The deals could ultimately total more than 6 gigawatts—enough to power a city of roughly 5 million homes, News.Az reports, citing Bloomberg.
The agreements underscore how the rush by Big Tech to secure reliable energy supplies continues unabated, fueled by intense competition in the artificial intelligence industry.
Meta said Friday it will purchase electricity from three existing Vistra Corp. plants and support several small reactors that Sam Altman-backed Oklo Inc. and Bill Gates-backed TerraPower LLC are planning to build over the next decade. Those deals follow a separate June agreement to get energy from a Constellation Energy Corp. nuclear site.
Vistra’s shares rose 10% before trading opened in New York on Friday. Oklo’s shares were up about 20%.
While surging US power demand for data centers has helped revive appetite for nuclear energy, hyperscalers that long pledged to go green have recently considered or pursued deals with natural gas-fired plants — generators that are usually much easier and swifter to build. Nuclear projects often take a decade to develop and build, whereas data centers can be operational far quicker, creating a more urgent need for energy.
US power usage is expected to climb at least 30% by 2030, with most of the new demand coming from data centers, according to a recent report from energy consulting firm Grid Strategies. But power suppliers are struggling to keep up, and electricity has become one of the most significant bottlenecks for developing artificial intelligence.
Even with tech firms’ recent deals with gas-fired plants, they’re still keen for nuclear power that’s clean and can provide round-the-clock energy.
Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have all signed deals to tap power from nuclear reactors. Those plans have now been dwarfed by Meta’s efforts.
