All Access

Climate Deals

Standard

Climate Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

Climate Deals Alerts

Alert

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Climate Deals

BFD Expert Voices

Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon have emerged as top customers for advanced modular nuclear reactors.

Why it matters: Tech companies' soaring demand for clean energy could be a key force that gets small modular nuclear projects (or SMRs) deployed.

Driving the news: Amazon on Wednesday morning announced several deals that could significantly advance the deployment of SMRs, reported Axios Generate.

In addition to a large equity investment in startup X-energy, Amazon is also committing capital to an SMR project in Washington state with utility Energy Northwest.

State of play: Amazon's news comes a day after Google announced a deal with startup Kairos Power for the deployment of SMRs.

On Tuesday, Oklo, which is backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, said it's making progress with its first SMR project in Idaho after the DOE approved its safety design report.

Oracle said during its earnings in September that it's planning to build a data center powered by three SMRs.

Zoom out: Tech companies' soaring demand for clean baseload energy, combined with their deep pockets and appetite for tech risk, have made the sector a top SMR buyer.

The early market pull could help drive the SMR sector, which is largely pre-commercial.

According to data from Wood Mackenzie from March, there are essentially no SMR projects that are operational, under construction, or in the advanced development phase. (Caveat: Wood Mackenzie says there are two operating SMRs, one ship-based and one in China, but these are different from the rest of the market).

Yet SMRs have a 22 GW global pipeline, up more than 65% from the 13 GW of capacity at the end of 2021, said Wood Mackenzie. The research firm said this week its pipeline numbers have risen 2 to 5% in capacity since March.

Reality check: Nuclear power plants, including SMRs, are highly regulated and dependent on approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

SMR project designs have also notoriously gone over budget in recent years, partly thanks to inflation.

The bottom line: Big Tech's SMR deals could kickstart project deployments and could act as a linchpin for the sector.

Big Tech is catalyzing SMR projects

The tech giants need clean energy and are exploring emerging sectors

Illustration of Amazon logo surrounded by the nuclear symbol.

Nuclear power

Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon have emerged as top customers for advanced modular nuclear reactors.Why it matters: Tech companies&#x27; soaring demand for clean energy could be a key force that gets small modular nuclear projects (or SMRs) deployed.

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

transportation

business

c-suite

retail-news

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

charlotte

salt-lake-city

denver

fort-lauderdale

boulder

kansas-city

austin

chicago

dallas

detroit

washington-dc

atlanta

indianapolis

nashville

nw-arkansas

columbus

hollywood

richmond

san-francisco

boston

des-moines

houston

phoenix

miami

philadelphia

seattle

new-orleans

colorado-springs

huntsville

raleigh

san-antonio

twin-cities

pittsburgh

arapahoe

douglas

san-diego

tampa-bay

portland

cleveland

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

Big Tech is catalyzing SMR projects

What to read next