Landmark deals with three companies mark latest move by big tech giant to secure huge amounts of low-carbon electricity
Meta has announced agreements with three nuclear power providers as part of its efforts to secure the energy resources for its AI ambitions.
The arrangements with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo, which are all working on advanced nuclear power technologies, are for Meta’s Prometheus supercluster computing system that is being built at a data centre in New Albany, Ohio. No financial terms were disclosed.
Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg announced Prometheus in July, describing the system as one of the keys to the development of the company’s advanced artificial intelligence efforts. Meta has said it expects Prometheus to come online sometime in 2026.
In working with the three companies on energy production, Meta said the projects should add 6.6 GW of power by 2035, equivalent to the capacity of about six large-scale nuclear power reactors.
“State-of-the-art data centres and AI infrastructure are essential to securing America’s position as a global leader in AI,” Meta policy chief Joel Kaplan said in a statement.
The company said in a statement: “Supporting nuclear energy development strengthens our country’s energy infrastructure and helps create a more reliable electric grid, which are key to powering the economy and securing America’s energy independence and global leadership in AI.”
Vistra said it has signed 20-year power purchase agreements to provide more than 2,600 MW of energy from a combination of its Beaver Valley, Davis-Besse, and Perry nuclear power stations to support Meta’s operations.
Agreement ‘Will Help Fund Vistra Nuclear Plants’
Meta said the agreement will help fund Vistra’s nuclear power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania, extending the lifespan of those facilities and increasing their energy production.
Meta’s deal with TerraPower, which was co-founded by Bill Gates, will provide funding for two of the energy company’s nuclear projects that are under development and could begin generating power by 2032, according to Friday’s announcement. Meta said it could obtain rights for more energy from up to six of TerraPower’s other nuclear energy projects that are targeted for delivery by 2035. TerraPower is working on construction of it first Natrium advanced reactor in Wyoming.
Meanwhile, Oklo’s advanced nuclear technology campus is expected to come online as soon as 2030 in Pike County, Ohio, Meta said. Oklo, in which OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman is a major investor, is working on three major advanced reactor projects: its Aurora Powerhouse, its Pluto reactor, and a third reactor that is being led by subsidiary Atomic Alchemy.
The company said the agreement with Meta provides a mechanism for Meta to prepay for power and provide funding to advance project certainty for Aurora powerhouse deployment.
Altman stepped down as chairman of Oklo’s board in April as a way to help the company secure more customers with companies that compete with OpenAI.
The deals mark the latest efforts by Meta to secure the energy needed to power its AI infrastructure as the company aims for Zuckerberg’s goal of developing superintelligence, a term used to describe AI that can greatly exceed the capabilities of humans on numerous tasks.
Big Tech Rivals Also Looking To Nuclear Power
Meta’s big tech rivals are also looking to nuclear power to help fuel their AI work. Meta, Amazon and Google signed a pledge in March supporting the tripling of global nuclear energy production by 2050. All three companies have signed deals related to the development and use of nuclear power.
In June, Meta announced a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy so it could purchase purchase nuclear power from the company’s Clinton nuclear power station in Illinois beginning in 2027.
In 2024 Google said it will back the construction of seven SMRs from Kairos Power, becoming the first tech company to commission new nuclear power plants to provide low-carbon electricity for its energy-hungry data centres. Google has also agreed with electric utility NextEra to support the restart of the Duane Arnold nuclear power station in Iowa.
Microsoft announced that it would commit to buying 20 years’ supply of electricity from the mothballed Three Mile Island nuclear power plant – now renamed Crane – if Constellation restarted one of the two plants at the Pennsylvania site.
Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of the online retail giant founded by Jeff Bezos, acquired US power producer Talen Energy’s Cumulus data centre campus at the Susquehanna nuclear power station in Pennsylvania.
In October Amazon unveiled updated plans for an SMR facility in Washington that have 12 reactors producing a maximum of 960 MW of electricity.
The Cascade Advanced Energy Facility will be constructed in three phases, each with four of X-energy’s 80-MW, high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.
A rendering of Oklo’s Aurora Powerhouse nuclear plant. Courtesy Oklo.
