Meta is actually considering using nuclear energy to further its AI ambitions. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp announced that it will be releasing a request for proposals (RFP) to help it identify nuclear energy developers that could potentially help.
“As new innovations bring impactful technological advancements across sectors and support economic growth, we believe that nuclear energy can help provide firm, baseload power to support the growth needs of the electric grids that power both our data centres (the physical infrastructure on which Meta’s platforms operate) as well as the communities around them.”
Meta’s aim is to gain between one to four Gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power, with delivery in the 2030s. To provide some context, the US has 54 nuclear power plants across the country, and have a combine output of 97W. Our aim is to add 1-4 GW of new nuclear generation capacity in the U.S. to be delivered starting in the early 2030s. “We are looking to identify developers that can help accelerate the availability of new nuclear generators and create sufficient scale to achieve material cost reductions by deploying multiple units, both to provide for Meta’s future energy needs and to advance broader industry decarbonisation.”
As you all know, AI has been a consistent and recurring theme this year, with companies like NVIDIA riding and currently dominating the wave. The problem with things such as AI datacentres is that these facilities require a lot of power. And compared to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal energies, nuclear energy is still undoubtedly one of the most potent sources of energy.
(Source: Meta)
