Uranium futures in the US hovered around $85 per pound, holding within a tight range since early April after giving back the sharp gains recorded earlier in the year. The cooling of the speculative rally coincided with subdued spot buying by utilities, which have instead relied more heavily on long-term contracts since the war in Ukraine heightened short-term trade uncertainty with Russia.
Yellowcake prices had previously been supported by geopolitical tensions that increased volatility in power markets across major economies, prompting governments and power-intensive AI hyperscalers to show greater interest in nuclear energy. Italy was the latest country to signal support for reintroducing nuclear power, moving toward a legal framework for its restoration. This aligns with initiatives in the US and Japan, where power consumers are broadening their generation mix to meet the growing electricity demand from data center expansion.
In this context, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft have signed agreements to secure new nuclear capacity to support their future AI data center operations.
