Meta Signs Multi-Gigawatt Nuclear Deals to Power AI Data Centers
The short version: Meta locked in over 6 gigawatts of nuclear power for AI data centers — a bet that ratepayers and host communities may end up subsidizing for decades.
Our Take
Bloomberg's Will Wade lays out the numbers plainly: Meta has stacked up nuclear power agreements that could top 6 gigawatts, the kind of load usually associated with powering millions of homes — except here it's going straight into server racks, not living rooms. Nuclear looks attractive to hyperscalers because it's steady, carbon-free, and lets them dodge the optics of gas turbines humming next to a "green" AI campus. But someone has to build or refurbish those reactors, and someone has to eat the risk if costs run over, as they reliably do in nuclear construction.
That's the part these announcements skip. When a single company's data centers can eat a city's worth of electricity, the deal terms — who pays for new transmission, whether ratepayers get stuck subsidizing a private buildout, what happens to local power prices when a gigawatt-scale customer shows up — matter more than the megawatt headline. Multi-decade power purchase agreements also lock in political and financial leverage for Meta at utility commissions and statehouses that most residents never get a vote on.
We're tracking these power deals site by site, not just press-release by press-release. Check the map to see what's landing near you, and if you want to push back on rate hikes or opaque siting deals tied to this buildout, our take-action page has next steps.
This is GridWatch the USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Bloomberg Television, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.