspective of Goldman Sachs' strategy analyst team, the ultimate destination for large AI models is electricity—the firm emphasizes that AI, which can be described as an "electricity-devouring behemoth," will usher in an unprecedented global "super-cycle of demand" for power and a "super bull market" for utility stocks. Following the high-profile launch of its Gemini 3 AI application ecosystem in late November, this cutting-edge software rapidly gained global popularity, causing a sudden surge in Alphabet's AI computing power demands. The release of the Gemini 3 series products immediately generated an immense volume of AI token processing, forcing Alphabet to significantly reduce free access to Gemini 3 Pro and Nano Banana Pro and impose temporary restrictions even on Pro subscribers. Coupled with recent South Korean trade export data showing persistently strong demand for HBM memory systems and enterprise-grade SSDs, this further validates Wall Street's assertion that the "AI boom remains in the early construction phase where computing infrastructure supply cannot meet demand." This also implies that future electricity demand will continue its rapid growth trajectory. A forecast report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that global electricity demand from data centers will more than double by 2030, reaching approximately 945 terawatt-hours (TWh)—slightly higher than Japan's current total electricity consumption—with AI applications being the most significant driver of this growth. The IEA expects the overall electricity demand from AI-focused data centers to increase at least fourfold by 2030. Therefore, within the current and long-term global trend towards decarbonization, nuclear energy—a highly efficient and stable clean power source—has become the most favored energy option in recent years for tech giants like Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft. This energy source, combining cleanliness, stability, and efficiency, is expected to provide their massive data centers with robust, 24/7 uninterrupted power support. Consequently, support for nuclear energy and nuclear power plants from global politicians and technology firms is currently stronger than at any time since the 1970s. Examples include Microsoft signing a long-term power purchase agreement with US energy giant Constellation to facilitate the restart of the Three Mile Island Unit 1 (approx. 835 MW); Amazon securing about 1.92 GW of nuclear power from Talen to supply a large AI data center for its AWS cloud platform, the world's largest; and Alphabet collaborating with Kairos Power to deploy a total of 500 MW of advanced nuclear capacity by 2035 to match new data center loads. Perhaps the most striking development is the comprehensive shift in attitude from the US government towards nuclear reactors, particularly with the vigorous push for a US nuclear revival following a potential political transition. The US President has signed multiple executive orders aimed at reforming the US nuclear energy industry, including expanding the scale of nuclear power, strengthening the nuclear supply chain, and shortening approval cycles for nuclear projects; these actions may signal the clarion call for a US nuclear renaissance. Buoyed by the positive impact of these so-called "nuclear revival orders," this explains the sustained surge in stock prices for US-listed entities like Oklo and other global nuclear energy and power-related equities.