The data centers that train the massive language models behind AI consume unimaginable amounts of energy, making it a big gamble for big tech companies to have enough power to run those plants, which is why Microsoft is now pushing into nuclear power.
The tech giant signed a major deal on Friday with nuclear power plant operator Constellation Energy to buy power for its data centers from Constellation Energy's Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant.
The nuclear plant is located right next to the infamous TMI-2 reactor, which suffered a meltdown in 1979. Unit 1 was shut down in 2019 as demand for nuclear energy waned due to competition from cheaper alternatives like natural gas, solar, and wind.
Constellation said it plans to spend $1.6 billion to restore Unit 1 through 2028, pending regulatory approval.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. A Constellation spokesperson told TechCrunch that Microsoft has agreed to purchase all of the power from the reactor over the next 20 years. Once operational, the reactor is expected to generate 835 megawatts of electricity.
The new plant will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC) after Constellation's former CEO, Chris Crane, who passed away in April. The plant is expected to directly and indirectly create 3,400 jobs, boost Pennsylvania's GDP by $16 billion and generate more than $3 billion in state and federal taxes, according to an economic report commissioned by the Pennsylvania Building Contractors Association.
“Powering industries that are critical to our global economic and technological competitiveness, including our data centers, requires carbon-free, reliable and abundant energy every hour of every day, and nuclear plants are the only energy source that can consistently deliver that,” Constellation president and CEO Joe Dominguez said in a statement.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Microsoft isn't the only tech company using nuclear energy to power its AI data centers: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has called for nuclear energy breakthroughs, and Amazon bought a nuclear data center in Pennsylvania for $650 million in March.
Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet all say they plan to run their data centers entirely on green energy, with Microsoft aiming to do so by 2030, though in May the company acknowledged that its push into AI is putting that goal at risk.
In June, Bloomberg reported that upcoming data centers from major tech companies would consume a combined 508 terawatt-hours of electricity per year if they were operational at all times — more than the entire electricity produced in Australia in a year.
The growing demand for clean electricity to power not only data centers but also electric vehicles, factories and more is sparking a renaissance in nuclear power. Investors are increasingly placing their hopes on nuclear fusion startups, which have raised $7.1 billion to date, as they represent a cleaner, more powerful future for nuclear power. Fusion uses hydrogen as fuel, but nuclear power plants and their fission process rely on hard-to-obtain elements such as uranium and plutonium.