Trump’s Atomic Awakening of Artificial Intelligence

The Trump administration turns nuclear energy into political and technological fuel, reigniting old risks in the name of “American greatness”

In an announcement that seems straight out of a dystopian script, the United States government revealed a US$80 billion to boost the generation of nuclear energy aimed at powering the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The partnership, signed between the Trump administration, the Brookfield Asset Management ea Cameco — controller of Westinghouseone of the giants of the nuclear sector — is presented as a bold step towards the “energy renaissance” and “global leadership in AI”. However, behind the triumphalist discourse, what is emerging is a project that combines Technological authoritarianism, corporate dependence and environmental risk on an unprecedented scale.

According to the official statement, the plan envisages the construction of ten new large nuclear reactors by 2030as part of an executive order signed by Trump in May. The government will fully finance the project, making this the largest public investment in nuclear energy in decades. Energy Secretary Chris Wright hailed the initiative as “the realization of President Trump’s grand vision to fully energize the United States and win the global race in artificial intelligence.”

But it is precisely this “global race” rhetoric that must be questioned. Under the pretext of not “falling behind” compared to China or Europe, the North American government surrenders, once again, to the logic of imperial competitionin which technology and energy become instruments of geopolitical power, not social emancipation. The result is predictable: astronomical profits for private conglomerates and collective risks for the planet.

Westinghouse, which presents itself as a protagonist of the new era of clean energy, has a history marked by financial scandals and technical accidents. At the same time, the bet on nuclear energy as a solution to the demand for AI ignores sustainable alternatives, such as solar and wind energy, which could be developed with much less environmental and social impact. By preferring nuclear — expensive, dangerous and slow — Trump signals that his priority is not public well-being, but industrial rearmament of the American techno-military complex.

The link between nuclear energy and artificial intelligence is not casual. AI, especially in the way it has been developed, is intensive in energy consumption and centralizing power. Large corporations like Google e Microsoftwhich has already announced its own investments in nuclear energy, seeks to ensure its dominance over the digital infrastructures of the future — databases, surveillance systems, information networks and even production processes. The promise of “efficiency” and “innovation” hides a project of monopolization of energy and knowledge.

Trump, by placing the State at the service of this project, reaffirms the old alliance between financial capital, arms industry and nationalist discourse. The supposed “nuclear renaissance” is nothing more than the reissue of an outdated energy policy, covered in technological veneer. We talk about AI as if it were an inevitable and neutral advance, but what is at stake is the political and economic control of a technology that tends to deepen inequalities — automating jobs, concentrating data and strengthening surveillance and repression structures.

In the name of a “smart” future, the US government is willing to reopen environmental and social wounds. There is no mention, for example, of where nuclear waste will be disposed of, how much it will cost to maintain the reactors or which communities will be impacted by the construction of these plants. The promises of security and efficiency sound as fragile as the “American dream” that Trump is trying to resurrect.

Meanwhile, the rhetoric of “national greatness” serves as a smokescreen for a process of privatization of the state. Public money finances companies that will then charge for the use of the energy generated. The result is a model in which risk is socialized and profit privatized — a hallmark of the wartime neoliberalism that Trump represents.

The left, faced with this scenario, must denounce not only the environmental and economic risks, but also the ideology underlying the fusion between AI and nuclear energy. Trump’s project is not about technology, it is about power. It’s not about innovation, it’s about domination. And, above all, it’s not about the future — it’s about the attempt to freeze the present in an exclusionary, hierarchical and authoritarian model.

True intelligence — human, collective and supportive — is in rethink the use of energy and technology in the service of life, not profit. What is announced as a “strategic partnership” is, in practice, a pact of submission: from the State to capital, from society to the machine, from reason to greed.

Trump wants to light the way for nuclear-powered AI. But perhaps what is really igniting is the fuse of a new cycle of inequality, dependency and global risk.

Because no intelligence — artificial or otherwise — justifies irradiating the planet in the name of progress.