Increasing global trend for nuclear energy
There has been growing interest from operators of data centres in using nuclear energy, which they see as a viable way to meet their considerable projected energy requirements, while also helping them to meet their climate commitments to customers. The last few months of 2024 saw Microsoft, Google and Amazon all signing agreements to use nuclear energy in the years to come to meet their net zero commitments to consumers.
This trend looks set to accelerate further in 2025, and in January US advanced nuclear power plant developer 'Oklo', in what is claimed to be "one of the largest corporate power agreements in history", signed-up with data centre designer, builder and operator 'Switch', to deploy 12 GW of Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse projects by 2044. Interestingly, Oklo's model is to build, own and operate its small reactors – it will be selling power, rather than power plants.
Big tech trending towards nuclear
Oklo’s announcement follows an earlier announcement by Amazon (October 2024) that it had taken a stake in Advanced Nuclear Reactor (AMR) developer 'X-energy', with the goal of deploying up to 5 GW of its AMRs in the USA by 2039. This follows Google’s announcement (the same month) that it had also signed a deal to use small nuclear reactors to generate the vast amounts of energy needed to power its artificial intelligence (AI) data centres. Back in September 2024, Microsoft moved first by signing a 20-year power purchase contract with US nuclear utility, 'Constellation Energy', requiring the re-start of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, to provide Microsoft with secure low carbon energy.
What did Amazon buy?
Amazon's Climate Change Pledge Fund was described as the anchor investor in a USD500 million financing round for X-energy, with the funding designed to pave the way to completion of the advanced high temperature gas reactor design and licensing, for an initial four AMR reactors generating about 320 MWe, with an option to treble that number to 960 MWe – which would be the amount needed to power about 770,000 homes. Amazon is also investing directly into X-energy, which is the first time a tech company has made a third-party investment directly into a reactor developer.
Why are data centre turning to nuclear?
Technology firms are increasingly turning to nuclear sources of energy to supply the electricity used by the huge hyperscale data centres that drive AI. This is because AI data centres need large amounts of electricity to both power them and keep equipment cool, and access to power has become a critical factor in driving new data centre builds. Importantly, nuclear power, which can provide firm baseload low carbon power 24 hours a day, has become increasingly attractive to the tech industry as it attempts to cut emissions even as it uses more energy, with global energy consumption by data centres being expected to more than double by the end of the decade, by some commentators.
Why nuclear is important for AI in the UK?
The UK Government has recently made AI development a strategic priority for growing its economy, and in January 2025 announced that a new AI Energy Council is to be established to study the opportunities for "renewable and innovative energy solutions, including small modular reactors" as part of the UK Government's plan for AI. With the UK outlining plans for specific 'AI Growth Zones' to be established to speed the build-out of AI data centres, "with enhanced access to power and support for planning approvals". The first of these is set to be at Culham, near Oxford, home to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the JET project and a host of nuclear fusion companies and researchers.
Why this is a key consumer trend?
The global AMR sector offers much reduced costs of capital and significantly shorter modular assembly construction schedules – and now looks set to take off, with increasing government and private company investment, all supporting the accelerating delivery of secure low carbon energy, energy security and decarbonisation of the global digital economy, as well as enabling increasing electrification to decarbonise supply chain manufacturing and transportation sectors.
As this market matures, we can help you navigate the key legal, planning and consenting steps to enable AMR development.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of these topics and what they mean for you and your business, please get in touch with our Consumer sector and Energy experts.
