The head of AtkinsRéalis says the Canadian engineering giant is taking advantage of a global shift towards nuclear power, which he believes is key to fulfilling the growing energy needs of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
“The nuclear power sector is going through a significant renaissance, with countries making announcements one after the other to triple their current nuclear power or enter the nuclear power industry” Ian Edwards, the firm’s CEO, told BNN Bloomberg in an interview Friday morning.
“Clearly our business in nuclear is doing well on the back of that. We’ve increased our backlog in our nuclear business by 230 per cent from what it was a year ago, so (there are) a pleasing set of market conditions at the moment.”
Edwards’ comments came a day after the Montreal-based company, formerly known as SNC-Lavalin, released second quarter results that showed a 15 per cent year-over-year revenue increase and a record high total company backlog of more than $20 billion.
AtkinsRéalis’ management has made a concerted effort to simplify its business in recent years, Edwards said, while remaining a major player in the global infrastructure sector; another industry experiencing tailwinds at the moment.
“We’re a global engineering company in infrastructure… around the world our markets are pretty strong. Aging infrastructure in the developed world is fuelling our business and the need for new infrastructure, particularly in the developing world, fuels our business,” he said.
Amid the ongoing rebalancing of global trade triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, there is also renewed interest in strategic infrastructure and nation building projects.
“Across the world, it’s an interesting time for infrastructure. If you look at the U.K. and Canada now with Bill C-5, they’re looking at developing a strategic infrastructure pipeline of projects,” he said.
“This is a real positive because we can see what the future looks like. We can make sure we have the capacity in human resources to do that, and it enables us to plan, so those things are really good and I’m looking forward to seeing the details, particularly of Bill C-5.”
Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, is Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first piece of signature legislation. It enables Carney and his cabinet to fast-track major projects deemed to be in the national interest.
The bill, which was passed into law before Parliament’s summer break, has received pushback from critics including Indigenous groups who say it weakens environmental protections and sidesteps their constitutional rights.
Nuclear is the AI ‘solution’
With expertise in infrastructure and nuclear power, AtkinsRéalis is uniquely positioned to benefit from the growing buildout of AI technology, Edwards said.
“As we know, the hyperscalers are building data centres now that could take up to a gigawatt of electricity, which has put an incredible strain on the electricity grid,” he said.
“Nuclear, we believe, is the solution to that. We’re in several discussions with hyperscaler companies to see if we can sole source our nuclear technology… so that’s a positive.”
Shares in AtkinsRéalis were changing hands at just over $97 apiece in afternoon trading in Toronto on Friday.
