U.S. uranium futures hovered around $85 per pound in June, holding within a tight range since early April after unwinding the spike seen earlier in the year. The cooling of the speculative rally has coincided with subdued spot-market purchasing by utilities, which have been relying more heavily on long-term contracts since the war in Ukraine heightened uncertainty in short-term nuclear fuel trade.
Previously, yellowcake prices had been driven higher by geopolitical tensions that made power markets in major economies increasingly volatile, in turn renewing interest in nuclear energy among governments and among energy-intensive AI hyperscalers building data centers. Italy was the latest country to signal support for a new legal framework to reintroduce nuclear power, decades after it was abandoned in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster.
At the same time, Meta and Microsoft have both signed deals to secure new nuclear capacity for their future AI data center operations, reinforcing a more optimistic demand outlook. This comes alongside the U.S. government’s policy shift to accelerate approvals for new nuclear power plants.