Amazon Is the Next Tech Giant to Buy Nuclear Power for Its AI and Cloud Needs

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Key Takeaways

  • Amazon will fund the construction of several small nuclear reactors in Washington and Virginia.
  • Amazon has announced separate partnerships with nuclear energy companies to meet power needs for AI and AWS data centers.
  • The tech giant is also investing half a billion US dollars in a manufacturer of small modular reactors.

Amazon has announced two separate deals with nuclear energy providers in Washington and Virginia to build nuclear power infrastructure that will power its AI data centers.

Tech companies have been turning to nuclear power to satiate the skyrocketing hunger for electric power as they look to pace ahead in the AI race. In this pursuit, Microsoft and Google have already inked deals with utilities providers in the US, and now Amazon is following suit.

Amazon confirmed earlier today it was partnering with two nuclear power providers to power Amazon Web Services (AWS) datacenters and AI processing units across three facilities in the United States. It plans to fund the building of several new small modular reactors or SMRs in the states of Washington and Virginia after previously having bought nuclear infrastructure in Pennsylvania.

Amazon will partner with Energy Northwest in Washington, where it will fund at least four small reactors with a total output of 320 megawatts. Energy Northwest will own the reactors, but Amazon will be the first to purchase power from the first four reactors of the project. The utility company will have the option to triple the infrastructure by adding eight more reactors to the grid and the additional power it produces will be available to other commercial and personal consumers. 

In Virginia, Amazon will tie up with Dominion Energy and fund the building of new SMRs alongside Dominion’s existing North Anna nuclear power station. Amazon projects the infrastructure could add more than 300MW of power.

Amazon will also pump $500 million into X-Energy, a manufacturer of nuclear reactors and licensor of nuclear fuel technology. In return for its investment, Amazon will commission X-Energy to deploy its Xe-100 small modular reactors across the planned sites in Washington. By 2039, Amazon and X-Energy plan to collaborate for new power projects with a combined output of more than 5GW.

This isn’t Amazon’s first alliance with a nuclear power provider. Back in March, the tech giant announced a union with the utility company Talen Energy to source power from its Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Pennsylvania. In addition to collaborating for power directly from the grid, Amazon also purchased a nuclear-powered data center campus, adjacent to the power plant, from Talen for a large $650 million payment. 

Amazon is next in line after Microsoft and Google who have inked similar power deals with energy providers to meet power needs for data centers and AI. Earlier this week, Google said it would fund the construction of seven small nuclear reactors built by Kairos Power to meet its AI power needs. Last month, Microsoft made a deal with Constellation Energy to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant for its AI data centers.