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The current situation revolves, predictably, around oil. Specifically, the rather inconvenient fact that a significant portion of it – roughly 20%, give or take a tanker load – is currently refusing to flow through the Strait of Hormuz. This isn’t a matter of the oil being deliberately obstinate, of course. It’s merely that geopolitical events have, shall we say, discouraged its passage. Rapidan Energy, a firm whose job it is to worry about this sort of thing, has rather dramatically declared this the “biggest oil supply disruption in history.” One imagines their coffee breaks are… lively.

Two percent of their reportable assets, they commit. A mere fraction, yet one feels a certain… desperation clinging to the transaction. As if Stadion, observing the grotesque spectacle of market exuberance elsewhere, seeks a haven. A fortress built not of soaring yields, but of a quieter, more melancholic expectation. They hold, of course, a considerable weight in SPY, SPDW, and QQQ – chasing the phantom of growth. But BOND… BOND is different. It is a sigh, not a shout.

Artificial intelligence, they call it. A fancy name for a hunger. A hunger for data. And data needs a place to live. Not some ethereal cloud, but chips. Real, physical silicon. High-bandwidth memory, specifically. HBM, they call it. A mouthful. It’s projected to balloon, they say, from thirty-five billion to a hundred by 2028. Numbers. They mean little until they translate to something tangible.

Everyone’s chasing the AI dream – the coders, the venture capitalists, the guys in Silicon Valley who haven’t slept in a week – but they’re overlooking the REAL opportunity. It’s not about the algorithms, it’s about the JUICE. The power. And that’s where these Small Modular Reactors – SMRs – come in. Companies like Oklo (OKLO 4.22%) and NuScale Power (SMR 2.75%) are building miniature nuclear plants, little powerhouses designed to feed the AI machine without being shackled to the crumbling, antiquated grid. It’s a beautiful, terrifying prospect.

The company’s recent performance has, it must be admitted, presented a rather mixed picture. While revenue has expanded with commendable velocity, losses have likewise increased, and the scale of its ambitions—a considerable expansion of its data centers—has raised certain questions amongst more cautious investors. It is a circumstance not uncommon to witness a company growing swiftly, yet simultaneously incurring significant expense, though whether this represents a prudent investment, or merely a hopeful gamble, remains to be seen.

Brent Crude, that’s the fancy oil they measure things by, went climbin’ near to $120 a barrel over the weekend, a sight I haven’t seen in a spell. It’s settled a bit since, mind you, but as of this mornin’, it’s still tradin’ around $91, a good 28% higher than it was before all the fuss started. That’s a hefty increase, enough to make a fella think twice about takin’ a Sunday drive.