First was Google, which signed an agreement with the startup Kairos Power to build seven modular nuclear reactors in the United States. Then Amazon arrived, with three other projects for the development and installation of small modular reactors. Now, Meta has also joined this ‘trend’ and has confirmed that it has plans to use nuclear energy for data centers in the US.
Meta uses servers to support its digital platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger) and other operations. Given the high activity of its data centers, Mark Zuckerberg’s company consumes a lot of energy and nuclear power could save them a lot of money.
With the goal of transforming the energy used in data centers, Meta is accepting proposals through a website to submit project ideas. As they clarify, they want nuclear energy developers to add between one and four gigawatts to their data centers “starting in the early 2030s.”
Those firms that wish to participate in the call for proposals must complete the classification admission form before Friday, January 3, 2025. Then, initial nuclear projects will have until Friday, February 7, 2025 to submit.
The partners Meta chooses must have experience with “small modular reactors (SMR) or larger nuclear reactors.” In a report from Axios, they recall that Zuckerberg’s firm is not the only one behind the use of nuclear energy to support data centers. We also have the recent examples of Amazon and Google.
In most cases, this feeding of data centers will be especially focused on those in charge of training artificial intelligence. AI is a technology that consumes a lot of energy and nuclear technology could make it cheaper to maintain your servers.
Meta had intentions of using nuclear energy before
Although Meta’s request for proposals for nuclear reactors was made recently, the Financial Times reports that the company had intentions of using this type of energy before. According to the media, the firm was going to begin building data centers powered by nuclear energy in early 2024.
However, their plans had to be stopped when they found a rare species of bees near the place. Now, they are back at it with the purpose of powering data centers with reactors. However, in the Financial Times article, they detail that the brand is “geographically agnostic.” That is, they are not very clear about the location where they want the reactors to be built.
What they do have for sure in Meta is that it is important to use nuclear energy. As the team details in a statement, “as new innovations bring impactful technological advances across all sectors and support economic growth, we believe nuclear power can help provide firm base energy to support growth needs.” of the electrical grids that power both our data centers and the communities that surround them.
With the search for nuclear energy developers for its data centers, Meta will be at the forefront along with other Big Tech. Thus, Mark Zuckerberg’s firm will join the trend that several technology companies were already following, such as Amazon and Google of the which we already talked about in the past in ADSLZone. The main objective of investing in the construction of reactors is clear: reduce the high costs of data centers without reducing their workload. Especially now that they are involved in the race to develop artificial intelligence, which consumes so much energy.
