The future of powering data centres and artificial intelligence cloud computing is being bet on nuclear energy. Is it just the beginning of a new paradigm for energy?
What’s happening:
- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has entered into multiple new agreements focused on nuclear energy and is leading a $500M USD Series C financing round for small modular reactor company X-energy
Why it matters:
- There has been a growing connection between publicly listed technology giants and nuclear energy lately, which has led both Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to launch new nuclear power purchase agreements
- The grand ambitions of Microsoft, Amazon and Google for artificial intelligence cloud computing is projected to consume record breaking amounts of electricity which has made nuclear energy more relevant than ever as a potential commercial scale source of zero carbon power
Going deeper:
- Amazon has also entered into a new deal with Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) to explore the possibility of building small modular reactors near Amazon’s data centres in Virgina
- Citadel founder Ken Griffin also participated in the Series C financing round for X-energy, which is particularly notable as he has been very publicly outspoken about the need for North America to be on the leading edge of nuclear energy infrastructure
- This is not the first time Amazon has leaned in to nuclear energy, previously purchasing a data centre campus located in Pennsylvania that is powered entirely by the Susquehanna nuclear power facility owned and operated by Talen Energy (NASDAQ: TLN)
The intrigue:
- OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has been placing his own bets on nuclear energy to power artificial intelligence workloads, being one of the first investors into Oklo and leading them onto the New York Stock Exchange through a SPAC transaction to advance
