Google Follows Microsoft, Turns to Nuclear Power for AI

Microsoft is planning to reopen a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, but it’s not the only tech giant tapping into nuclear energy to meet AI’s increasing power needs: Google is also getting into the game with a new partnership.

On Monday, Google signed “the world’s first corporate agreement” to buy nuclear energy from engineering company Kairos Power. Within the next six years, Kairos Power will get its first power-generating nuclear reactor up and running. By 2035, the company will provide Google with multiple sources of nuclear power.

The agreement adds 500 megawatts (MWs) of power to the U.S. grid.

Related: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says Nuclear Energy ‘Is a Wonderful Way Forward’ to Keep AI Data Centers Running

Per Google’s statement, the agreement was necessary to support AI advancements.

“This agreement helps accelerate a new technology to meet energy needs cleanly and reliably, and unlock the full potential of AI for everyone,” Google wrote.

Google is already behind on its environmental goals because of investments in AI — the technology was the main cause of emissions going up 48% since 2019. Nuclear energy is a carbon-free energy source, another reason Google noted for the partnership.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has signed an agreement to buy nuclear energy from Three Mile Island, a plant that experienced the most serious accident in U.S. commercial operating history in 1979. The plant shut down in 2019 for economic reasons but will reopen with a $1.6 billion investment. Microsoft will buy energy from it for 20 years.

Related: Will It Take Nuclear Power to Sustain AI? Microsoft Is Betting on It.