Sprott Uranium Miners ETF

URNM

Market cap $2.36B

Nuclear power has become the default answer to a question Wall Street did not expect to ask this decade: where will the electricity for AI come from?

For years, governments and industry have discussed the energy trilemma, which is the need for secure, affordable, and low-carbon energy. Following the Paris Climate Accord in 2015, significant emphasis was placed on the low-carbon component as countries and corporations set net-zero emission targets.

The nuclear and uranium trade is unraveling for a second straight week. Oklo (NYSE:OKLO | OKLO Price Prediction) is down 5% in Tuesday trading, Uranium Energy (NYSE:UEC) is off 9%, and Energy Fuels (NYSE:UUUU) is sliding 6%.

The nuclear energy sector continues to evolve, shifting from a niche alternative to a cornerstone of global energy sovereignty.

Hyperscalers building out AI infrastructure have run into a hard constraint: electricity.

Uranium miners have run hard into 2026. The Sprott Uranium Miners ETF (NYSE:URNM) is up 26% year to date and 119% over the past year, while the VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF (NYSEARCA:NLR | NLR Price Prediction) has gained 18% YTD and 98% over the same stretch.

While gold has proved to be a hot commodity for the last few months, some naysayers have looked at March's short-term volatility as a reason to stay away from the precious metal for now.

In recent months, there has been a lot of discussion about the importance of amplifying the domestic production and supply chains for rare earths in the United States. Given that China maintains a significant hold over the global market, the U.S. looking to increase its own rare earths presence makes a good deal of sense.

Geopolitical conflict is forcing the markets to think critically about critical minerals. More specifically, the importance of critical materials has shifted from industrial use to a vital component in national defense and energy security.

The debate over whether artificial intelligence has entered bubble territory has reached a fever pitch. For this edition of Bull vs Bear, writers Nicholas Peters-Golden and DJ Shaw discuss the disconnect between infrastructure spending and software revenue.