Tech Giants Turn to Nuclear and Renewable Energy to Power AI Ambitions

Big Tech Backs Small Nuclear

Google and Amazon have invested in nuclear reactors that will use tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel: golf ball-size graphite spheres packed with uranium, carbon, and oxygen. When Meta announced last week that it's looking for a nuclear energy developer to power its future AI operations, it joined a growing cadre of tech companies all suddenly repeating the same refrain: We need more power -- preferably carbon-free -- and lots of it. Electricity demand in the United States is expected to grow more than 15 percent over the next five years after remaining flat for the last two decades, according to a recent report from power sector consulting firm Grid Strategies. Most of the growth will be driven by the needs of data centers and their operators, who are scrambling to secure large amounts of reliable power while keeping their carbon neutral goals. Nuclear energy fits that bill, and over the last few months, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all announced ambitious deals to acquire it for their operations. Some of the plans aim to secure energy in the near term from existing power plants. Others focus on the long game and include investments in next-generation nuclear energy and small modular reactors (SMRs) that don't yet exist on a commercial scale. "Data centers have grown in size and AI is dramatically changing the future [energy] forecast," says Dan Stout, founder of Advanced Nuclear Advisors in Chattanooga, Tenn. "In the 2030s, the grid will have less coal and there will be some constraints on gas. So nuclear energy's power density and carbon-free high reliability is attractive, and tech companies are starting to take action on new nuclear deployments," he says. Amazon kicked off the bevy of public announcements in March when it bought a data center adjacent to a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The purchase came with 300 megawatts of behind-the-meter electricity. After closing the deal, Amazon requested another 180 MW. The request caused a dustup over energy fairness, and in November regulators rejected it, leaving Amazon looking for other options. Tech companies are watching the precedent-setting situation closely. Meanwhile, Microsoft was inking an agreement with Constellation Energy to restart a shuttered nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island -- the site of the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history. The plan, announced in September, calls for the reactor to supply 835 MW to grid operator PJM, and for Microsoft to buy enough of that power to match the electricity consumed by its data centers in the PJM Interconnection. Then in October, just two days apart, Google and Amazon both announced investments in startups developing SMRs. The smaller size and modular design of SMRs could make building them faster, cheaper and more predictable than conventional nuclear reactors. They also come with enhanced safety features, and could be built closer to transmission lines. SMRs are still at least five years from commercial operation in the United States. A year ago the first planned SMR in the United States was cancelled due to rising costs and a lack of customers. (China is building an SMR called the Linglong One on the island of Hainan, which is scheduled to be operational in 2026.) To move things along, Amazon led a US $500 million financing round to support X-energy in Rockville, Md., which is developing a gas-cooled SMR. The financing will help X-energy finish its reactor design and build a nuclear fuel fabrication facility. The plan is to build multiple SMRs producing at least 5 GW total by 2039. Each reactor will provide 80 MW of electricity. Google, for its part, is backing Kairos Power with a 500 MW plant development and power purchase agreement. The Alameda, Calif.-based company is developing a molten fluoride salt-cooled SMR and has received construction permits from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build two demonstration facilities, both in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The company says the facilities will be operational by 2030. The reactors that both Kairos and X-energy are developing run on tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel. It's made of uranium, carbon, and oxygen encapsulated in graphite kernels the size of a poppy seed. The kernels get loaded into golf ball-size spheres called pebbles that are also made of graphite. Each pebble contains thousands of fuel kernels. The structure of the pebble encapsulation enables the fuel to withstand very high temperatures, so even in worst-case accidents, the pebbles won't melt. The coatings "essentially provide the key safety functions that the large containment concrete structure is providing for conventional reactor technologies," says Mike Laufer, co-founder of Kairos. If regulators approve, the built-in containment feature could shrink the footprint of nuclear plants by reducing the size of containment structures. The U.S. Department of Energy has been developing and extensively testing TRISO fuel over the last two decades. Kairos will use TRISO fuel in its high-temperature, low-pressure, fluoride salt-cooled reactor. In this design, fuel pebbles in the reactor core undergo fission, generating heat that transfers to the surrounding molten salt. Heat exchangers transfer the heat to boil water and generate steam,which drives a turbine and generates electricity. The molten salt acts as an additional safety barrier, chemically absorbing any fission products that escape the pebbles, Laufer says. Kairos' commercial reactors will each generate about 75 MW of electricity, Laufer says. X-energy plans to use TRISO fuel is its high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. In this design, helium gas runs through the reactor core. As the fuel pebbles undergo fission, the gas extracts the heat, which is used to boil water and generates steam to drive a turbine. Each fuel pebble will constantly shuffle through the reactor, passing through about six times. "The reactor is a lot like a gumball machine," says Benjamin Reinke, vice president of global business development at X-energy. A mechanical corkscrew drives a pebble in an auger out of the system., and the pebble is checked to see if it's fully burned up. If not, it goes back to into the top of the reactor, he says. X-energy is working on getting a license to produce TRISO fuel on a commercial scale at a facility it plans to build in Oak Ridge. The company's first customer, a Dow petrochemical plant in Seadrift, Tex., plans to replace its gas boilers with X-energy's SMRs, which will create steam and electricity for the plant and possibly for the grid. X-energy's deal with Amazon also supports a four-unit, 320-MW project with regional utility Energy Northwest in Richland, Wash. Tech companies for the last decade have been investing in wind and solar energy too, but the power from these sources is intermittent, and may not be enough to meet the needs of power-guzzling AI. The arrangements between big tech and small nuclear signal the beginning of a trend, says Stout. Meta's announcement last week that it's putting out a request for proposals for up to 4 gigawatts of nuclear power may be the most recent addition to that trend, but it's probably not the last. Says Stout: "I expect there's going to be more."

Meta is the latest tech giant to turn to nuclear to power its AI ambitions

AI trip planners will soon be better than human travel agents, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said The company put out a request for proposals Tuesday for nuclear energy developers in the U.S. that can provide one to four gigawatts of new nuclear generation capacity starting in the early 2030s. "Advancing the technologies that will build the future of human connection -- including the next wave of AI innovation -- requires electric grids to expand and embrace new sources of reliable, clean and renewable energy," Meta said in a statement. It's looking for partners that will permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate power plants to create long-term nuclear resources. Meta has doubled down on AI spending, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising to ramp up AI investments into next year. In its third-quarter earnings report, Meta raised capital expenditure estimates for the 2024 fiscal year to between $38 billion and $40 billion. Meta AI, the company's AI chatbot embedded into its popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, has more than 500 million monthly users. Zuckerberg had previously said it was on track to become the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of this year. Read more: AI is pushing data centers toward a nuclear-powered future Over the last several months, major companies including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have announced partnerships with energy companies to set up and construct what are known as "small modular reactors," or SMRs -- smaller and less potent nuclear reactors with advanced safety features. They can also be put online faster because construction takes less time. Amazon (AMZN+1.28%) signed an agreement with with Talen Energy "to co-locate a data center facility next to" the company's Pennsylvania-based nuclear facility. Google (GOOGL-0.10%) announced it had signed "the world's first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy" from SMRs developed by California-based Kairos Power, and expects the first SMR to go online by the end of the decade. And in September, Microsoft (MSFT+0.04%) and Constellation (CEG-0.84%) announced a 20-year power purchase agreement that would restart the Unit 1 reactor on Three Mile Island -- close to the site of one of the worst nuclear power plant accidents in the U.S. Through the deal, which will launch the Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC), Microsoft will purchase energy from the Unit 1 reactor to help meet carbon goals. AI -- and the data centers that power it -- are extremely power hungry. One query on ChatGPT needs almost 10 times as much electricity as a Google search, according to a study by Goldman Sachs (GS+0.04%). In April, Ami Badani, chief marketing officer of British chip designer Arm (ARM+0.05%), said data centers powering AI chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT account for 2% of global electricity consumption. That demand, Badani said, could eventually slow down AI progress. The International Energy Agency estimated in its latest annual forecast that the total electricity consumption of data centers -- which house computing systems -- could reach more than 1,000 terawatt hours in 2026.

Meta Joins Big Tech Nuclear Push for AI Power, Following Google's Atomic Energy Deal

AI processing has significantly increased data center power consumption. Amid surging demand for electricity to fuel AI training and inference, data center operators are actively exploring nuclear power options. Following Google's recent partnership with atomic energy startup Kairos Power, Meta is the latest Big Tech firm to express an interest in building nuclear reactors. Meta Seeking Nuclear Partners On Tuesday, Dec. 3, Meta invited proposals to build new nuclear infrastructure projects that could power its data centers. "We believe that nuclear energy can help provide firm, baseload power to support the growth needs of the electric grids that power both our data centers" and "the communities around them." The latest proposal represents Meta's rising prevalence as a partner in grid development projects. Since 2020, the company says it has helped add 12,000 megawatts of wind, solar and geothermal energy to networks around the world. However, the firm acknowledges that building nuclear power stations is a far more ambitious undertaking. Compared to renewables, "nuclear energy projects are more capital intensive, take longer to develop, are subject to more regulatory requirements, and have a longer expected operational life," it said. As such, Meta is seeking a partner it can work with "across projects and locations" as it embarks on its nuclear journey. The company said it is targeting one to four gigawatts of power and hopes to get generation up and running by the early 2030s. According to the Department of Energy, the average nuclear power station in the U.S. outputs 1 gigawatt. In terms of its potential for generating electricity, the strategy is more ambitious than Google's, which will generate 500 megawatts from Kairos' small reactors. Surging AI Electricity Demand Meta's interest in nuclear power reflects the AI industry's soaring energy needs, driven by the higher electricity consumption of power-hungry GPUs. As AI is integrated into everyday life, more and more of the world's digital activity will require high-energy inference. In 2023, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the average chatbot interaction costs the company "ten times more than a standard keyword search." But that hasn't prevented Google from doubling down on AI search. As data centers have shifted to meet the sector's requirements, their electricity bills have skyrocketed, and in some cases, so have consumers' bills. In Virginia, which is one of the world's preeminent data center hubs, researchers estimate that unless action is taken now, energy prices could increase by as much as 70 percent over the next decade due to demand from data centers. However, more than a decade after the Fukushima meltdown, there are signs that the industry is picking up again. In August, Donald Trump vowed to accelerate nuclear-powered electricity generation to help ensure the U.S. maintains its AI leadership. "For AI," he observed, "you'll need to double the energy that we produce right now just for that one industry if we're going to be the big player and dominant." If the U.S. doesn't secure its leadership of the sector, "then China's going to take over," he warned. Since winning the election, Trump's anticipated appointment of Chris Wright , a board member at nuclear energy firm Oklo, as head of the Department of Energy has further fueled the bullish sentiment around the technology. Meanwhile, advances in reactor technology proposed by companies like Kairos promise to drive down the cost of development with smaller plants that don't require the giant cooling towers traditionally associated with nuclear power.

Meta to seek 1-4GW of American nuclear power for AI

Meta believes it will need one to four gigawatts of nuclear power, in additional to the energy it already consumes, to fuel its AI ambitions. As such, it will put out a request for proposals (RFP) to find developers capable of supplying that level of electricity in the United States by early 2030. "Advancing the technologies that will build the future of human connection -- including the next wave of AI innovation -- requires electric grids to expand and embrace new sources of reliable, clean and renewable energy," the Facebook parent company wrote in a blog post announcing the RFP on Tuesday. But while Meta plans to continue investing in solar and wind, hyperscalers seem convinced that harnessing the atom is the only practical means of meeting AI's thirst for power while making good on its sustainability commitments. This wouldn't be the first time Meta has pursued nuclear fission power. As we previously reported, Meta had planned to build an atomic datacenter complex, but was foiled after a rare species of bees were discovered on a prospective site, resulting in its cancellation. Meta has become a leading developer of generative AI models with Llama 3.1 405B being among its most sophisticated. To support the development of these and future models, Zuckerberg has committed to deploying some 600,000 GPUs, which require a prodigious amount of power to run. As we understand it, additional details regarding the nature of the RFP will be provided to qualified companies. However, we do know that Meta is looking for someone to deploy between one and four gigawatts of nuclear power, suggesting they're still a little uncertain as to the extent of power that'll be required to achieve their goals and that these plans are destined for the US. The blog post also mentions the prospect of deploying multiple units to cut costs. Given the timeline, this suggests that Meta is very likely looking at small modular reactors (SMRs). As their name suggests, SMRs are really just miniaturized reactors not unlike those found in nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, which can be manufactured and co-located alongside datacenters and other industrial buildings. Many hyperscalers and cloud providers faced with AI's energy demands have turned to SMRs for salvation, and there's certainly no shortage of options to choose from. Oklo, X-energy, Terapower, Kairos Power, and NuScale Power are just a handful of the companies actively developing reactor designs. However, it's worth noting that despite all the hype around these itty bitty reactors, nobody has actually managed to prove their commercial viability. But with few alternatives that don't involve abandoning their lofty sustainability pledges, many datacenter operators are pushing ahead with power purchase agreements with SMR vendors. Most recently, Sam Altman-backed startup Oklo revealed it had obtained letters of intent from two major datacenter providers to deliver 750 megawatts of power. Amazon has also committed to investing in nuclear power. Back in October, the e-commerce and cloud giant announced it was working with X-energy to construct several SMRs. Google, meanwhile, has teamed up with Kairos on a similar plan, and Oracle says it's obtained building permits for a trio of SMRs to power a one gigawatt datacenter campus. However, it remains to be seen whether these plans will ever pan out. In addition to strict regulatory controls on nuclear power, the technology is seen by many as unsafe despite evidence to the contrary. Perhaps more pressing is the fact that SMRs, at least in the early days, won't be cheap. Earlier this year, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis argued that SMRs are "too expensive, too slow to build, and too risky to play a significant role in transitioning away from fossil fuels." Of course, SMRs aren't Meta's only option here. Microsoft is working with Constellation Energy to bring the decommissioned Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island back online. Meanwhile, Amazon earlier this year purchased Talen Energy's Cumulus atomic datacenter co-located alongside the 2.5 gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania for $650 million. However, even existing nuclear infrastructure isn't a sure bet. This November, Amazon hit a roadblock after federal regulators rejected a deal that would have let it increase its power draw at the site from 300 to 480 megawatts. Bringing these plans online is by no means trivial. As we previously reported, the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan, which received a $1.5 billion loan from Uncle Sam, will require substantial and costly repairs to its steam generator tubes. ®

Meta pushes zero-carbon energy strategy with solar deal

Meta has signed contracts with renewable energy firm Invenergy for 760 megawatts of solar power capacity, the companies said on Thursday. The deal is part of the Facebook-owner's search for cleaner power sources, including nuclear, as its power needs expand, namely because of the adoption of artificial intelligence. The project involves solar facilities in four US states and pushes Meta's total renewable energy agreements with Chicago-based Invenergy beyond 1 gigawatt. Operations are expected to begin between 2024 and 2027. The electricity will supply local power grids while Meta receives clean energy credits, supporting its goal of powering all operations with renewable energy. "Energy demand is soaring," said Invenergy Executive Vice President Ted Romaine, noting the projects will create jobs and generate "millions in local economic benefits." Meta's Head of Global Energy Urvi Parekh said the agreement helps match the company's growing power needs with clean energy sources. Invenergy, the largest privately held clean energy developer in the US, said it has developed over 32,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Meta announced plans on Tuesday to seek proposals for 1-4 gigawatts of new nuclear generation capacity in the US, targeting operations in the early 2030s. The nuclear initiative aims to support Meta's growing artificial intelligence operations and data centers while contributing to grid reliability. Building AI consumes a tremendous amount of electricity because it involves intensive computing operations. It also emits a lot of CO when using power generated by coal or natural gas. As tech companies seek energy sources to meet these demands while maintaining their zero-carbon emission commitments, the chase for nuclear, wind and solar power has intensified. Meta's push into nuclear power follows similar initiatives by Microsoft and Amazon that are also scrambling to find enough power to needs of their AI ambitions, while also meeting zero-carbon targets.

Meta Seeks Nuclear Partners to Power AI and Data Centers

Meta has announced that it is looking to partner with nuclear energy developers to support its advances in the artificial intelligence domain. Nuclear energy can "help provide firm, baseload power to support the growth needs of the electric grids that power both our data centers (the physical infrastructure on which Meta's platforms operate) as well as the communities around them," the company noted. Issuing a request for proposals (RFP), Meta said it was seeking to work with partners who will "permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate these power plants" and will ensure the long-term thinking necessary to accelerate nuclear technology. The company said that it is looking for partners who can assist it with either Small Modular Reactors (SMR) or large nuclear reactors, adding that it is moving forward with an aim to add 1-4 Gigawatts (GW) of new nuclear generation capacity in the United States to be delivered starting early 2030s. "Since 2020, we have matched our global operations with 100% clean and renewable energy and focused on bringing new resources to the grid through innovative partnerships - totaling over 12,000 MW of renewable energy contracts worldwide to date," it stated. This comes amid a push in recent months from tech giants, including Amazon and Google, who have secured multiple deals to power their data centres. Google' signed an agreement back in October with Kairos Power and is aiming for its first SMR functional by 2030. Amazon Web Services has invested more than $500 million in three US-based projects by Dominion Energy, a utility company based in the state of Virginia, to oversee the development of a small, modular nuclear reactor. Microsoft, on the other hand, signed a deal with energy company Constellation Energy back in September, focusing on getting up and running a unit of the Three Mile Unit nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which partially suffered a nuclear meltdown back in 1970s. Bobby Hollis, vice president of energy at Microsoft, termed the agreement to be a "major milestone in Microsoft's efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative," as per reports.

Google kicks off $20B renewable energy building spree to power AI | TechCrunch

Nuclear power may have received the lion's share of attention from energy hungry tech companies over the past few months, with Google among them. But it appears that those new reactors won't be enough for their AI ambitions: Google is now working with partners to build gigawatts of renewable power, battery storage, and grid upgrades to power its data centers. Google announced Tuesday it signed a deal with renewable developer Intersect Power and investment fund TPG Rise Climate to spin up enough carbon-free power to drive several gigawatt-scale data centers. Altogether, the investment in renewable power will run about $20 billion, and Intersect is already financing the first project, the company told TechCrunch. The deal also includes an $800 million equity investment in Intersect Power, with TPG leading the round and CAI, Google, and Greenbelt Capital Partners participating. As tech companies like Google rush to bolster their AI capabilities, they've embarked on a building spree so vast that experts expect new AI data centers might be underpowered by 2027. That has forced tech companies to invest in new sources of energy. For the new project, a hypothetical 1 gigawatt-scale data center would be matched with an equivalent amount each of wind, solar, and battery storage, which would have enough capacity to last two to four hours, Bloomberg reported. Both the data center and the renewable power park would be connected to the same point on the grid. Google said it will foot the bill for any required upgrades to the grid. The hope is that the arrangement would help the data centers and renewable power parks get connected quickly. There are 11,860 active requests in the U.S. from power producers wanting to connect with the grid, according to Interconnection.fyi. A total of 2.05 terawatts of capacity are waiting, nearly double what's currently installed and connected. The majority of those are for solar and battery projects. Google and Intersect will be taking a phased approach, with the first phase operational by 2026 and fully completed by 2027, highlighting the speed at which renewable power can be deployed. That pace should put pressure on nuclear power startups and developers, all of which have longer timelines. The quickest nuclear project -- Microsoft's restarting of a reactor at Three Mile Island -- is scheduled to come online in 2028. Google's deal with small modular reactor startup Kairos has a 2030 deadline for the first of several power plants, while Amazon's contract with SMR startup X-Energy is targeting the early 2030s. All of that assumes the projects proceed as planned and are completed on time, something that has so far eluded the nuclear power industry.

Meta turns to nuclear power for AI training -- asking for developer proposals for small modular reactors or larger nuclear solutions

AI training is consuming so much power -- more than the current electricity grid can provide -- that Meta is now actively looking for proposals from nuclear developers to build nuclear power plants for its AI dreams. According to the social media giant's Sustainability blog, it's releasing a request for proposals to find nuclear energy developers that will help it get 1 to 4 gigawatts of new generation capacity. The company also said that it's "taking an open approach" to "partner with others across the industry" to increase the grid's capacity using nuclear energy. Meta says that any potential partner must have development opportunities in building small modular reactors (SMRs) or even larger nuclear reactors. They must also have strong community engagement as well as expertise in developing, applying for permits, and executing projects. Through this call for proposals, the company hopes to identify potential partners that will help it get nuclear power sooner and that can scale their output (i.e., deploy multiple units of SMRs) to make nuclear power cheaper. While the company says that it's looking for a partner in its nuclear energy project, it also said that the chosen firm must "ultimately permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate these power plants" as it wants an organization that has is fully invested in nuclear technology. This means that Meta is likely not looking to out a significant amount of money to build a power plant -- instead, it wants to sign a contract with its chosen provider saying that it will buy a specific amount of power generated at a fixed price. In other words, Meta is jumping on the nuclear power bandwagon to find the power that it needs to train its AI. Mark Zuckerberg himself said that power will constrain AI growth, and other tech giants have already begun working on nuclear energy sources to supplement their electricity needs. This includes Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle. Even Westinghouse, which has traditionally been one of the builders of large nuclear plants around the U.S., is working on a microreactor as a means of deploying nuclear energy faster to where it's needed. The aforementioned companies already inked deals for their nuclear ambitions in 2024, while Meta has set its proposal deadline for Feb. 7, 2025. It might seem that the social media giant is late to the party, but given that it takes years before a nuclear reactor can start operating, it's probably not off by much. Nevertheless, the fact that Meta is looking to obtain nuclear power sooner means that it recognizes the importance of being among the first to deploy this source of energy for powering future generations of AI models.

Meta 'taking an open approach' with nuclear energy, small modular reactors for AI datacenters

Meta is shifting into the warm arms of nuclear power for its AI training, with the company posting a new blog on its sustainability website saying that "we believe nuclear energy will play a pivotal role in the transition to a cleaner, more reliable, and diversified electric grid". In the new post, Meta announces that it is going to release a request for proposals (RFP) to find nuclear energy developers to help them on their nuclear-powered journey. Meta aims to add 1-4 GW of new nuclear eneration capacity in the United States to be delivered "starting in the early 2030s". Meta explains: "We are looking to identify developers that can help accelerate the availability of new nuclear generators and create sufficient scale to achieve material cost reductions by deploying multiple units, both to provide for Meta's future energy needs and to advance broader industry decarbonization. We believe working with partners who will ultimately permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate these power plants will ensure the long-term thinking necessary to accelerate nuclear technology".

Meta Also Wants Nuclear-Powered Data Centers For AI

Promps and queries with generative AI is processed through data centers that also process thousands, if not millions, of queries at the same time. A lot of companies seem to think nuclear power is a solution to potential power limitations in the long term, including Meta. In a bid to power its growing data center needs, Meta is seeking proposals from nuclear power developers to add 1 to 4 gigawatts of electricity generating capacity in the U.S. This announcement comes after Meta's earlier attempt to build a data center next to an existing nuclear reactor was reportedly thwarted due to environmental concerns. The Menlo Park-based company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is willing to share early development costs and commit to purchasing power once the reactors are operational. However, the company has set an ambitious timeline, requiring initial proposals by February 7, 2025, and expecting the plants to be online in the early 2030s. Unlike its previous effort, Meta now doesn't mind too much the location of the new nuclear power plants, as long as they support the electric grids powering both its data centers and surrounding communities. This flexible approach may help Meta navigate regulatory hurdles that have both killed its previous effort and thwarted efforts for other companies such as Amazon. Whether Meta will be able to meet this timeline at all remains an open question. It's certainly not the only company with similarly ambitious goals, though. Amazon, for one, wants to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, just a year from now. Microsoft is also trying to go forward with its own, slightly controversial plans for nuclear power. That power generation would probably be more helpful towards replacing coal, natural gas, and other sources that create more emissions, rather than creating weird Facebook memes, but oh well. Source: TechCrunch

Meta seeks nuclear power developers for reactors to start in early 2030s

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Meta said on Tuesday it is seeking proposals from nuclear power developers to help meet its artificial intelligence and environment goals, becoming the latest big tech company to take interest in atomic power amid an expected boom in power demand. The company wants to add 1 to 4 gigawatts of new U.S. nuclear generation capacity starting in the early 2030s, it said in a release. A typical U.S. nuclear plant has a capacity of about 1 gigawatt. "At Meta, we believe nuclear energy will play a pivotal role in the transition to a cleaner, more reliable, and diversified electric grid," the company said in a release. U.S. data center power use is expected to roughly triple between 2023 and 2030 and will require about 47 gigawatts of new generation capacity, according to Goldman Sachs estimates. Microsoft and Constellation Energy announced a deal in September to restart a unit at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania in what would be the first-ever restart for a data center. The announcement follows a similar agreement in March in which Amazon.com, purchased a nuclear-powered data center from Talen Energy. Meta said it is seeking developers with expertise in community engagement, development and permitting, and would consider either small modular reactors, an emerging part of the business that is not yet commercial, or larger nuclear reactors similar to today's fleet of U.S. nuclear plants. Meta said it will take submissions from developers that want to take part in the request for proposals until Jan. 3, 2025. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Meta Flirts With Nuclear for AI. It's Still Married to Gas.

The gathering excitement about new nuclear plants powering artificial intelligence is tainted by a whiff of gas. Meta Platforms Inc. has just announced it will issue a formal request for proposals from developers to build between one and four gigawatts of new nuclear capacity to help meet its growing demand for energy to run data centers. This is potentially significant. To date, Big Tech's deals for nuclear power have centered mainly on taking electricity from existing plants or reviving a recently closed reactor. Yet such arrangements are inherently limited, especially after federal utility regulators ruled against Amazon.com Inc.'s deal for a nuclear-powered, co-located data center.

Meta Joins Big Tech's Shift To Nuclear Power For AI Ambitions - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

The company wants to add 1 to 4 gigawatts of new U.S. nuclear generation capacity. On Tuesday, Meta Platforms Inc META announced plans to seek proposals from nuclear energy developers to accomplish its artificial intelligence innovation and sustainability goals. The artificial intelligence frenzy has been pivotal in the accelerated adoption of nuclear energy as a power source, prompting big tech firms to indulge in nuclear energy-related projects to generate power for their ongoing AI development initiatives, Reuters reports. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads is eyeing 1-4 gigawatts (GW) of new nuclear generation capacity in the U.S. starting in the early 2030s. Also Read: Meta Platforms Talks Political Misinformation, Content Moderation In Latest Blog The company emphasized the importance of electric grids expanding and adopting new sources of reliable, clean, and renewable energy to drive the technologies that will build the future of human connection, including the next wave of AI innovation. According to Reuters, Meta Platforms expects nuclear energy to support the growth needs of the electric grids that power its data centers and the communities around them. Meanwhile, Amazon.Com Inc AMZN cloud unit Amazon Web Services tapped with Dominion Energy, Inc D to develop a small modular reactor near Dominion's existing North Anna nuclear power station. In October, Amazon committed over $500 million in nuclear power across three projects from Virginia to Washington state. AWS expects the new SMRs to add a minimum of 300 megawatts of power to the Virginia region. Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google forged a deal with Kairos Power to buy power via SMRs, enabling up to 500 MW of new carbon-free power to U.S. electricity grids. Microsoft Inc MSFT engaged Constellation Energy Corp CEG to reopen Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Microsoft agreed to exclusively purchase the plant's energy for two decades. Meta Platforms stock has surged over 77% year-to-date. Bank of America, Rosenblatt, Goldman Sachs, and Needham analysts projected upside for the stock fueled by Llama and Meta AI. Meta's AI investments drove the 20% revenue growth and have the potential for upside despite higher capex, as per the analysts. Price Action: META stock was down 0.77% at $608.75 at last check Wednesday. Also Read: Marvell Unveils New Platform, Targets Growing AI Bandwidth Demands Photo: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Meta wants enough nuclear power to go back to the year 1955 about three times

One of Google's best AI moonshots to date could soon come to Gemini on Android Key Takeaways Meta is releasing an RFP for nuclear energy developers to partner with and build up to 4GW of clean, sustainable nuclear energy in the US. Mark Zuckerberg's company is venturing into nuclear power as part of its ambitious plans for AI and clean energy investments. Meta aims to secure partners through the RFP process to help build the capacity it envisions for a future powered by AI. ✕ Remove Ads Meta is going nuclear. The company announced it will release a request for proposals (RFP) for nuclear energy developers to partner up and build nuclear reactors across the country. It hopes this investment will be enough to meet the energy demands of AI in the future. Related Meta AI: What is it, who can use it, and how? Learn about Meta AI and how you can use this free, open source artificial intelligence to chat, create images, and more Posts Meta made the announcement in a blog post, where it stated it believes nuclear power is the key to unlocking up to 4GW of energy in a clean, sustainable manner. The company just needs some partners who know how to build nuclear power plants to do it. How much energy is 4GW? ✕ Remove Ads Mark Zuckerberg's company has been investing heavily in AI, VR, and clean energy research for over a decade. However, this is the first time a social media company has decided to tackle something as capital-intensive as nuclear power. And it's not just one nuclear energy plant, either. Meta wants to add up to 4GW of capacity to the national energy grid. How much is that? According to the US Department of Energy, 1GW would power 100 million LED light bulbs. A watt is a measurement of power and a Gigawatt (GW) has one billion watts. A single nuclear power reactor will produce up to 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power a day, or 1/1000th of a gigawatt. The average plant, with four reactors, can produce up to 1GW of energy a year. There are currently 61 nuclear power plants with 98 reactors in the US. Zuckerberg's plan would mean the construction of at least four more plants, and possibly up to six, depending on the number of reactors per plant and any new technologies to make nuclear energy production more efficient. ✕ Remove Ads Meta's RFP is just the beginning of the process, but it shows the company is serious. It is tackling things on a level beyond many governments. For example, the company has begun laying a globe-spanning undersea fiber optic cable, one of the largest ever. Meta aims to provide the energy and data connections it needs for the future, which the company is betting will be powered entirely by AI. But it needs partners to do so. The RFP process will allow the company to meet with potential experts, firms, and investors to discuss how to get these projects off the ground. There has not been any mention of it from regulators yet, but that will surely be a big part of Meta's plans. What this means for the future Meta will continue to prioritize AI as it moves forward with its plans. The company sees the future internet as an AI-powered platform it can own through strategic investments today. 4GW of clean nuclear energy surely won't hurt the energy grid, either. ✕ Remove Ads

Facebook to be powered by nuclear reactors as Zuckerberg eyes mini-nukes

Facebook could soon be powered by nuclear energy as its parent company seeks to build multiple power plants to supercharge its artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has called for bids to build up to 4 GW of nuclear power capacity, equivalent to four full-sized nuclear reactors, amid surging energy demands from the technology industry. The technology giant is also considering developing mini-nuclear reactors, known as small modular reactors (SMR), which can be placed near its data centres to provide clean power. "We believe that nuclear energy can help provide firm, baseload power to support the growth needs of the electric grids that power both our data centres as well as the communities around them," Meta said. Meta said it was seeking suppliers with "execution expertise that have development opportunities for new nuclear energy resources - either small modular reactors (SMR) or larger nuclear reactors". Technology giants have long invested in renewable power generation, building or buying-in solar, wind and geothermal energy to meet their green goals. Meta, for instance, said it had reached net zero in its operations in 2020 by buying renewable power. However, a dramatic increase in demand for data centres as power-hungry AI technology is rolled out has threatened the climate goals of the industry, prompting a rush to buy up nuclear capacity. Earlier this year Google admitted its emissions had climbed nearly 50pc compared to its 2019 baseline, while Microsoft's had increased by 29pc since 2020. "Our aim is to add 1-4 GW of new nuclear generation capacity in the US to be delivered starting in the early 2030s," Meta said. "We are looking to identify developers that can help accelerate the availability of new nuclear generators." Meta's rivals have also been investing aggressively in nuclear. In September, Microsoft announced an agreement to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. The deal is worth a reported $16bn (£12.6bn).

Meta seeks new nuclear reactors to run U.S. data centers

Meta is seeking as much as 4 gigawatts of new nuclear energy as the company looks for a reliable electricity source for its data centers. The Facebook parent is asking developers to submit proposals to deliver 1 to 4 GW of reactor capacity, starting in the early 2030s, according to a statement Tuesday. Commercial nuclear reactors generate about 1 GW of electricity, enough for 750,000 typical homes. Meta is racing to line up clean energy to meet the massive electricity needs of its artificial intelligence ambitions. Like fellow tech giants Amazon and Google parent Alphabet, it's now pursuing a tantalizing but hard-to-develop energy source -- nuclear power.