Meta joins the nuclear-powered AI fray
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Facebook parent Meta is seeking developers that can bring nuclear reactors online starting in the early 2030s to support data centers and communities around them.
Why it matters: Meta is joining Amazon, Google and other tech giants in turning to nuclear generation to fuel energy-thirsty AI data centers with zero-carbon electrons.
Driving the news: The company just announced a "request for proposals" that targets a large pipeline — one to four gigawatts — of new generation.
- It's seeking partners that can "help accelerate the availability of new nuclear generators and create sufficient scale to achieve material cost reductions by deploying multiple units," an RFP summary states.
The intrigue: While some tech players have unveiled nuclear deals with specific startups, Meta is casting a wide net for now.
- Meta's open to many ideas on the size and type of reactors, the locations and more, Urvi Parekh, Meta's head of global energy, said in an interview.
- The company is hunting for parties "who are going to be there from the beginning to the end of a project" — that is, everything from finding real estate to permitting to design, construction finance, operation and more.
"We want to partner with those people today so that they can have the certainty that we're going to be there and that we can work with them to try to optimize this cycle, to make it scale faster," she said.
- Meta is being "geographically agnostic," because places where reactors can be deployed the fastest may not tie into specific data center sites, she said.
The big picture: Meta is open to cost-sharing early in the development cycle, in addition to purchasing power when projects are online, Parekh said.
- "We want to be really open to creative solutions," she said.
- Parekh noted that the project pipeline they're seeking to build is very large. Meta is hopeful that their approach can help overcome industry "hesitancy" to deploy capital needed for that much development.
Catch up quick: Meta has long invested in renewable power projects.
- While nuclear is more heavily regulated and capital-intensive, she sees parallels to their corporate renewables contracting that began over a decade ago.
- "There were a lot of steps in that process, and there was a lot of need for certainty that there would be someone to buy the electricity on the other side," Parekh said.
What's next: Meta is seeking initial responses by Feb. 7.
