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Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has saved a nuclear plant from closure as the Facebook-owner races to secure more power to fuel its artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions.
The technology giant has signed a deal with US nuclear operator Constellation Energy to buy energy from its Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois for 20 years.
Starting in June 2027, Meta will buy 1.1 gigawatts (GW) of energy from Constellation’s plant, roughly the whole capacity of a single reactor at the site.
It brings an end to uncertainty over the future of the nuclear site. Without the deal, the plant had been at risk of shutting down permanently, with a taxpayer-backed subsidy scheme that had kept the plant operating due to expire in 2027.
Constellation said the deal with Meta would preserve 1,100 local jobs while the plant would continue to provide energy for 800,000 homes.
The tie-up is the first major nuclear deal for Mr Zuckerberg’s social media empire, which has been hunting for clean energy capacity to power its growing fleet of AI data centres.
Urvi Parekh, the head of global energy at Meta, said: “Securing clean, reliable energy is necessary to continue advancing our AI ambitions. We are proud to help keep the Clinton plant operating for years to come and demonstrate that this plant is an important piece to strengthening American leadership in energy.”
Last year, Mr Zuckerberg said Meta was seeking up to 4GW of nuclear capacity, equivalent to four full-sized reactors and more than the entire planned output of Britain’s Sizewell C nuclear project.
Silicon Valley’s technology giants have invested in clean power sources for years, buying up renewable energy capacity. Meta, for instance, said it reached net zero in its operations in 2020.
However, demand for power-hungry new AI products such as ChatGPT, which require vast data centres to develop and maintain, has forced technology companies to seek additional energy sources.
This soaring power demand has sent the emissions goals of some technology giants into reverse. Last year, Google said its carbon emissions had increased by nearly 50pc compared to its 2019 baseline. Microsoft’s had increased by 29pc since 2020.
Businesses including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have been hunting for nuclear power sources or investing in advanced new technologies, such as small modular reactors or nuclear fusion.
They have also been reactivating ageing nuclear fleets to meet their immediate power demands.
Last September, Microsoft said it would restart a nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in a deal reportedly worth $16bn (£12bn).
Google, meanwhile, said last October that it would order seven mini-nuclear reactors from Kairos Power, an energy start-up. Amazon is investing $500m in the development of next-generation small reactors.