--- title: "The Tech Industry's Compute Anxiety is Rewiring Everything from Nuclear Reactors to Rare Earth Mines" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/293316120.md" description: "Tech giants' insatiable demand for compute is creating massive spillover effects. From CleanSpark's multi-billion data center lease to the commercial struggles of nuclear reactor startups and rare earth miners, the underlying supply chain is undergoing a painful reconstruction." datetime: "2026-07-21T09:13:06.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/293316120.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293316120.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/293316120.md) --- # The Tech Industry's Compute Anxiety is Rewiring Everything from Nuclear Reactors to Rare Earth Mines I'm told that CleanSpark (CLSK.US), a company that made its name in Bitcoin mining, recently inked a massive **USD 6.6B**, 20-year lease for a data center campus in Georgia. The tenant isn't a crypto operation, but a high-investment-grade global tech firm hungry for artificial intelligence infrastructure. This matters because it perfectly encapsulates the underlying current of 2026: the insatiable appetite for compute is aggressively rewiring everything from legacy power grids to raw material supply chains. We are witnessing a massive capital expenditure cycle that treats physical infrastructure as the ultimate bottleneck for digital progress. The most obvious beneficiaries remain in the semiconductor space. SK Hynix (SKHYV.US) is leveraging its dominant position in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), committing a staggering **USD 90B** to a new semiconductor cluster in South Korea to keep up with data center demands. The company's 2024 revenue soared to roughly **66.2 trillion KRW**, highlighting the sheer scale of the memory cycle. Meanwhile, specialized foundries are seeking their own niches. Tower Semiconductor (TSEM.US) is aggressively expanding its silicon photonics footprint in Japan with government backing, though the stock has retreated nearly **20%** over the past month. Similarly, Swedish firm Sivers Semiconductors (SIVEF.US) is navigating the exploding demand for data and telecom connectivity components. And yet, all these chips require absurd amounts of energy. The theoretical savior here is next-generation nuclear power, which is why eyes have been on NuScale Power (SMR.US). But the truth, as usual, is more complicated. Despite being a trailblazer in small modular reactors, NuScale reported a mere **USD 560,000** in Q1 2026 revenue, and its stock has tumbled over **30%** in recent weeks. The road to commercialization is brutal, proving that early leadership in deep tech doesn't grant immunity from cash burn. Further down the stack, the physical layer is experiencing its own growing pains. Critical Metals (CRML.US) is betting heavily on its Tanbreez rare earth project in Greenland to feed the Western tech supply chain, even as investors punish the stock—down more than **10%** recently—amid messy merger integrations. Even legacy industrial heavyweights like Alcoa (AA.US), generating roughly **USD 11.9B** in 2024 annual revenue, are rebranding themselves as resilient, low-carbon upstream suppliers for a world that needs vast amounts of aluminum to build out these new facilities. At the very top of this heavy, metal-and-concrete pyramid sits the software layer, which must ultimately justify these investments. Duolingo (DUOL.US) is a rare consumer bright spot, demonstrating a **46%** year-over-year surge in subscription revenue in Q2 2025 by successfully layering AI into its learning platform. Behemoths like Tencent (TCEHY.US) continue to command global gaming and digital ecosystems, while legacy enterprise players like BlackBerry (BB.US) are leaning hard into IoT and endpoint security—a critical necessity when every piece of infrastructure is newly connected. The tech industry is effectively trying to build a futuristic digital brain using 20th-century raw materials and experimental power grids. Will the software margins eventually cover the massive physical tab? Good luck with that. _This article does not constitute investment advice._ ### Related Stocks - [CLSK.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CLSK.US.md) - [TSEM.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TSEM.US.md) - [SKHYV.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SKHYV.US.md) - [SMR.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SMR.US.md) - [TCEHY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TCEHY.US.md) - [DUOL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DUOL.US.md) - [SIVEF.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SIVEF.US.md) - [BB.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BB.US.md) - [CRML.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CRML.US.md) - [AA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AA.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Cetera Investment Advisers Has $6.34 Million Stock Holdings in Alcoa $AA](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294599014.md) - [Alcoa (AA) Earnings Strength Meets Lower Guidance With Valuation Still In Focus](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294353565.md) - [BB: H1 2026 delivered growth, margin gains, and a raised outlook, with caution for H2](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294324396.md) - [Renaissance Technologies LLC Purchases New Stake in Alcoa $AA](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294039228.md) - [Integration Risks Threaten Alcoa’s Transaction Synergies, Earnings Accretion, and Balance Sheet Strength](https://longbridge.com/en/news/294576456.md)