According to reports, the world's 14 largest banks and financial institutions will commit to increasing their support for nuclear power to unlock financing for the industry.

The report stated that on Monday, at an event in New York with White House climate policy advisor John Podesta, institutions including Bank of America (BAC.US), Barclays Bank (BCS.US), Citi (C.US), Morgan Stanley (MS.US), and Goldman Sachs (GS.US) are expected to indicate their support for the goals of the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), aiming to double the world's nuclear power capacity by 2025.

Experts believe that given the crucial role nuclear power can play in transitioning to low-carbon energy to mitigate the impacts of climate change, public support for nuclear power has long been anticipated.

Historically, due to the complexity and risks of project financing, as well as concerns about whether such investments align with environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) standards, there has been divergence among banks regarding the prospects of nuclear power.

Banks like BNP Paribas quoted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to say that achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is "impossible" without nuclear power. Barclays Bank believes that nuclear power can address the intermittency issues of wind and solar energy.

AI ambitions are inseparable from nuclear power.

As technology companies seek more electrical utilities to power their data centers and drive their artificial intelligence ambitions, nuclear energy is seen as a possible direction for development.

For example, microsoft (MSFT.US) recently signed a 20-year power supply agreement with Constellation Energy (CEG.US), which will restore a unit at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and provide power for decades.

Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez stated in an interview: "Policymakers and the market have received a huge warning. The future of this country depends on these nuclear assets."

Since the beginning of 2023, Constellation's nuclear power plant restart work has been ongoing, with the company evaluating the need to restart reactors. By the beginning of this year, Constellation has concluded that it wants to continue this project and has begun discussions with potential customers. Dominguez mentioned that microsoft was immediately interested.

Microsoft's Vice President of Energy Bobby Hollis mentioned in an interview that purchasing nuclear power will help Microsoft achieve its plan to have its extensive global datacenter network entirely powered by clean energy by 2025. These nuclear power sources will be used for data center expansions in areas like Chicago, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

Microsoft is not the only tech company hoping to leverage nuclear energy to drive its artificial intelligence ambitions. Earlier this year, Amazon's (AMZN.US) cloud computing sector agreed to invest $0.65 billion to acquire a data center campus connected to a 40-year-old nuclear power plant on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, owned by Talen Energy (TLN.US).

Is nuclear energy about to usher in a "spring"?

At the same time, fund managers from multiple asset management companies also express bullish views on the huge potential of nuclear energy.

Companies such as Robeco Institutional Asset Management, J O Hambro Capital Management, and Janus Henderson Investors all believe that nuclear energy-related stocks play a role in their investment portfolios.

"In the past, we tended to be very cautious and dismissive," said Chris Berkouwer, Chief Manager of Robeco's Net Zero 2050 Climate Equities fund, "but now it is clear that nuclear energy is an "indispensable part" of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions."

According to the BlackRock Investment Institute under blackrock, nuclear power is seen as part of the energy mix needed for the construction of large datacenters in the technology industry.

Alastair Bishop, the Global Head of Sustainable Core Investments at the BlackRock Investment Institute, and portfolio manager, said at a media briefing in July: "With the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence, by the end of this decade, the demand for electricity may double, or even quadruple. This will have a profound impact on the electricity market."

Robert Lancastle, portfolio manager at J O Hambro, stated that without nuclear energy, the world is unlikely to have enough energy to support the sustainable development of artificial intelligence.