Meta today announced three contracts to supply nuclear power to its data centers. One contract is with a start-up, one with a small energy company, and one with a large company that already operates multiple nuclear reactors in the United States.
Oklo and TerraPower, startups developing small modular reactors (SMRs), have each signed contracts with Meta to build multiple reactors, while Vistra is selling capacity from existing power plants.
As AI ambitions grow, nuclear power has become the preferred source for technology companies to provide reliable power 24/7. Startups and established reactors have benefited from the competition for data center power, albeit in different ways.
Existing nuclear reactors tend to be the cheapest form of baseload capacity, but the limited number of reactors available has led Meta and its peers to turn to SMR startups. Companies like Oklo and TerraPower are betting that by building many smaller reactors, they can lower costs through mass production. This is a plausible hypothesis, but it has not yet been tested. Meta’s deal could give SMR startups a chance to prove that.
The deal is the result of a request for proposals issued by Meta in December 2024, in which Meta sought a partner that could add between 1 and 4 gigawatts of power generation capacity by the early 2030s. Much of the new power will flow through the PJM interconnection, which covers 13 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest and is saturated with data centers.
The 20-year contract with Vistra will have the most direct impact on Meta’s energy needs. The tech company plans to purchase a total of 2.1 gigawatts from two existing nuclear power plants in Ohio, the Perry Nuclear Generating Station and the Davis-Besse Nuclear Generating Station.
As part of the agreement, Vistra will also add additional capacity to these plants and the Beaver Valley Generating Station in Pennsylvania. Together, these upgrades will generate an additional 433 MW and are expected to come online in the early 2030s.
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Meta is also purchasing 1.2 gigawatts from Oklo, a younger provider. Under the deal with Meta, Oklo hopes to start supplying power to the grid as early as 2030. The SMR company will go public via a SPAC in 2023, and Oklo has signed a major contract with data center operator Switch, but has struggled to get its reactor design approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
If Oklo executes as planned, the new reactor will be built in Pike County, Ohio. The company’s Aurora Powerhouse reactors each generate 75 megawatts of electricity, and more than a dozen will need to be built to meet Meta’s order.
TerraPower is a startup co-founded by Bill Gates that aims to start transmitting power to Meta as early as 2032. The company designed a nuclear reactor that uses molten sodium to transfer energy from the reactor to a generator. When demand is low, superheated salt can be stored in insulated vats until more power is needed. The reactor can generate 345 megawatts of power, and the storage system can provide an additional 100 to 500 megawatts for more than five hours.
The company is moving more smoothly through the NRC process and working with GE Hitachi to build its first power plant in Wyoming. The first two reactors for Meta will provide 690 megawatts, and Meta said it has the right to purchase six more for a total of 2.8 gigawatts of nuclear capacity and 1.2 gigawatts of storage capacity.
Mehta did not disclose financial terms of the deal.
Buying power from Vistra is certainly the cheapest, and power from reactors already in operation is among the cheapest on the grid.
The cost of SMR has not yet been calculated. Some startups have aggressive cost targets. TerraPower estimates it can bring costs down to $50 to $60 per megawatt hour, while Oklo says it is targeting $80 to $130 per megawatt hour. These figures are for later power plants, which are likely to cost more in the first instance.
