Amazon signs nuclear power deals, following Google, Microsoft
Amazon on Wednesday said it has signed three agreements to develop nuclear power projects, making the e-commerce giant the latest Big Tech firm to announce nuclear deals in recent weeks amid a surge in demand for energy to power artificial intelligence.
The company inked deals with public utility conglomerate Energy Northwest and developer X-Energy to build several small modular reactors (SMRs) in the region, and made an agreement with Dominion Energy in Virginia to explore the development of another SMR to boost power in that area.
"Nuclear is a safe source of carbon-free energy that can help power our operations and meet the growing demands of our customers, while helping us progress toward our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040," Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said in a statement announcing the deals.
"One of the fastest ways to address climate change is by transitioning our society to carbon-free energy sources, and nuclear energy is both carbon-free and able to scale— which is why it’s an important area of investment for Amazon," Garman continued. "Our agreements will encourage the construction of new nuclear technologies that will generate energy for decades to come."
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Amazon is the second major U.S. tech firm to announce investments in nuclear power this week, after Google on Monday said it signed a deal with Kairos Power to bring Kairos' first small modular reactor online by 2030, followed by additional deployments through 2035.
"We feel like nuclear can play an important role in helping to meet our demand... cleanly in a way that's more around the clock," Michael Terrell, senior director for energy and climate at Google, told reporters on a call.
Technology firms have signed several recent agreements with nuclear power companies this year as artificial intelligence boosts power demand for the first time in decades.
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In March, Amazon purchased a nuclear-powered datacenter from Talen Energy. Last month, Microsoft and Constellation Energy signed a power deal to help resurrect a unit of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst U.S. nuclear accident in 1979.
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U.S. data center power use is expected to roughly triple between 2023 and 2030 and will require about 47 gigawatts of new generation capacity, according to Goldman Sachs estimates, which assumed natural gas, wind and solar power would fill the gap.
Reuters contributed to this report.