TSMC Biography Chapter 49 | The Gigawatt War: AI Data Centers Are Beginning to Consume Electricity Like an Entire City—Are Tech Giants Turning to Nuclear Power and Building Their Own Power Plants? The Next Round of AI Competition Is Not About Chips—It’s About 'Electricity'?

The ideal operating state for a GPU cluster is: Continuous operation. Because these chips are extremely expensive. An idle GPU represents wasted capital. The losses become staggering if hundreds of thousands of GPUs are forced offline due to insufficient power supply. Therefore, what AI data centers truly require is: 24×7 availability. Round-the-clock operation. Stability. Predictability. This is precisely what the energy industry calls: Firm Power—reliable, dispatchable electricity. Wind and solar power will certainly become important components of the AI energy system. In fact, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that renewable energy will meet a large share of the incremental electricity demand from future data centers.:chatgpt-content-reference{index="4"} But wind is intermittent. And solar power is subject to day-night cycles. Hence, we need: Energy storage. Grid-level dispatching. Natural gas. Nuclear power. Geothermal energy. And other dispatchable sources. Thus, the future AI energy mix is unlikely to be: Nuclear replacing solar, nor: Natural gas replacing renewables. Rather, it will be: A diversified portfolio of energy sources. What AI truly needs is an energy system capable of operating continuously. V. Why Has Nuclear Power Suddenly Reemerged as a Key Term Among Tech Companies? For the past decade or so, Silicon Valley’s favorite topics have been: Software. Cloud computing. Algorithms. Today, however, some of the world’s largest tech companies are diving into an unusually “heavy-industrial” subject: Nuclear reactors. This shift itself carries profound historical significance. Microsoft has supported the restart of the Crane Clean Energy Center—the former Three Mile Island Unit 1—through a long-term power purchase agreement with Constellation, delivering stable, 24/7 carbon-free electricity to the grid. Microsoft explicitly linked this project to its data center power requirements in its 2026 Sustainability Report.:chatgpt-content-reference{index="6"} Amazon has incorporated Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) into its long-term energy strategy and is collaborating with companies such as X-energy. Amazon disclosed that its partnership with X-energy on the Richland, Washington project aims to build 12 reactors, targeting deployment in the early 2030s.:chatgpt-content-reference{index="8"} Meta has taken an even more aggressive stance. In January 2026, Meta announced nuclear energy partnerships with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo—and stated that, together with its earlier collaboration with Constellation, these initiatives will support up to approximately 6.6 GW of new and existing nuclear capacity by 2035.:chatgpt-content-reference{index="10"} This is no longer merely about purchasing green power certificates. It is active participation in energy infrastructure development. Why? Because nuclear power possesses a feature highly prized by AI operations: Stability. 24 hours per day. Operational for most of the year. Moreover, it delivers immense power density per unit of land area. This makes it especially attractive for gigawatt-scale AI campuses.

How should we interpret the U.S. stock market performance on October 19, 2026?

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.61%, with only four of its 30 constituent stocks declining. SiTime gained 5%, and Lattice Semiconductor rose 4.9%. Intel climbed 2.43%, TSMC rose 1.84%, Broadcom advanced 1.78%, and AMD increased 1.76%. Memory-related stocks posted broad gains: Western Digital surged 6.09%, SanDisk rose 5.53%, SK Hynix gained 4.67%, Seagate Technology rose 3.41%, Micron Technology climbed 2.97%, and the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) rose 4.05%. Driven by the rally in memory stocks, the Direxion Daily 3x Long Korea ETF (KORU) jumped 12.03%, while the iShares MSCI Korea ETF (EWY) rose 4.08%. Most optical communications stocks strengthened: the Roundhill Photonics & Optics ETF (LYTE) rose 0.96%. Marvell Technology gained 4.06%, AAOI rose 3.48%, CRDO advanced 1.83%, and Lumentum rose 1.26%, while Coherent declined 0.38%. AI compute-leasing provider CoreWeave fell 0.44%, after rising over 7% earlier in the session. JPMorgan reiterated its “Overweight” rating, noting that market concerns appear “overblown” relative to the company’s underlying business fundamentals. Among Chinese ADRs, the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index dipped 0.27%. Major Chinese ADRs showed mixed performance: Hesai rose 4.03%, Zai Lab gained 3.75%, GDS Holdings fell 2.64%, and NIO declined 1.17%. Morgan Stanley maintained its “Overweight” rating on SpaceX, highlighting potential upside catalysts from upcoming Starship test flights. The research report noted that a successful next Starship flight demonstration could become a key driver for further upward valuation revision.

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