Big Tech|Big Nukes, and Go South Central, young remote worker

AI AI — Oh!

It was as if someone just threw a switch. This week everyone and their Big Tech brother seemed to be getting into the nuclear power act. It’s a tale as old as ChatGPT: Doing artificial intelligence at scale requires the kind of massive, reliable power that makes mining Bitcoin seem like something you could do with a few AA batteries. OK, that is a massively ridiculous comparison, but I do hope I have your attention.

It was Big News way back when LinkedIn parent Microsoft announced a deal to buy power from the one undamaged reactor at the infamous Three Mile Island facility. The exclusive, 20-year arrangement would mean the reactivation of a unit shut down in 2019 after decades being reliably online only because the supply-and-demand-determined cost of the commodity that is energy made it no longer economically viable.

How quaint.

This week, the floodgates opened. Google, Amazon and a couple of startups — including one backed by an obscure AI player named Sam Altman — announced initiatives not to buy, but to BUILD nuclear. And, kind of all over the place. In Virginia, of course, which already boasts half the data centers in the nation — Data Alley — through which 70% of the world’s internet traffic flows. But also Idaho and Washington state.

It’s quite a reversal of fortune from the days when hippies, giddy from their seemingly successful protests to end the Vietnam War, decided to move on to nuclear power. Chernobyl , the popular movie The China Syndrome , and, yes, the unfortunately timed Three Mile Island incident added to a simmering national resistance that made it next to impossible for the industry to flourish.

But nature — and capitalism — finds a way. A half-century after an ignominious withdrawal from Vietnam, the Southeast Asia nation is one of America’s top trading powers and tourist destinations .

And nearly half a century after a restless Woodstock generation shouted “No Nukes” and nearly got its way, we’ll be hearing a lot more about SMRs — small modular nuclear reactors — for a long time to come.

If you're a glutton for punishment, all my Wrap reports are featured on my profile !

I’m in a Tulsa state of mind

While the tide seems to be turning in the RTO debate, at least the atmospherics , with big employers getting big headlines about office mandates, there is an underreported story about the opportunity to lean into whatever remote economy there is because (see above) capitalism finds a way.

Props to Emma Goldberg of 纽约时报 for shining a spotlight on Tulsa , which is making hay with an idea even the business community thought was nuts: Woo remote workers with a modest cash incentive and perhaps the answers to their American dreams.

The market forces are clear, and familiar. Young people want to seek their fortunes in THE BIG CITY, and while at about 450,000 Oklahoma’s second city isn’t small, it isn’t exactly New York — indeed,?transplant Steven Briggs even riffed on that famous Frank Sinatra line : “What you can say about Tulsa is, ‘If you can’t make it anywhere, you can make it here,’” he told The Times.

But the tongue-in-cheek crack may be a sneaky way of trying to keep paradise to himself. Not that this good idea was loved at first. Like most, it was reviled. Per The Times:

The president of Tulsa’s regional chamber of commerce, Mike Neal , recalled being skeptical. “When they first mentioned the idea to me, I was like, ‘Have you lost your mind?’” Mr. Neal recalled. “‘There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell this thing is going to work.’”

But 75% have stayed beyond their one-year commitment, and by any measure that’s working by a landslide. Said transplant Tricia Jimo Rought :

“In my mind, I was coming to Tulsa for a year, and then I could always boomerang back if it wasn’t a fit for me,” she added. “Four years later, now the conversations I’m having are more like, ‘Are you staying in Tulsa forever?’ Maybe.”

And finally, some workplace quick hits:

As any tax professional will tell you, it isn't what you make, it's what you keep. That means that while you may always try to earn as much as you can, you can — and should — plan for, what is for starters especially, a distant future.

Look at it this way: You should be so lucky to make it to retirement age, and if you are so lucky, you don't want to take a quality-of-life hit. As a tax professional once told me, you will not feel the difference between putting aside 10% if you are putting aside 8%. He was correct. And don't get me started on NOT putting aside AT LEAST what the company will match if you're lucky enough to have such a 401(k) plan.

Which is a very long-winded way of getting to the great news for workplace savers this week. The catch-up limit is increasing next year. If you're 60, it's an extra $10,000. If you're 50+, it's $7,500. Get with it, people: Only about 15% of eligibles bother to catch up, and 40% of us are behind in saving for retirement, per Vanguard .

The dilemma, though, is what you keep — each week. Payroll deductions add up quickly, perhaps none more so than health insurance (again, you should be so lucky). We reported this week that you might get a decent raise next year , but your healthcare expense may offset that bump — and then some. Employer-provided health insurance, which rose 7% in 2024 for a second straight year, is likely to rise again — by an average of 5.8%.

BUT, before you keep, it is what you make, and according to the latest LinkedIn Workforce Confidence survey , most of us do not feel adequately compensated. The most content among us — a slim majority of 54% — are engineers and program/project managers. Other findings, which should perhaps be surprising to no one: Older workers are happier with their paychecks than younger workers, and remote and hybrid workers are more satisfied than those working fully on-site.