Meta signed a deal with Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear plant operator in the U.S., in order to power its energy-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.
According to the deal, Meta would buy all power produced in Constellation’s plant in Clinton, Illinois, for a 20-year period beginning 2027.
According to Wall Street Journal, this is the first time a company signed a deal to buy all energy from a single nuclear plant, though Constellation had entered into a similar but a stripped-down agreement with Microsoft in 2024 to reopen a Pennsylvania plant.
While the financial terms of the deal are yet to be disclosed, Constellation CEO Joseph Dominguez said “billions of dollars of capital that you’re signing up for to run a plant for 20 more years.”
READ: Amid surging energy demands from AI and data centers, Big Tech turns to nuclear power (November 29, 2024)
Constellation — which produces enough energy to power over 800,000 homes — had been slated to retire in 2027. With this deal, the plant would continue producing energy till 2047, provided regulators grant an extension it began seeking last year.
“Securing clean, reliable energy is necessary to continue advancing our AI ambitions,” Urvi Parekh, Meta’s head of global energy, said in a statement. Meta and Constellation also claimed the agreement will “preserve 1,100 high-paying local jobs; deliver $13.5 million in annual tax revenue; and add $1 million in charitable giving to local nonprofits over five years.”
Dominguez said that Meta agreed with Constellation that “supporting the relicensing and expansion of existing plants is just as impactful as finding new sources of energy.” The company pointed to a Brattle Group study it commissioned, which found that shutting the plant at the end of 2026 would boost emissions by 34 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over 20 years.
Constellation’s stock increased by more than 5% following the announcement, hitting a five-month high of $340 per share and market value of more than $100 billion.
This deal is part of a growing trend of partnerships between tech companies and the nuclear industry. Google recently pledged to fund the development of three new nuclear sites, after teaming up with Kairos Power, a developer of small modular reactors, or SMRs. Amazon invested more than $500 million to develop SMRs in October 2024 and bought a data center campus powered by the Susquehanna nuclear plant in March 2024. Tech giants including Amazon, Google and Meta signed a pledge in March, led by the World Nuclear Association, calling for nuclear energy worldwide to triple by 2050.
President Trump recently signed four executive orders aimed at speeding nuclear deployment, setting a target of quadrupling U.S. nuclear energy by 2050. The executive orders call for, among other things, an overhaul of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as building out a domestic supply chain for nuclear fuel. The White House has also called for faster regulatory approval for reactors — including small modular reactors. The industry hopes that SMRs can be a more cost-effective way to scale up nuclear power.
Currently there are no operational SMRs in the U.S. — Constellation said Tuesday that it is considering seeking a new permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to possibly build a SMR at the Clinton site.