WHY BIG TECH IS THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY'S NEW BEST FRIEND

OVER THE PAST several years, Big Tech firms like Google and Microsoft have trumpeted ambitious plans to go carbon-neutral, or even carbon-negative, by 2030. But then the generative-AI boom came along and threw a giant wrench in their plans.

- DAVID MEYER

Microsoft hopes to tap the former Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to power a nearby data center.

AI models such as OpenAI's GPT-40 and Google's Gemini, which underpin this latest tech craze, suck up vast amounts of energy. In the race to develop better models, with the help of more data centers to train and operate them, companies will need a lot more power to come online, and soon.

One way Big Tech hopes to achieve this, while also keeping its commitment to carbon-free emissions, is by tapping a source that has been much maligned in the U.S.: nuclear power.

In recent months, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have all signed deals to help boost the development of new reactors and restart decommissioned ones. Their agreements are a huge endorsement for the nuclear industry and a sign that the tide against it may be turning.

But getting these ambitious projects to the finish line is far from assured, if the industry's track record is any guide. Of the 94 reactors currently active in the U.S., only four were built within the past three decades.

Public opposition over safety and questions about long-term storage of radioactive waste have made building new nuclear facilities almost a nonstarter. The industry is also facing competition from increasingly cheaper renewable energy that has made nuclear far less attractive financially.

But with the rise of artificial intelligence, and its huge demand for electricity, supporters of nuclear energy feel they have a new opening. And the tech industry has become their new best friend.

The rising impact of data centers on the electrical grid, in many cases to fuel artificial intelligence, is dramatic. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs predicted that server farms would suck up 8% of all U.S. electricity by 2030, up from just 3% in 2022. The data center boom is already a prime reason for soaring power costs across the country.