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- Meta announces a slew of nuclear energy agreements (engadget.com)
Meta Goes Nuclear: Powering AI with Atomic Energy in Ohio and Beyond
COLUMBUS, OH – Get ready for a major power surge! Social media giant Meta is making significant strides in securing the energy needed to fuel its ambitious AI infrastructure, including a massive 1-gigawatt data center currently under construction in Ohio. The company has announced three new agreements to purchase nuclear power, aiming to bring an impressive 6.6 gigawatts of generation online for its projects by 2035.
Meta is teaming up with powerhouses Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo to make this atomic dream a reality. These partnerships highlight a growing trend among tech titans to embrace nuclear energy as a sustainable and robust solution for their ever-increasing power demands.
TerraPower Partnership: New Reactors on the Horizon
The collaboration with TerraPower will see Meta funding the development of two new reactors, projected to deliver up to 690 megawatts of power as early as 2032. But that’s not all – this deal also grants Meta rights to energy from six additional reactors, potentially adding another 2.1 gigawatts by 2035. This substantial power boost will come from TerraPower’s innovative Natrium reactors, which utilize sodium as a coolant, a departure from traditional water-cooled designs.
Oklo Agreement: Bringing Jobs and Power to Ohio
A separate agreement with Oklo is set to bring 1.2 gigawatts of nuclear power online as early as 2030. Meta anticipates this partnership will pave the way for the construction of multiple Oklo reactors, promising to generate thousands of construction and long-term operations jobs right here in Ohio. It’s worth noting that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a significant investor in Oklo, holding a substantial stake in the company.
Vistra Deals: Boosting Existing Plant Output
Meta’s agreement with Vistra focuses on optimizing existing nuclear power plants. Through new 20-year deals, Meta will purchase over 2.1 gigawatts of electricity from several of Vistra’s operational plants in Ohio.
Furthermore, Meta is backing efforts to add capacity at these sites, as well as another in Pennsylvania. Vistra expects this additional capacity, totaling 433 megawatts, to come online in the early 2030s.
Big Tech’s Nuclear Future
This move by Meta is part of a larger trend in the tech industry. Last year, Meta signed a nuclear power agreement with Constellation Energy.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is famously building its own small modular nuclear reactor to power a new data center, with a 20-year deal making it the plant’s sole customer. As AI continues to expand its reach, it appears nuclear power is increasingly becoming the go-to solution for meeting the immense energy needs of the future.
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- Meta announces a slew of nuclear energy agreements (engadget.com)