WASHINGTON, D.C. — As hyperscalers continue to prioritize speed to power, advanced reactors are seen as a long-term solution to powering artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, Meta’s Joel Kaplan said at a Tuesday forum.
During the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) Nuclear Energy Policy Forum panel held here at Omni Shoreham Hotel, Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, said Meta is heavily focused on building out AI data centers in the next three years. Meta, like Google and Amazon, has made deals with energy utility companies to use their existing power plants to power its incoming data centers.
In Meta’s deals with utilities, like Vistra Corp. and Constellation Energy, the tech company plans to invest in power uprates for the utilities’ existing commercial nuclear fleet. However, advanced reactors, such as small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors, will not likely meet the timeline of the near-term goal of the upcoming three years, Kaplan said.
“But we’re also still investing into the next generation,” Kaplan said. “Those next generation SMRs are not going to arrive on that three-year timetable that we’re really focused on, but they’re important steps for the future.”
Kaplan said he does not expect the energy demands for AI will slow, so he expects the advanced reactors to come online to meet those future needs. Meta also has agreements in place with advanced reactor companies TerraPower and Oklo to power its AI data centers in the early 2030s.