Meta is joins Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in seeking nuclear power for AI – Complete Guide

Meta Platforms (META-0.62%) is on the hunt for nuclear energy partners to power its artificial intelligence goals.

The company put out a request for proposals Tuesday for nuclear energy developers in the U.S. that can provide one to four gigawatts of new nuclear generation capacity starting in the early 2030s.

“Advancing the technologies that will build the future of human connection — including the next wave of AI innovation — requires electric grids to expand and embrace new sources of reliable, clean and renewable energy,” Meta said in a statement.

It’s looking for partners that will permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate power plants to create long-term nuclear resources.

Meta has doubled down on AI spending, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising to ramp up AI investments into next year. In its third-quarter earnings report, Meta raised capital expenditure estimates for the 2024 fiscal year to between $38 billion and $40 billion.

Meta AI, the company’s AI chatbot embedded into its popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, has more than 500 million monthly users. Zuckerberg had previously said it was on track to become the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of this year.

Read more: AI is pushing data centers toward a nuclear-powered future

Over the last several months, major companies including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have announced partnerships with energy companies to set up and construct what are known as “small modular reactors,” or SMRs — smaller and less potent nuclear reactors with advanced safety features. They can also be put online faster because construction takes less time.

Amazon (AMZN+2.95%) signed an agreement with with Talen Energy “to co-locate a data center facility next to” the company’s Pennsylvania-based nuclear facility. Google (GOOGL+1.58%) announced it had signed “the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy” from SMRs developed by California-based Kairos Power, and expects the first SMR to go online by the end of the decade.

And in September, Microsoft (MSFT+1.83%) and Constellation (CEG+3.22%) announced a 20-year power purchase agreement that would restart the Unit 1 reactor on Three Mile Island — close to the site of one of the worst nuclear power plant accidents in the U.S. Through the deal, which will launch the Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC), Microsoft will purchase energy from the Unit 1 reactor to help meet carbon goals.

AI — and the data centers that power it — are extremely power hungry. One query on ChatGPT needs almost 10 times as much electricity as a Google search, according to a study by Goldman Sachs (GS-0.36%). In April, Ami Badani, chief marketing officer of British chip designer Arm (ARM+1.31%), said data centers powering AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT account for 2% of global electricity consumption. That demand, Badani said, could eventually slow down AI progress.

The International Energy Agency estimated in its latest annual forecast that the total electricity consumption of data centers — which house computing systems — could reach more than 1,000 terawatt hours in 2026.

— Britney Nguyen contributed to this article.