Zuck Goes Atomic: Meta Joins Big Tech's Rush to Fuel AI with Nuclear Energy

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is seeking nuclear energy partners to power its growing AI goals, joining other tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in the pursuit of nuclear power to feed their insatiable AI datacenters.

Quartz reports that as the race to dominate the AI landscape intensifies, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has announced plans to partner with nuclear energy developers in the United States. The surveillance capitalism powerhouse is looking for partners that can provide an astonishing one to four gigawatts of new nuclear generation capacity starting in the early 2030s.

Meta’s decision to explore nuclear power comes as no surprise, given the immense energy requirements of AI technologies. The company’s AI chatbot boasts more than 500 million monthly users and is on track to become the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year. To support this growth and future AI innovations, Meta must find reliable, clean, and renewable energy sources.

In a statement, Meta emphasized the importance of expanding electric grids and embracing new energy sources to advance the technologies that will shape the future of human connection. The company is seeking partners that can handle the entire process, from permitting and designing to financing, constructing, and operating power plants, to create long-term nuclear resources.

Meta’s move follows in the footsteps of other tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, who have recently announced partnerships with energy companies to develop small modular reactors (SMRs). These smaller and less potent nuclear reactors come with advanced safety features and can be put online faster due to shorter construction times.

Amazon has signed an agreement with Talen Energy to co-locate a data center facility next to the company’s Pennsylvania-based nuclear facility. Google has entered into the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from SMRs developed by Kairos Power, with the first SMR expected to go online by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Constellation have announced a 20-year power purchase agreement to restart the Unit 1 reactor on Three Mile Island, launching the Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC).

The shift towards nuclear power by tech companies is driven by the immense energy demands of AI and the data centers that power it. According to a study by Goldman Sachs, a single query on ChatGPT consumes almost 10 times as much electricity as a Google search. Ami Badani, chief marketing officer of British chip designer Arm, revealed that data centers powering AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT account for two percent of global electricity consumption, which could eventually slow down AI progress.

The International Energy Agency estimates that the total electricity consumption of data centers could reach more than 1,000 terawatt hours by 2026. As AI continues to advance and become more integrated into our daily lives, the demand for reliable and sustainable energy sources will only increase.