A rare bee species reportedly put an end to Meta's plans for a nuclear-powered AI data center
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- A rare bee species reportedly threw a wrench in Meta's plans for an AI data center.
- Meta planned to build a facility to run on nuclear power, but the bees complicated matters, FT said.
- Other tech giants are spending billions on data centers to further their AI ambitions.
In the race to build out AI infrastructure, Meta met an unlikely roadblock in one case: bees.
A rare species of the insect threw a wrench in the company's plans for an AI data center, the Financial Times reported Monday.
Meta had been in talks with a nuclear power plant operator for a US data center to support the company's AI work, per the FT. However, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an all-hands gathering that the discovery of the bee species at a location next to the planned plant was partly responsible for upending the plans, the FT reported, citing two people familiar with the meeting.
Regulatory challenges were also a factor, according to the FT. The newspaper didn't name the power plant operator or say where the site was set to be.
Meta said in its latest earnings report that it expects "a significant acceleration in infrastructure expense growth next year" and "significant capital expenditures growth in 2025," owing in no small part to its work on AI.
Meta isn't the only tech giant spending big on infrastructure for its AI ambitions. Rivals, including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, also invest billions in data centers to power their AI. Last month, Google announced a partnership to buy nuclear energy from small modular reactors to be built by Kairos Power, making it the first tech giant to broker a deal for new nuclear power plants.
Amazon plans to spend about $150 billion on data centers by 2040, Bloomberg reported in March. The company could roll out as many as 240 new data centers by 2040, Marc Wulfraat, the president of the consulting firm MWPVL, previously told BI, citing the massive square footage at the company's disposal by way of its leasing space in buildings shared with other firms.
In September, Microsoft signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with energy company Constellation in a deal that would bring back online part of Three Mile Island, the site of the US's worst nuclear energy accident.
The boom in data centers to power AI also comes with high costs environmentally, not just financially. In the US, data centers are expected to reach 35 gigawatts of power consumption annually by 2040, up from 17 gigawatts in 2022, according to a McKinsey analysis.
Meta did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.