Meta said on Friday that it struck 20-year agreements to buy power from three Vistra nuclear plants, and to develop projects with two companies hoping to build small modular reactors. The company said in a blog it will purchase power from Vistra’s Perry and Davis-Besse plants in Ohio and Beaver Valley plant in Pennsylvania.
Meta also said the deal will help finance expansion at the Ohio plants and lengthen the lifespan of the plants, which are licensed to run through at least 2036 with one of two reactors at Beaver Valley licensed through 2047. Meta will also help develop small modular reactors planned by Oklo and TerraPower.
SMR backers say the reactors will one day save costs because they can be built in factories instead of on site. However, some have been skeptical about whether they would achieve economies of scale similar to current large reactors. There are no U.S. SMRs in commercial operations yet, and the plants will require permits.
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Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, said the plans along with its agreement last year with Constellation to keep an Illinois reactor operating for 20 years will “make Meta one of the most significant corporate purchasers of nuclear energy in American history.”
The agreements will provide up to 6.6 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2035, according to Meta.
Meta will help fund TerraPower’s development of two reactors to generate up to 690 megawatts of power as early as 2032. This agreement also provides Meta with rights for energy from up to six other TerraPower reactors by 2035. TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque said the agreement will support rapid deployment of reactors.
READ: Amid surging energy demands from AI and data centers, Big Tech turns to nuclear power (
Tech companies have been increasingly turning to nuclear power of late. Last October, Amazon and Google revealed plans to invest in the development of small nuclear reactors, a technology still in its early stages. The goal is to help reduce the high costs and long construction timelines that have long slowed new reactor projects in the U.S.
Companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google have signed the Large Energy Consumers Pledge, committing to help triple the nation’s nuclear energy output by 2050. With their rapidly expanding artificial intelligence centers, these tech giants are becoming major drivers of U.S. energy demand. Other notable firms, including Occidental and IHI Corp, have also added their names to the initiative, signaling broad corporate support for the country’s nuclear energy ambitions.