An Amazon-backed nuclear company is landing 1,100 new jobs and $11 million in Tennessee taxpayer money to expand its Oak Ridge fuel facility — the same Big Tech monopoly that already controls your data now consolidating its grip on the power infrastructure that could run your grid.
TRISO-X, a wholly owned subsidiary of Maryland-based X-Energy — which counts Amazon as its backer — first broke ground on its Tennessee fuel facility in 2022. Now it's promising a new fuel and research campus to round out its Oak Ridge presence, with the state cutting an $11 million check from Tennessee's dedicated nuclear fund to make it happen. TRISO-X becomes the ninth company to tap that fund. "This is an important step in building a world-class nuclear fuel campus capable of powering next-generation nuclear," TRISO-X President Joe Duling said in a news release.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel framed the story straight: jobs, investment, state support. What it didn't press is who ultimately profits when Amazon — already a monopoly in cloud computing and e-commerce — gains a foothold in nuclear fuel production. Follow the money: taxpayer dollars subsidize the infrastructure; Amazon captures the energy capacity to feed its data centers; Main Street gets the utility bill.
Meanwhile, the federal funding landscape is shifting hard, and not in Main Street's favor. Virginia Tech officials told their Board of Visitors last month that the university has lost $54 million in terminated research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Health and Human Services since early 2025. The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reported that outgoing Virginia Tech President Tim Sands and Senior Vice President Dan Sui initially put losses at $21 million before the figure more than doubled.
Virginia Tech's answer? Pivot to Pentagon money. About 26% of the university's federal research and development already comes from the Department of Defense — nearly double the share universities nationwide receive. But that only amounts to less than $100 million, ranking Virginia Tech 20th nationally in defense research spending. Sui told board members the university sees "significant opportunity" in DOD funding but acknowledged "a more complex operating environment." Vice President for Strategic Alliances Steve McKnight said Virginia Tech must move further up the research development ladder — from basic research into applied and advanced technology development — to capture more defense dollars. "The opportunity is real, but it occurs at later stage development, where universities traditionally do not engage," McKnight said.
The Virginian-Pilot noted that officials referred to the agency as the "Department of War" during the presentation, though its legal name remains the Department of Defense.
So here's the picture: Amazon gets taxpayer-subsidized nuclear fuel infrastructure. Universities lose health and science research funding and reorient toward military contracts. Both parties in Washington are fine with this — Republican and Democratic administrations alike have funneled public resources into private tech and defense consolidation. The bipartisan deal isn't a partisan split; it's a consensus that corporate monopolies and the war machine get fed first.
When the same companies that own your data own the nuclear fuel that powers your grid, and the universities that once researched cures are building armor panels instead — who exactly is this economy working for?
