Tech titans invest in nuclear energy to fuel power-hungry AI servers
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An order of fission chips… Big Tech has made a flurry of investments into nuclear power recently, breathing new life into a clean-energy source that’s been on the decline (the US has 94 working nuclear reactors, down from a peak of 112 in 1990). FYI: nuclear power generates 19% of America’s electricity, while fossil fuels power 60%. Now Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are on the hunt for nuclear power to fuel their AI data centers as chatbots guzzle wattage.
Amazon and Google this month struck deals with startups developing small modular reactors that can be built faster for less $$. Google expects to start using them by 2030, but they’ll account for only a small fraction of its overall electricity consumption.
Constellation Energy recently said it plans to give shuttered nuclear plant Three Mile Island a $1.6B reno and restart it by 2028. Once that happens, Microsoft said it’ll buy all the power it can from the plant for 20 years.
Uncle Sam too: Nuclear-tech company Holtec just secured a $1.5B loan from the Department of Energy to restart a US nuclear reactor for the first time.
What is this, a center for data?... The AI race has spiked data-center demand. There are 5K+ data centers in the US, with growth in major markets surging 25% in the first quarter from a year ago. All that buzz is helping industrial-property kingpins like Prologis and Blackstone weather a slowdown in warehouse construction. Prologis said it’ll spend $8B developing data centers in the next five years. Blackstone last month bought a data-center operator for $16B.
It’s a clean-energy race… AI’s electricity needs are driving up tech’s carbon footprint (Google’s has climbed 48% since 2019). Investing in zero-emission nuclear power could help Big Tech reach its green goals while fueling its AI goals. This summer, President Biden signed a law that aims to speed up nuclear licensing and cut fees.