Meta Becomes Latest Tech Giant To Reach Nuclear Power Deal For AI Data Centers

Meta has struck a deal to purchase the entire output of an Illinois nuclear power plant as Big Tech companies increasingly turn to aging nuclear facilities to help fuel their AI data center ambitions.

The social media behemoth agreed to a 20-year deal with power producer Constellation Energy that will see the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp buy all 1.1 gigawatts of electricity produced by Constellation's nuclear plant in Clinton, Illinois.  

The Power Purchase Agreement between Meta and Constellation will go into effect in 2027 following the expiration of state subsidies that have been critical for the continued operation of the plant, known as the Clinton Clean Energy Center. The contract will support the relicensing and operations of the plant for two decades, while Constellation — the largest U.S. operator of nuclear reactors — will also expand the capacity of the power plant by 30 megawatts through the deal. 

Constellation is also considering plans to add another reactor at the facility, where such an expansion has already received federal approval, Bloomberg reported. 

Electricity from the Clinton plant will not power Meta’s data centers directly. Rather, the energy will continue to feed into the local grid while Meta will count the plant’s zero-emissions power as an offset against the fossil fuel generation powering its data centers elsewhere — part of Meta’s broader efforts to match its carbon footprint with low-carbon energy production. 

Meta’s PPA adds to a growing wave of collaboration between major tech firms — whose energy consumption has skyrocketed amid an AI data center arms race —  and operators of aging nuclear facilities that have become increasingly uncompetitive in the commercial power market.

“It was not clear who would buy electricity from this power plant,” Urvi Parekh, Meta’s global head of energy, told Bloomberg. “We want to make sure that this location continues to be a site where nuclear operates and it’s going to give Constellation the ability to start thinking creatively about how they could expand capacity here in the future.”

Legacy nuclear plants like the nearly 40-year-old Clinton Clean Energy Center have increasingly struggled to produce power at prices that can compete with cheaper alternatives like renewables and natural gas. Many such facilities have been shuttered or are scheduled for decommissioning in the coming years, while others have remained viable only through government subsidies. 

Constellation’s Clinton power station was originally scheduled to be closed in 2017 by then-owner Exelon due to financial losses. The plant received a lifeline that year with the passage of a state clean energy subsidy that has supported its operations since, but that subsidy is set to expire in 2027. 

Now, Meta’s PPA will effectively replace that expiring subsidy. Over the past 24 months, tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have emerged as buyers willing to pay higher-than-market prices for electricity as their data center energy needs intensify. 

Tech firms aren’t just desperate for power, they’re willing to pay a premium for energy from carbon-free sources like nuclear as the AI building boom makes their ambitious carbon reduction goals less feasible. Microsoft reported this week that despite looming net-zero carbon goals, the company’s emissions have increased by 23% since 2020 — a statistic the company blames directly on AI data centers.

Microsoft in September signed a PPA in which Constellation would reopen a shuttered reactor at Three Mile Island to support the tech firm’s data center energy needs. The 837-megawatt reactor wasn't involved in the 1979 partial meltdown but had been out of operation since 2019. Like Meta’s Illinois nuclear deal, Microsoft’s Three Mile Island PPA served as a carbon offset.

Constellation and other nuclear operators have also explored powering data centers directly by developing data center campuses adjacent to nuclear power stations and selling power “behind the meter” to the tenants on those campuses instead of through the power grid. But these efforts have been stalled by regulatory hurdles.

In early 2024, AWS and Talen Energy announced a $650M deal in which the cloud computing firm acquired 1,200 acres adjacent to Talen’s 2.5-gigawatt Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Pennsylvania. AWS hoped to build as many as 15 data centers on the site powered by nearly a gigawatt of electricity from the nuclear plant next door. 

The first-of-its-kind project spurred a series of similar proposals for data centers colocated with nuclear power plants, with firms like Constellation, Dominion and Vistra all exploring similar behind-the-meter projects. 

But all these projects are now on hold. In November, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected an agreement between Talen and regional grid operators needed for the AWS campus to move forward. The commissioners indicated that their decision was driven, at least in part, by the desire to avoid setting a precedent that would trigger a wave of similar projects before the consequences were fully understood. 

While that decision still faces legal challenges, nuclear operators like Constellation have remained bullish on the opportunity presented by the AI data center boom, pivoting their attention to focus exclusively on PPAs. 

Constellation has suggested that more large-scale nuclear PPAs with the world’s largest data center users are likely on the short-term horizon. In Illinois alone, the firm owns multiple power plants with subsidies due to expire in the coming years. According to Bloomberg, Constellation is in talks with multiple customers about executing deals similar to Meta’s PPA — deals that could be completed in the next six to 12 months. 

“It’s a logical place for us to talk to Meta, and to others, about potentially building the next generation of assets,” Constellation Chief Executive Officer Joe Dominguez told Bloomberg. “Those conversations are well under way.”