The AI boom is no longer just a story about chips and models. Behind the scenes, a parallel race is unfolding to secure enough clean, always-on electricity to feed the next generation of data centers, and nuclear power is rapidly moving from fringe option to central pillar of that strategy. As big tech and its partners line up roughly $100 billion scale investments in AI infrastructure, a growing share of that capital is now being steered toward reactors old and new.
What began as a handful of experimental deals has hardened into a pattern: the companies building the largest AI clusters are also becoming some of the most important customers for nuclear energy. Their bets range from reviving infamous sites to backing advanced designs, and together they are quietly rewiring both the power grid and the nuclear industry around the demands of machine intelligence.
The $100 billion AI buildout hits an energy wall
AI infrastructure spending has entered a phase where individual projects are measured in tens of billions of dollars, and the cumulative effect is a structural shock to electricity demand. OpenAI’s Stargate initiative, framed as a path to $830 Billion in value creation, is backed by a $100 Billion funding commitment that explicitly centers on building out massive AI compute. In parallel, OpenAI and NVIDIA have announced a separate $100 billion partnership to construct one of the largest AI infrastructure projects in history, a build that will require unprecedented amounts of reliable power and has already triggered concerns over power consumption.
Governments are reinforcing the trend. The Trump Administration has outlined a federal $100 billion project to invest in AI infrastructure in the United States, signaling that Washington sees data centers and AI clusters as strategic assets on par with highways or airports. Social media commentary on recent earnings has highlighted how OpenAI and NVIDIA are emerging as the “leaders of the AI economy,” with one widely shared post dismissing climate concerns with the phrase Climate Change ? What Climate Change ? Hoax !, even as it notes another $100 billion wave of AI infrastructure spending. The result is a collision between an AI arms race and grids that were never designed for this kind of always-on, high-density load, pushing operators to look beyond intermittent renewables and gas.
Google’s molten salt bet and the rise of advanced reactors
Among the tech giants, Google has moved fastest to lock in next generation nuclear capacity tailored to AI data centers. The company has signed a deal with Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority to deploy non-water-cooled molten salt reactors that can provide stable, carbon free electricity without the cooling water demands of traditional plants, a crucial advantage for landlocked or water stressed regions. Reporting on the agreement notes that Google, Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority see this as a way to deliver firm, affordable capacity for AI workloads, with an initial 50 megawatt capacity unit forming the template for future expansion.
Earlier, Google described its arrangement with Kairos Power as a “world first” deal to buy energy from a fleet of mini nuclear reactors for AI data centres, a move that was detailed in coverage by Alex Lawson at 10.37, and framed as a way to reliably meet electricity demands that would otherwise overwhelm local grids. Follow up analysis has emphasized that the deal, announced in Oct on a Tue in the EDT time zone, is as much about technology validation as it is about power procurement, giving Kairos Power a marquee customer while giving Google a path to scale AI without blowing through its climate commitments.
Amazon, Microsoft and Meta turn to nuclear scale
Google is not alone. Amazon is emerging as a central player in nuclear for AI, with chief executive Jassy arguing that Nuclear is a safe source of carbon free energy that can be embedded across Amazon’s entire business. In Oct, the company detailed how Jassy sees small modular reactors as a way to power an AWS data center while advancing net carbon zero goals. Amazon has also signed a major PPA with Talen Energy, with one report describing how Amazon Secures a 1,920MW Nuclear Power Deal with Talen Energy, a scale that effectively turns a single nuclear station into a dedicated AI power plant.
Microsoft is taking a different but equally symbolic route by tying its AI ambitions to the reopening of the Three Mile Island site. State officials and company representatives have described the project as a once in a lifetime opportunity, with the plant’s return to service expected to support at least 650 permanent jobs and hundreds more during recommissioning at what is now called the Crane Clean Energy Center. Separate reporting notes that Microsoft has explicitly chosen this infamous nuclear site for AI power, a decision that underscores how the politics of nuclear are shifting when weighed against the economic promise of AI clusters.
From Susquehanna to Oracle: nuclear becomes an AI asset class
Beyond individual plants, entire campuses are being reimagined around AI and nuclear. An in depth look at data center energy deals describes how Amazon is investing more than $20B converting the Susquehanna nuclear station into an AI campus, a project that illustrates how legacy plants can be repurposed as digital infrastructure hubs. The same analysis notes that Meta has issued an RFP for 1 to 4GW of new nuclear capacity, and that Global DC electricity demand is growing so quickly that traditional grid planning models are being upended, a trend captured in Global DC forecasts.
Other tech players are turning nuclear into a core part of their AI investment thesis. In Sep, Larry Ellison announced what was described as Larry Ellison’s $100 Billion Billion Bet on Nuclear Power to Drive Oracle’s AI Revolution, explicitly tying Oracle’s future AI services to dedicated nuclear capacity in a bid to guarantee both uptime and climate credentials. A separate overview of how Amazon is turning to nuclear to Power AI and Reach Net Zero argues that the capital investment for small modular reactors can be lower than for equivalent renewable plus storage combinations, and quotes leaders in Global Data Centers at AWS to show how Amazon Using Nuclear is reshaping the broader energy sector.
Consolidating a new nuclear-tech industrial bloc
When viewed together, these deals amount to a new industrial bloc linking big tech, utilities and nuclear developers. A survey of recent announcements notes that Well established utilities and little known developers are now at the center of nuclear agreements with Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, including projects like the Crane Clean Energy Center in Illinois. Google’s arrangement with Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority, detailed in Aug coverage of how Kairos Power and are bringing molten salt reactors into the commercial mix, shows how these partnerships are also vehicles for scaling advanced designs that had struggled to find anchor customers.
At the same time, more conventional nuclear capacity is being carved up into bespoke AI supply contracts. One report on Amazon’s nuclear strategy describes how the company’s PPA with Talen Energy is structured to deliver dedicated output from the Susquehanna plant, while another notes that Google has landed a major nuclear energy deal to power its massive AI data centers with 50 m of capacity in the first phase. Analysts tracking the sector argue that as these contracts proliferate, nuclear energy stocks are becoming a proxy for AI growth, a dynamic reflected in investment notes urging readers to Key Takeaways from the AI powered data center boom and in policy moves like The Trump Administration’s AI infrastructure push.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
