The AI-power chokepoint led nuclear on July 9 — Talen +4.5% and Centrus +4.3% as datacenter-power and enrichment bid — while SMR developer X-Energy gave back.

Talen Energy (TLN) rose 4.5% to $384.44, leading the basket as the datacenter-power scarcity trade reasserted itself. Talen owns 2.2 GW of nuclear (Susquehanna) behind an approximately $18 billion AWS power-purchase agreement running to 2042 — the clearest expression of this vertical's thesis that dispatchable, carbon-free electrons are the true bottleneck on AI compute. Fresh attention followed the July 8 Proxima Fusion funding round, and its pending Cornerstone gas acquisition is set to close mid-2026. Talen reports Q2 on August 6.

X-Energy (XE) fell 2.1% to $16.60, the laggard as the SMR-developer cohort gave back on a day the operating and fuel names led. The split is the story: the market paid up for electrons and enrichment it can meter today, and faded the reactor designs that monetize later. X-Energy — in its first months as a public company — reports its Q2 on August 13.

Enrichment and fuel led. Centrus (LEU) +4.3% to $173.56, NexGen (NXE) +3.3% to $9.48, Uranium Energy (UEC) +2.3%, Denison (DNN) +1.9%, Cameco (CCJ) +1.1%; the Sprott Uranium Miners ETF (URNM) +1.7%. Among developers, Oklo (OKLO) +4.2% to $49.27, NuScale (SMR) +3.1% to $9.03, NANO Nuclear (NNE) +1.7% and Solstice (SOLS) +2.9% rose despite X-Energy's slip. Utilities were mixed — Constellation (CEG) +2.5% to $250.74, Vistra (VST) +2.0%, GE Vernova (GEV) +0.4% and BWX Technologies (BWXT) +1.6%, but Public Service Enterprise (PEG) −1.3% and NextEra (NEE) −0.4%. The fuel-cycle chokepoint — enrichment and conversion — outran the reactor layer.

Earnings season frames the read. NextEra and Constellation report July 29, Cameco July 31 (with its Westinghouse equity contribution in focus), BWX Technologies August 3, Centrus August 4, and Talen and X-Energy August 6. Oklo (August 10) and NuScale (August 12) follow. The market will be testing whether the AI-power narrative — datacenter PPAs, enrichment tightness, SMR order books — is converting into contracted revenue, or still trading on story.