- Meta inked more than 6 GW of new nuclear power deals
- Meta and AWS are leading the data center pack in pursuit of nuclear energy
- But with nuclear generation still 5+ years out, cloud players are bridging the gap with natural gas
Meta hopped aboard the nuclear power train last year to help fuel its data center expansions. Now, it’s hurtling full steam ahead, inking a trio of new deals that – along with its earlier agreement – will allow it to source up to 6.6 GW of power from nuclear facilities by 2035.
The hyperscaler’s new deals include agreements with some of the bigger names in new nuclear power – Oklo and Terrapower – as well Vistra. It said the projects it is announcing will help power the grids supporting its Prometheus supercluster in New Albany, Ohio.
Specifically, Meta said it will help fund TerraPower’s development of two new Natrium reactors capable of delivering up to 690 MW of power by 2032. The deal also gives it the rights to energy from up to six additional Natrium reactors capable of producing up to 2.1 GW of energy by 2035.
Meanwhile, the deal with Oklo is focused on fueling construction of “multiple” new Aurora Powerhouse reactors in Pike County, Ohio, capable of delivering 1.2 GW of power as soon as 2030. Meta also committed to purchase 2.1 GW of energy from three existing Vistra nuclear plants.
These deals come in addition to the 20-year power purchase agreement Meta signed with Constellation Energy in June 2025, and make it one of the largest nuclear buyers among hyperscalers.
New energy titans
“Partnerships between hyperscalers like Meta and energy players such as Vistra Corp., TerraPower, Oklo Inc., and Constellation are fast becoming an indispensable part of the data center playbook,” Dell’Oro Group Research Director Alex Cordovil wrote on Linkedin. “Large-scale data center developments are now deeply embedded in energy market dynamics, especially as AI-driven loads push connection requests to unprecedented levels.”
Indeed, Meta is far from alone in pushing nuclear energy forward. AWS has signed a series of deals with Dominion Energy, Energy Northwest and X-Energy to secure around 1.26 GW of power and help build manufacturing capacity for SMRs capable of delivering more than 5 GW of new nuclear energy. It also inked a deal to buy 1.9 GW of power from Talen Energy’s Pennsylvania nuclear plant.
Google, meanwhile, has agreements with Kairos and NextEra for a total of around 1.1 GW of nuclear power. Microsoft inked a deal with Constellation Energy, which would restart a nuclear plant capable of supplying 835 MW of power, and has backed efforts to develop nuclear fusion. And Oracle is reportedly exploring small modular reactor tech, but hasn’t publicly announced any nuclear partnerships or purchase agreements.
Colocation provider Equinix has also jumped into the nuclear fray, partnering last year with Oklo, Radiant, ULC-Energy and Stellaria. Applied Digital’s CEO Wes Cummins told Fierce it too is eyeing nuclear tech to supplement grid power supply in areas where it wants to build new campuses.
There’s good reason hyperscalers and colo providers are jockeying for position in the nuclear realm. Power has become a major bottleneck for data center expansion. And, as Cordovil put it, “operators that proactively align with generation assets — rather than waiting in grid interconnection queues — will be the ones able to get projects up and running on competitive timelines.”
A question of timing
But as Cummins pointed out, it could be half a decade or more before all of these nuclear deals start paying dividends. There has to be a short-term solution to satiate the massive appetite for data center power.
That’s why natural gas is also having a moment. We’ve been keeping tabs on how natural gas is poised to bridge the gap until nuclear power arrives.
Indeed, it looks like Meta will be using natural gas for its sprawling data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana. The company is working with utility company Entergy to build new power generation facilities that are expected to go online in 2028. Executives from natural gas company Energy Transfer said during their Q3 2025 earnings call that it signed a 20-year deal to supply natural gas to Entergy’s Richland Parish facilities, starting in 2028.
Cummins said Applied Digital is also looking to natural gas. Specifically, he pointed to its work with Babcock & Wilcox and Siemens Energy to build four 300 MW natural gas-fired power plants for Applied Digital’s 1 GW AI Factory project by 2028.
“That’s what we’re doing to get near-term energy expansion,” he said. “We’re in areas where there’s abundant natural gas.”
It’s not the only one. Energy Transfer co-CEO Tom Long said on the aforementioned call that it signed “multiple agreements with Oracle to supply natural gas to three U.S. data centers, two of which are in Texas. First flow is expected to occur by the end of the year, with final completion to follow in mid-2026.”