Amazon invests $500M in mini nuclear reactors to power AI operations
Amazon announced a $500 million investment in projects in Virginia and Washington state to power its data centers.
Through an agreement with Virginia utility company Dominion Energy, Amazon Web Services will develop small modular nuclear reactors near the energy company’s existing North Anna nuclear station. The small reactors will be built with technology from X-energy, a company out of Maryland.
The announcement comes less than a month after Amazon posted a job listing looking for a nuclear engineer to assist with this same type of technology.
Amazon joins a long list of companies that are shifting toward SMRs in order to power their massive computing and data needs, pushing concerns from green activists to the side by sporting this newer “clean energy.”
These companies include Microsoft, which signed a 20-year, 835-megawatt deal with Constellation Energy, which will reactivate a reactor at the infamous Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
Data company Equinix signed its own 500-megawatt agreement with Oklo in April. Oklo also agreed to build a small modular reactor for data company Prometheus Hyperscale in May, providing 100 megawatts.
As well, computer technology company Oracle announced in early September that it would be building a 1-gigawatt data center campus powered by three small modular reactors.
Google also recently publicized an SMR purchase for its data center, with a target date of 2030 to bring the reactor online.
‘We must bring clean, safe, and reliable electrons onto the grid.’
At the same time, Amazon announced a deal with Energy Northwest out of Washington, which will own and operate the new nuclear reactors, adding energy to its own grid while powering Amazon’s operations.
Energy Northwest has the option to build more than 12 nuclear modules, with Amazon getting priority to buy electricity from the first four.
“Amazon and X-energy are poised to define the future of advanced nuclear energy in the commercial marketplace,” said X-energy CEO J. Clay Sell, per CNBC. “To fully realize the opportunities available through artificial intelligence, we must bring clean, safe, and reliable electrons onto the grid with proven technologies that can scale and grow with demand.”
Amazon’s plans include a whopping $35 billion investment in Virginia by 2040 for data centers across the state. Virginia is home to about half of all American data centers, establishing a region called Data Center Alley in Loudoun County.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) recently said that SMRs will “play a critical role in positioning Virginia as a leading nuclear innovation hub.”
“Amazon Web Services’ commitment to this technology and their partnership with Dominion is a significant step forward to meet the future power needs of a growing Virginia,” Youngkin added.
Overall, Amazon is developing a massive web of data center campuses and local power networks. In March, the company spent $650 million to acquire Talen Energy’s campus next to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
There, Amazon will develop 15 data centers as part of a 1,600-acre rezoning projection.
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