Amazon, Google, And Meta Plan To Triple Nuclear Energy Capacity By 2050

Nuclear reactor, video screenshot

MIT Sloan reported that artificial intelligence (AI) models, particularly generative AI models like GPT-4, are becoming exponentially larger, requiring more energy. The International Energy Agency has estimated that global electricity demand from data centers could double between 2022 and 2026, fueled in part by AI adoption. In addition, large amounts of water are needed for cooling.

In 2023, over 30 countries committed to triple nuclear capacity by 2050. Nuclear energy already generates 9% of global electricity from 439 reactors and is increasingly attractive for power-hungry data centers; Big Tech is signing billion-dollar utility deals. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia produced two-thirds of global uranium in 2022. 

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At the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Amazon, Google, Occidental, and Japan’s IHI Corp pledged to help triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050, according to Reuters.

“We are truly at the beginning of a new industry,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) expects more support for the pledge from maritime, aviation, and oil and gas industries in the coming months. This builds on a 2023 commitment by over 30 countries to triple nuclear capacity by 2050.

Nuclear energy, generating 9% of global electricity from 439 reactors, is increasingly attractive for power-hungry data centers, with Big Tech signing billion-dollar utility deals.

Reuters reported that uranium oxide prices hit a 16-year high in early 2024 due to supply concerns and rising demand, following COVID-19 disruptions. Supply remains tight, with Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia producing two-thirds of global uranium in 2022, according to WNA.

As of early 2025, 411 nuclear reactors operated worldwide with a combined 371-gigawatt capacity. Amazon, investing over $1 billion in nuclear projects, is exploring small modular reactors, while Meta and Google are also considering the emerging technology.

We’ve been following the story since late last year. We wrote back in early November that Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told Meta workers that plans to build an AI data center powered by nuclear energy were scrapped after rare bees were discovered on the proposed site.

But by December it looked like things could be back on track, according to reporting from Axios, who noted first that Meta is joining industry heavyweights like Amazon and Google in exploring nuclear energy as a zero-carbon solution.

And as we have continued to report, accelerating power demand growth from AI data centers has sparked a nuclear power revival in the US:

 

Read full article here…

 

Link for article about AI from MIT Sloan

 

 

 

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MJRaichyk, PhD
MJRaichyk, PhD
27 days ago

Halleluia… with that amount of TECHSMART USERS INVESTING, maybe we will get THE GRID HARDENED… Finally………. AND as for ”uranium”, even the INTELLIGENT CHINESE are SWITCHING to **MOLTEN SALT THORIUM**… Thorium is ABUNDANT.. THOSE nukes DO NOT MELT DOWN …. and there is a version using thorium with Fluoride Lithium and Berillim called the FLIBE that has the incredible ABILITY TO USE up THE OLD DECREPIT NUKE’s millennim toxic WASTE… ridding US of that albetross…………. PLUS.. it needn’t be pie-in-the-sky… the time frame is blessedly near because: the new nukes are MODULAR, not the old BEHEAMOTHS…that took 20years to build… Read more »

Jeff
Jeff
27 days ago

Wanna stop AI? Starve it.

Jimbo
Jimbo
27 days ago

So for the sake of AI we’re going to chance another Chernobyl,Three Mile Island, and oh yes, an exponential capacity for small, dirty nuclear suitcase bomb material by thefts from small, modular on site nuclear reactors?!?!

What happened to all that promised wind and particularly solar power scale ups that were supposed to kick in all that extra green energy? Isn’t BIll Gates into desert based CSP grid expansion tech?

DOESN’T THE US GOVERNMENT ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION REGULATE BY PERMIT FOR ALL NUCLEAR PLANT CONSTRUCTION, NOT A GROUP OF CORPORATISTS?