Uranium prices held near $86 per pound in mid-May 2026, down slightly on the day but still approximately 20 percent higher than a year earlier, as structural demand drivers from the nuclear energy sector continued to underpin the long-term investment case for the fuel. The primary catalyst drawing institutional attention to uranium in 2026 is the accelerating energy demand from data centers, with multiple major technology companies in the United States signing contracts for small modular reactors to supply clean, firm power to AI compute infrastructure.
On the supply side, Denison Mines received regulatory approval to begin construction at its Phoenix uranium asset in February 2026. The project is expected to take roughly two years to complete, with production anticipated to begin in mid-2028. Energy Fuels, one of North America's largest uranium producers, reported production of one million pounds in 2025 and is projecting growth to between 1.5 and 2.5 million pounds in 2026. Cameco, the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, has guided for 2026 production of between 19.5 and 21.5 million pounds across all assets.
Analyst sentiment on uranium equities remains broadly positive. Uranium Energy Corp posted an 8.76 percent move in recent sessions, while Energy Fuels gained more than 11 percent. The Sprott Uranium Miners ETF has tracked closely with the underlying commodity's movement as the convergence of data center power demand, nuclear policy support, and constrained near-term supply has positioned uranium as one of the more closely watched commodity investment stories of 2026.
Source: Sprott -- https://sprott.com/insights/uranium-outlook-2026/