Meta's Massive Nuclear Power Deal: Fueling AI's Future. Facebook parent Meta has signed a groundbreaking 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy, America's largest nuclear power plant operator, to power its AI initiatives. This unprecedented deal, securing all energy from Constellation's Illinois plant starting in 2027, signifies a major shift towards nuclear energy for powering AI's immense energy demands and sent Constellation shares soaring. The agreement highlights the growing importance of reliable energy sources for the burgeoning AI industry
Meta's AI Boom Fuels Nuclear Energy Renaissance: Constellation Energy Partnership Signals Industry Resurgence. Image: A Constellation nuclear plant in Pennsylvania
Meta's Massive 20-Year Deal: Powering AI with Nuclear Energy from Constellation's Clinton Plant. In a landmark agreement, Meta will purchase 100% of the power generated by Constellation Energy's Clinton, Illinois nuclear plant starting in 2027. This unprecedented deal highlights the growing reliance on nuclear energy to fuel the burgeoning artificial intelligence industry
It’s the first-ever example of a company committing to buy all energy from a single nuclear plant, according to The Wall Street Journal, though Constellation did enter a similar, but stripped down, 2024 agreement with Microsoft to reopen a Pennsylvania plant.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Constellation CEO Joseph Dominguez told the Journal it’s “billions of dollars of capital that you’re signing up for to run a plant for 20 more years.”
Constellation stock popped more than 5% following the announcement, hitting a five-month high of $340 per share and market value of more than $100 billion.
Constellation Energy has been one of the biggest winners on Wall Street as AI reshaped corporate America. Dating back to the late 2022 release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, Constellation has returned more than 230% to investors, far outperforming the S&P 500’s 51% return during the period. Constellation is the 16th-best performer on the S&P during the stretch, besting perhaps more obvious AI winners like Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft, Oracle and Tesla.
“Nuclear energy, once a pariah left for dead, is enjoying a rebirth, bolstered by AI’s voracious need for energy and the growing acknowledgment that additional sources of energy will be needed to balance out the intermittency of solar and wind power,” Yardeni Research founder Ed Yardeni wrote in a recent note to clients.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order May 23 aiming to quadruple the U.S.’ nuclear energy capacity by 2050. “It’s time for nuclear,” Trump said at a press conference on the initiative, flanked by Dominguez. Nuclear energy does not produce carbon emissions like fossil fuels, but nuclear had largely gone out of vogue prior to the AI proliferation given its high maintenance costs and concerns about safety.
$64 billion to $72 billion. That’s the amount Meta expects to shell out on capital expenditures this year as it builds out its generative AI initiatives, the firm said in its latest earnings report.
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